Ultra ATA/133 PCI Card new questions

1) "It has been recommended in the forum to install the Promise card in PCI slot #1" "someone wrote if you have a AGP video card that AGP & PCI Slot #1 share an IRQ so you can't do it. Is this true?"

Some people have installed the controller card in any available slot and found it works without a problem.  In situations where the person encounters a problem installing the card then it is recommended that they try using the first PCI slot.  In my XPS T system I have the first PCI slot empty under the AGP for added air circulation and have my Promise card installed in the second PCI slot.  As for IRQs being assigned, with Windows it is a good guess.  My system has the Promise card assigned a IRQ of 3 and the graphics card 11.

2) "Attach your systems case 2 or 4 pin LED cable to the LED connector on the ATA/card. Make sure that one of the LED wires starts on pin #1 of the the Promise card."  "The COMPUSA Ultra ATA/133 control card does not seam to have any LED connection for the HD cables. Does it and if not what should i do? "

The cable isn't really needed for the hard drive to work properly.  The cable's main purpose is for comestic reasons.  Some people like to see the hard drive activity light on the front of their computer lit when the hard drive attached to the controller card is active.  This is all the cable does.  In most installations the cable is run from pins #1 and #2 on the controller card to the SCSI hard drive access indicator connector on the motherboard.  From what I understand the CompUSA card is made by the Promise people and they may have omitted the LED pins in a cost cutting move.

Message Edited by Majestic on 07-24-2004 09:49 AM

compusa card is made by someone called FMI.

Maybe i'll just return the card and buy this instead, cost less anyway

PROMISE PCI to ATA Controller Card, Model "ULTRA133 TX2" -OEM  $34.00 Newegg

what you think? this card OK

watching the light flicker is helpfull, it shows the drive is working and if a problem shows. Cost cutting indeed .

which step is best

1) Should i install the card  to a pci slot then boot and install drivers before moving the HD from MB channel1

or

2)  install the card and hook the drive up to the card channel then  boot into windows and install the drivers when windows comes up?

dagger666 wrote :

"which step is best
1) Should i install the card  to a pci slot then boot and install drivers before moving the HD from MB channel1
or
2)  install the card and hook the drive up to the card channel then  boot into windows and install the drivers when windows comes up?"

 You will need to install the controller card, [with no drives connected], the driver, then reboot and make certain the controller card is recognized by the system, prior to installing the drive cables and hard drive to the controller.

Bev.

dagger666

"which step is best"

As Bev stated, install the card and drivers first and once that is successful then the hard drive.  With just the card installed you will get an error message at boot that the card's "BIOS did not install,"  but this is normal since there are no hard drives attached to the card.  Once a drive is attached the error message will disappear.

"Maybe i'll just return the card and buy this instead, cost less anyway"

A Promise card in my opinion is much better and one of the least complained about when installing in a Dell system.  Not too mention you're getting a better card for less money.  Before you consider the lack of LED pins on the card as a reason for returning it be sure that your motherboard supports the SCSI LED indicator plug-in.  Some Dell models do not have that plug-in and so far I do not recall any mention of what model you have.

Dimension XPS T P3 500Mhz Jeton Nvidia 440MX video card what ever sound card came with it

OEM or Retail, what is the difference? It just seasm that the OEM card which is $10 less just doesn't come with the nice looking box from the web site pictures.

Message Edited by dagger666 on 07-25-2004 10:36 AM

Yep, you definately have the plug-in with that model.  It's labeled J8J1 on the motherboard and is located between the floppy drive plug-in and the control panel plug-in.  Chances are the card will not come with the two wire cable needed to make the connection.  Some people have found a small audio cable is long enough and has the proper connectors.  In my case I stripped the cable out of a old CD drive I had found dumpster diving.  As for the XPS T model's BIOS, it has an option for booting from an add-in card which works out good with the controller card.

Message Edited by Majestic on 07-25-2004 09:18 AM

I, too, want to install a 2nd HD in my machine using an ATA controller PCI card with each drive on its own channel.  My current HD (from original Dell configuration) is a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 7200 rpm with only a 2 MB cache (model 6L080L4).  I have bought a Seagate 'cuda Ultra ATA/100 7200 rpm with 8 MB cache to be used as my boot drive (model ST380013A-RK).  My plan is to place the Page File on the Maxtor.

I'm trying to decide if I should get the Promise Ultra100 TX2 or the Prome Ultra133 TX2.

My Dim 8200 was built 02/14/02 and its PCI bus is only 33 MHz.

I have a few questions:

(1) What, if any, negative effect will there be having an 8 MB cache on the boot drive but only having the 2 MB cache on the drive which holds the Page File?

(2) Is it worth doing this, since the PCI bus is not 66 MHz; Or should I just get a new PC (actually, I would probably build it instead)? 

(3) Does my Dimension (note the build date) also have the plug in to which you refer?

(4) Which Promise card, of the two I mentioned, would you reccomend to use?   

MrReorg  wrote :

"I, too, want to install a 2nd HD in my machine using an ATA controller PCI card with each drive on its own channel.  My current HD (from original Dell configuration) is a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 7200 rpm with only a 2 MB cache (model 6L080L4).  I have bought a Seagate 'cuda Ultra ATA/100 7200 rpm with 8 MB cache to be used as my boot drive (model ST380013A-RK).  My plan is to place the Page File on the Maxtor.

I'm trying to decide if I should get the Promise Ultra100 TX2 or the Prome Ultra133 TX2.

My Dim 8200 was built 02/14/02 and its PCI bus is only 33 MHz.

I have a few questions:

(1) What, if any, negative effect will there be having an 8 MB cache on the boot drive but only having the 2 MB cache on the drive which holds the Page File?

For all practical purposes none, the only difference is the 8mb cache boot HD, will be very slightly faster.

(2) Is it worth doing this, since the PCI bus is not 66 MHz; Or should I just get a new PC (actually, I would probably build it instead)? 

Yes, if you want each HD to have it's own channel, then install a PCI controller, the cost is small, compared to building a new system.  But, I would not personally do it, being there's only three IDE/ATA devices installed and the MoBo supports four.

(3) Does my Dimension (note the build date) also have the plug in to which you refer?

The D8200 does not have it.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8200/techov.htm#1101565

(4) Which Promise card, of the two I mentioned, would you reccomend to use?"   

Either, but as the Seagate HD is ATA 100, then go with the Promise Ultra100 TX 2 and save money.

Bev.

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