Controller card

[empip]

Promise ATA 100 or 133 MHz?
In the event that my upgrade of the Dell 600p3 (yr 2000) turns to dust.
I am thinking although a 100 MHz card would suffice for the HDDs in current machine (according to Dell forum-eteers anyway ).

The 133 - not much more expensive - This, allegedly, will also work in my mc in a backward compatible fashion but could it transfer to modern kit to some conceivable advantage in the future? - if there is one !

 

[Softus]

Which RAID level do you intend to deploy?

 

[empip]

No RAID, just desire to have my two ata 100 hdd running at their best within the constraints of this old system board.

Ah, ha.. I had missed this * from small print on the Promise spec sheet

* Automatically backward compatible with 33MHz PCI bus
...Just attach your new Ultra ATA/133 drive(s) and/or older Ultra ATA/100/66/or 33 drives. The Promise BIOS will recognize the make, model, and best speed setting for peak drive performance...

Ok, one Q remains... Could the 133MHz controller card be useful in a modern machine... ?
For example, to utilise the 2 hdd from my current oldie upon it's hopefully non-hdd inspired, demise.

 

[pickles]

No RAID, just desire to have my two ata 100 hdd running at their best within the constraints of this old system board.

Ah, ha.. I had missed this * from small print on the Promise spec sheet

* Automatically backward compatible with 33MHz PCI bus
...Just attach your new Ultra ATA/133 drive(s) and/or older Ultra ATA/100/66/or 33 drives. The Promise BIOS will recognize the make, model, and best speed setting for peak drive performance...

Ok, one Q remains... Could the 133MHz controller card be useful in a modern machine... ?
For example, to utilise the 2 hdd from my current oldie upon it's hopefully non-hdd inspired, demise.

If the new machine has a pci slot spare, which most modern boards do have, you should be able to use it. Most boards still have an ATA controller on them that would support your drives anyway. I am running a 3 year old ATA 100 drive, which I use for music storage, on an ASUS board that is about 3 months old via it's on board ATA controller

 

[empip]

Cheers Pickles .. I partially guessed the backward compatibility... But I was wondering about the controller card, at the same-ish price as the 100ata I guess I'll go with the 133 as a useful spare in a future machine.

Have just downloaded the Promise ata 133MHz ultra tx2 manual ... Missed that first time around the Promise site..

.......The card is backward compatible allowing you to install the controller into a 33MHz PCI bus motherboard where it will allow maximum data transfers of up to 133MB per second across the bus.. actual transfer rates will depend on the capabilities of each device attached to the controller.....
Controller Card Installation
Installing the Ultra133 TX2 controller card in a system is a simple process. The card fits into any available 32-bit PCI slot (must be PCI 2.1 or 2.2 compliant),

Cheers folks ... I'll go 133 !!