Adaptec ATA RAID 1200A or Promise FasTRAK ATA RAID

[Pace]

Simple really, but one is half the price. What's the difference, besides the Promise offering 133 over Adaptec's UDMA100?

(lots of quick questions tonight )

Edit: It's the Adaptec that's half the price btw ($85 vs $170).

[Marshmallowman]

1200a is a highpoint 370
promise is ..err.. a promise chipset.

I have had no problems using a 370 based raid card. I found the performance to be very good, however the 370 is getting a bit old and can only support hardrdrives, but since it is a raid card thats no real problem

However a lot of people will insist on the promise one, siting reliabilty and stabilty, they are newer and I think they will still allow you to use cdroms..etc (not 100% on that, it was true on previous models)

depends what you want if for really, I would steer toward the adaptec.....but I am a cheapskate

[Gurm]

Umm...

Highpoint = SHIT.

End of story. If it's worked for you, MMMan, then I'm happy for you. But for most of us, HPT3xx has been nothing but trouble.

- Gurm

[Marshmallowman]

hpt36x was bad full stop, no argument there.

The hpt37x is a LOT better, total turn around.

Maybe its just that epox knew what they were doing, other manufacturers did not do so well.

But for peace of mind , you will not go wrong opting for the promise one, you will just pay more.
And adaptec can sometimes be a bit overpriced.

[Gurm]

*ahem*

The HPT370 can cause your sound card to stutter, your video to flicker, your data to be corrupted if you're doing too many other things - basically it has the bus usage and latency from HELL.

- Gurm

[The PIT]

Sounds like it was designed by Via.

[Pace]

Ah, now I see, cheers (of course, there's no way I'm buying Highpoint - I believe it can work, but there are the issues Gurm listed ).

P.

[Kooldino]

Yeah, I've seen plenty of probs myself with the HPT 3xx line. Promise controllers are pretty solid overall.

[Gurm]

I've seen instances where people got their HPT controller to work - usually it involved trying BIOS after BIOS for the card until they found one that liked their system... and driver after driver.

If the LATEST driver/BIOS combo doesn't work, there are PROBLEMS with that hardware. Period.

- Gurm

[Marshmallowman]

Never had those problems, are you talking a half arsed implementations by dodgy companies?.

Or ones from companies who know what they are doing.

Tell me about some of these instances.(don't even mention abit)

[Wombat]

Originally posted by Marshmallowman
Never had those problems, are you talking a half arsed implementations by dodgy companies?

Yes. The dodgy company is Highpoint.

Look: <B>They</B> are responsible for the BIOS for the chip. <B>They</B> are responsible for the RAID drivers. These simply tend to suck. Then you have chips like the HPT366, which in itself, <I>unquestionably</I> sucks. It's a buggy little piece of hardware, plain and simple.

[Marshmallowman]

Yes the 366 was horrible. I never heard agood word about it, it did
indeed royaly suck.

But the 370(2,4) are much better. Don't tar these with the same brush as the 366!.

I only ever used the offical bios and driver sets provided by epox for my board, I know highpoint made the drivers, but they were tweaked and tested for by epox for their applicatin.

You see so many unoffical bios's for boards circulating around it becomes pretty obvious most of these were not tested specifically for particular implementations...and some people wonder why they have problems.

Add to that the bios/driver's are released in sets, and should only be used in combination, but people just jump on the latest whatever and through it on their system. READ the manual, it says use only the driver/bios provider by you manufactuer and use the correct combination.

Anyone who does not use the official bios/driver for a RAID card is asking for trouble.

any 370(2,4) specific problems you want to point out?

[Gurm]

Yep. The 370 causes problems with:

- Hercules sound cards.
- Turtle Beach sound cards.
- Neverwinter Nights
- ATI Video Cards

The list goes on and on.

- Gurm

[Marshmallowman]

windows cause problems with

- Hercules sound cards.
- Turtle Beach sound cards.
- Neverwinter Nights
- ATI Video Cards

....ahh how about some specifc problems, eg a technical reference to a known issue, or perhaps a link or something to a substantial discussion about a problem encountered by several competant users.

I can make up meaningless lists too

[Gurm]

*sigh*

Well, go search the Hercules forums. Every time you find a bizarre stuttering crashing problem, there's a Highpoint controller behind it - and the solution is "drop down to BIOS 1.02 from 7 months ago, that'll fix it".

Do the same thing with the NWN forums.

I am too damn lazy to go hunt up evidence for a problem that everyone except you knows about.

- Gurm