Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Abit BE6 & 5+ IDE devices - does it work?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Abit BE6 & 5+ IDE devices - does it work?

    Given that the BE6 has got 2x UDMA 33 ports as well as 2xUDMA66's - does anyone have any experience of using all of these at the same time?

    I'm about to build a new machine - for video editing & want to run 3x HDs in addition to a CD & a CD writer. The 3 HDs break down into boot, edit data & target data - the idea being to spread disk access & minimise conflict & dropped frames.

    I'v seen a couple of posts on the Abit message board which seem to indicate lots of problems - has anyone any experience with this type of setup?

    Thanks

    deanf1

    proposed system:
    Abit BE6 PII or PIII 450, 128mb PC100 SDRAM,
    8.4GbIBM Boot, 8.4GbIBM target Data, 27GbMaxtor Edit Disks, Matrox Mystique & RR combo, Guillemot Isis multitrack Soundcard.

  • #2
    I don't think that it'll work. Get a SCSI adapter for your video HDDs.

    B

    Comment


    • #3
      Any reason why you don't think it will work Burri - or is it just a feeling?

      The reasons in favour are that IDE drives are much cheaper than SCSI and their performance is sufficient for video editing (not to mention the fact that I have two 8.4Gb disks already)and Abit have a reasonably good name for motherboards.

      deanf1

      Comment


      • #4
        I agree with Buuri. I think the maximum number would be 4 IDE drives. One master/slave pair per IRQ. And usually only IRQ 14 and 15 are for IDE control.

        -Wombat


        ------------------
        503+ rev 1.2a, 128MB PC100 RAM, K6-2/350@400,RH6 & Win98,G200 Millenium (SGRAM), no plans to buy a G400


        Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

        Comment


        • #5
          No, that is wrong, the BE6's UDMA/66 controller uses IRQ 11, so you have 4 true channels to use, I have been experimenting with it since I got it, and right now have 3 HDD's 1 UDMA/66 Quantum and 2 UDMA/33 Quantum drives in the machine, plus a Toshiba 40X cd-rom drive, I plan on adding a recorder as soon as I can, and change the other UDA/33 drives to UDMA/66 drives. So far with this setup I have had no problems. Whatever you do stay clear of the Western Digital and IBM UDMA/66 HDD's, been causing problems on the board due to their slow spin up time.

          Comment


          • #6
            Forgot to add that the latest bios update that will be released soon should take care of compatibilities with certain drives (ie) WD and IBM.

            Comment


            • #7
              I don't have the BE6, but if they have designed the board properly, there shoudn't be any problems.

              The PC as such has no limit for the number of IDE devices you can connect.
              At the moment I am running with 7 IDE devices and I can even install 3 more without adding more controllers.

              Regards,
              Pertti

              Comment


              • #8
                Pertti - how do you manage to run 7 IDE devices if you don't have a BE6? The BE6 is the only mobo I have heard of with 4 dual IDE ports - all others I have come across have just 2 - limiting the maximum number of IDE devices to 4.

                The main reason I am considering the BE6 is to run more than 4 devices - as per my first post.

                Please let me know how this is possible.

                Thanks
                Deanf1

                Comment


                • #9
                  Hi deanf1,

                  My primary computer is based on Asus P2B-S, and I have 3 HD:s on the Motherboard IDE, my DVD and CD-RW are connected to SoundBlaster IDE and the Promise FastTrak has 2 HD:s in Raid0 configuration.
                  The remaining HD:s and CD-Rom are SCSI

                  Promise also has UDMA66 controllers that you can use with your excisting motherboard (and which you can move over to your next one).
                  The Promise controller takes only one IRQ for the two IDE channels.

                  Best Regards,
                  Pertti

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Terve Pertti,

                    I have always been under impression that there would be a limit in PC specs for IDE devices. I don't know where I got that idea, but I recall having problems with SB32's IDE controller when all the channels on my mobo were in use.
                    Well I guess you just proved me wrong.

                    _
                    B

                    [This message has been edited by Buuri (edited 08-23-1999).]

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Buuri,

                      The Creative IDE controller is notoriously poor. There is no limitation per se on IDE devices other than 2 per channel. The number of channels MAY be limited to 4 (8 devices), I cannot recall at this time. I know you're straying into BAAAAAAD territory once you do go past 4, if it is possible, simply because there isn't a low-mem address set aside for anything past 4.

                      - Ash

                      P.S. The problems on the ABIT board are due to the fact that early BE6's were just plain unstable. I couldn't use my UDMA66 channels at all, they would just lock up and crash... but then I swapped the board out for a newer one and it was all set. I had, for a while, 4 hard drives, a DVD, and a CDRW all running on the same board pretty darn fast.

                      ------------------
                      Portions of this message may have been Copyright 1999, Jorden van der Elst and/or Bobby DeNiro. All rights (and lefts) reserved.
                      ------------------------
                      Specs? You want specs? Yeah. Alright you primitive screwheads, listen up. See this? This is my boomstick! It's a twelve gauge double barreled Remington, S-Mart's top-of-the-line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids Michigan. Retails for about $109.95. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop Smart. Shop S-mart. Ya got that?! Now I swear, the next one of you primates, even touches me...




                      [This message has been edited by Slartibartfast (edited 08-23-1999).]

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Morjens Buuri,

                        I did have some reservations about the SB 32 IDE, but prior to getting the P2B-S and Promise FastTrack, I was seriously lacking in IDE, so I decided to give it a try - has been working just fine for ~2 years now.

                        The number of integrated IDE channels is limited to 4 as far as I can remember, but that doesn't keep you from installing more add-on IDE cards, the system treats them the same as it would an additional SCSI adapter.

                        I even have somewhere couple of "EIDE" cards from back in -91, which had their own bios, and which you could use to increase the number of ide channels in your machine by 2/card.
                        You should've seen my 386SX back in -94 with 3 IDE controllers, one SCSI and lots of 60 - 100MB HD:s (everything I was able to buy, beg or borrow)

                        Terveisiä Kehä III:n ulkopuolelta
                        Pertti

                        btw, was I promoted to Member already ?

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        X