Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ISA or PCI Modem???Opinions please

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 2
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous 1 2 template Next
  • #1

    ISA or PCI Modem???Opinions please

    I am about to put a modem in my old computer (Celeron 400@540 on Abit LX6, 32M, 6G WD 5400 DMA 33, G200 8M); I have always gone with an ISA to avoid any loss of cpu cycles, and the stand alone controller is plenty man enough for the 56k.

    I see that the PCI modems are typically $10-20 cheaper, and as this is not going to be a heavy duty online machine, should I save and put in the PCI modem?

    Thoughts?

    ------------------
    P3650@650 on ABIT BE6 r2, 192M RAM, G400 32m DH oem, 5.52 drivers, Voodoo II in SLI, Aureal SQ2500, 30G Maxtor DMax 7200 ATA 66, 300W PS


    P4 2.8/533 on MSI 865PE Neo2 Platinum, 1G Crucial, ATI 9600 XT, 5.1 catalyst drivers, TB Santa Cruz, 80G WD 7200 ATA 100, 350W PS Win XP SP2
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Aren't ALL PCI modems WinModems? That's why they all say PII-300 or higher (although they work fine on less, apart from cyrix...)

    I'd go ISA anyday...

    ------------------
    Cheers,
    Steve

    "Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

    Comment

    • #3
      What do you have in all your PCI slots cking?
      P3 500 @ 600
      256MB PC133 RAM
      64MB PC100 RAM
      Primary: Gateway EV700 17"
      Secondary: AcerView 54eL 15"
      WinXP Professional Build 2600 (with Plus!, it's prettified!)
      G400 MAX (@ 171, 228)
      Monster Sound MX400
      512/128 DSL from SMC EZ Card
      Samsung 8X DVD-ROM
      ASUS P3B-F
      Logitech X1 Speakers
      Logitech Cordless Mouse SE
      Logitech Internet Keyboard
      19.1G IBM 60GXP
      8.4G Seagate
      1.57G Fujitsu

      Comment

      • #4
        cking I thought(perhaps wrongly?) that an ISA modem used less cpu resources than a PCI unit. The system has room for expansion, so IRQ's or slots are not an issue at present, but you make a good point about the future.

        I am running Win 98se.

        Like Steve, I also thought all PCI modems were Winmodems, Not true?

        Thanks guys

        ------------------
        P3650@650 on ABIT BE6 r2, 192M RAM, G400 32m DH oem, 5.52 drivers, Voodoo II in SLI, Aureal SQ2500, 30G Maxtor DMax 7200 ATA 66, 300W PS


        P4 2.8/533 on MSI 865PE Neo2 Platinum, 1G Crucial, ATI 9600 XT, 5.1 catalyst drivers, TB Santa Cruz, 80G WD 7200 ATA 100, 350W PS Win XP SP2

        Comment

        • #5
          Oceaneer:
          General rules of thumb: PCI cards use less CPU resources than an equivalent ISA card.

          However, WinModems rely on the CPU, thus increasing their CPU resource needs. While ISA has a higher CPU overhead than PCI, a hardware modem itself has very little overhead over that of ISA cards in general, since all the work is done on the card. Thus it is certainly possible for a hardware ISA modem to use less CPU than a PCI WinModem.

          I do not have any data to support this, only the logic says it's possible.
          Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? But why put off until tomorrow what you can put off altogether?

          Comment

          • #6
            not all PCI modems are Winmodems..., but I think all the cheaper ones are, so avoid them.

            And what's wrong with sharing IRQ's?

            IRQ 7 - Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English
            IRQ 7 - Creative SB Live! Value (WDM)
            IRQ 7 - Adaptec AHA-2940U/AHA-2940UW PCI SCSI Controller
            IRQ 7 - 3Com EtherLink XL 10/100 PCI For Complete PC Management NIC (3C905C-TX)
            IRQ 7 - Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller

            ;-)


            ------------------
            - What do you get when you put N nVidia whores in a circle and each one pats the person on their right on the back and says "nVidia wins 3dfx and Michael Knight any day of the week!" ?

            - You get N people with a boosted ego, and no-one loses anything; keep up the good work, boys!

            Comment

            • #7
              Whats wrong with external modems a lot less
              £%$&ing about and don't seem to go walkabouts and refuse to talk to the rest of the computer. Also with an external if they do decide to sulk you don't have to take the case to bits. Guess what while I'm writing this the damn thing hung up.
              Chief Lemon Buyer no more Linux sucks but not as much
              Weather nut and sad git.

              My Weather Page

              Comment

              • #8
                when Win2k in installed in ACPI mode, IRQ sharing is not a issue any more :-)

                it puts all the PCI/AGP devices on 1 IRQ, and everything is working just fine...

                If I tried this in Win98 without ACPI, the PC would probably have hung big time at booting windows, and maybe even corrupted my whole SCSI hdd... (I would _NEVER_ try this in Win98).

                If you like it this way, and decide to have ACPI too, just make sure your BIOS fully support Win2k ACPI. flashing to the latest version usually fixes all the problems

                ------------------
                - What do you get when you put N nVidia whores in a circle and each one pats the person on their right on the back and says "nVidia wins 3dfx and Michael Knight any day of the week!" ?

                - You get N people with a boosted ego, and no-one loses anything; keep up the good work, boys!

                Comment

                • #9
                  I got to side with dZeus on the fact that not all PCI modems are Winmodems. It depends on the make and brand of your PCI modem.
                  Winmodems don't use the hardware, but rely on software totally, and thus on your CPU.

                  Comparing the speed of the modem, it being PCI or ISA, doesn't make much of a difference. The throughput of your modem will always be the maximum you can set the modem to, so 56,000bps (theoretically) for a 56k, 56kflex or V.90 modem. And this theoretical speed is upload speed, not download speed (which averages around 43,333bps).

                  I've set my E-Tech Cyberbullet ISA 56kflex flashed to V.90 Cyberbullet to a connection speed of 115,200bps. But don't ever think I reach that speed. It is just a number
                  (Though with 56kflex I could set it to 230,400 ... hmmm )

                  So, what would be a good modem then? PCI or ISA? As the throughput speed of the ISA bus and PCI bus is about the same for a modem, it doesn't matter.

                  Get a winmodem then? As Steve said, only if you have a powerfull CPU, for it will run in software only. Try playing the MGI UT server online on a winmodem, and you'll stop wondering why your ping is 800 or more !!

                  One thing that has to be said about winmodems though: If you have an extremely noisy or shared phoneline, you won't notice the difference .

                  Jord.
                  Jordâ„¢

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    cking4, try entering "E0 M0" (that's a zero) without the quotes in the "advanced connection settings" in your modems profile. That'll shut it up

                    Jord, Winmodems are notorious for being worse at handling line noise compared to virtually any DSP based modem.
                    "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." -- Dr. Seuss

                    "Always do good. It will gratify some and astonish the rest." ~Mark Twain

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      That's what I meant, Mike. You won't notice the difference, for you won't be able to connect

                      Jord.
                      Jordâ„¢

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Alrighty then... just wanted to be sure
                        "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." -- Dr. Seuss

                        "Always do good. It will gratify some and astonish the rest." ~Mark Twain

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          Winmodems are fine. I had one once with my celery 450 and it was fast enough with a decent ping. I now have an external diamond supraexpress because the poor winmodem was fried in a thunderstorm...

                          Of course hardmodems are better than winmodems, but the point is they hardly justify the premium price.

                          But not all winmodems are created equal: Rockwell HCF are the best, LT are decent and motorolla sucks beyond belief.

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Go for external!
                            I goto lovely 3-COM USR one sitting on my desk.
                            I've got a lovely bank of flashy red lights to look at, and if my connection goes all screwey I can simply hit the power button on it.
                            It cost one penny to cross, or one hundred gold pieces if you had a billygoat.
                            Trolls might not be quick thinkers but they don't forget in a hurry, either

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              I have a million things (well, a few) on one IRQ too... (IRQ 11 for me). Don't know why, but it makes no difference to my PC's stability!

                              ------------------
                              Cheers,
                              Steve

                              "Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

                              Comment

                              Previous 1 2 template Next
                              Working...
                              X