Hey Big-D,

i prefer the IDE,
1) avoid potential issues with the bios
2) Leaving the Sata for more important things

also in light of the potential for the SI chipset Sata to have issues
(where i would put the os drive if i had to)
with audio that only leaves 2 good Sata ports for audio!!

Scott
ADK

Thanks Scott,

That's what I was afraid of. The bios wouldn't always see my SATA's on my Asus. It was kind of hit or miss, a PIA but I could deal with it since it was just my personal studio.

I've now been offered some paying gigs so this thing has to be rock solid. So it's back to IDE. I guess the Plex-Prem will have to stay on the shelf as I need to burn both audio and video.

I'll have it set up like this,

120GB SATA - NF3 - Audio only
250GB SATA - NF3 - Video only
400GB SATA - SI - Backup of both audio and video
Open SATA - SI - this will be used for swappable drive from mobile rig to copy tracks to 120GB for mixing.

When the 120 or 250 fill up I'll just replace them. From a performance standpoint this setup appears to be my best option any thoughts?

I've got your benchmark tests so I'll post them when finished.

I'm running my OS on a SATA with a second SATA for data, and i'm having no problems. I remember going though a minor ordeal getting the BIOS to recognize the SATA during installation, but I can't remember what I did. Real helpful, huh? ;)

I also have 2 PC's that have run off SATA OS drives from day one. Not a single HD OS related issue, and my SATA drives ALWAYS show up. I have never had issues with SATA drives on the ICH-5R or ICH-6R Southbridge controllers. I also use a Raptor 36gig as my OS drive in my P4 Desktop system. "Snappy" is a good word to describe it's performance as an OS drive.

:cool:

Hey guys, I've only had this issue with my P4P800S, My DFI's (gaming) have been fine with SATA. I have seen this issue pop up in other circles besides audio. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it either. My problem (with the P4P800S) started when I swithed to an n'Vidia video card from ATI. I then reformatted, put the old image on the drive and went back to the ATI but the problem didn't go away. I tried several SATA's all with the same result. I put an IDE in and no issues since. I'm still waiting on a few parts for the new DAW so I have some time to sort through this.

Oh well I guess I have 2 choices,

1. Get a Raptor and try it, if it doesn't work it could always go in the mobile rig.

2. Slave the Plex-Prem to the IDE HDD and see how it performs.

You guys know me, if it's not 100% stable I won't use it. I'm not a cutting edge guy unless it's gaming.

David and Randy thanks for your input guys. I guess I have a decision to make.

I am running Dual SATA on my DAW and the only trouble i has was during OS install when i had no floppy drive attached to load the drives.

But for anyone that plans to running emulator X Studio 1.5 you may be in for a rough ride for the comibination of the 2 seem to collide.

Other than those 2 minor annoyances the system runs great. I have had no performance or stability issues.

I set up a second sata drive for audio in my mac G5 dual 2.0 and the computer takes a long time accessing it. when you click in the drive icon its like 2 seconds before it opens and then the beach ball from hell spins for anotherfew seconds before the drive actually opens. Also Iam getting spikes on playback eventhough I m not using half of may processing power... any ideas out there? I know this is mac, but they are sata drives...

Xavier, Is the drive set to power down after a certain amount of time? The drive should be spinning at 7200 RPM's all of the time not spinning up to speed. If power management is set to spin the drives down after a certain amount of time you would get the sort of lag you're seeing. I forget what it's called in OSX but on PC's it's under Power Options, I would check there first and disable power management it if it's running. As for the spikes I'm not sure, anyone?

You may also have a flakey drive.

Big_D wrote: Xavier, Is the drive set to power down after a certain amount of time? The drive should be spinning at 7200 RPM's all of the time not spinning up to speed. If power management is set to spin the drives down after a certain amount of time you would get the sort of lag you're seeing. I forget what it's called in OSX but on PC's it's under Power Options, I would check there first and disable power management it if it's running. As for the spikes I'm not sure, anyone?

You may also have a flakey drive.

you know, I am going to check that. maybe that's the problem with the lag time. As far as the spikes I am now hearing in unicornation that DP has a resources management system that will turn off plugs when they are not being used and if many edits coincide the cpu freaks out. I don't know if that the problem but I now have a dual 2.0 G5 that is more than twice as fast as my old dual 867 G4 and I never had that problem with he G4. Hopefully they will come up with a fix soon! 8)

Don,
i've also been running my OS from SATA for quite a while - XP Pro, WD 200GB Sata on an MSI 865PE board. That board is about the same age as your P4P800. It might be worth trying a new SATA cable, otherwise it may be a problem with the SATA controller on the mobo.

I'm planning on building a dedicated DAW machine soon, and i was considering a Raptor as well, but i've read a few reviews that suggest they are quite loud. I'll be aiming to make this machine as quiet as possible, so a Seagate would probably a better choice for me. I also remember deciding that the 74GB Raptor was preferable to the 36GB, but i can't remember why. I'll let you know if i look it up later. Good luck with the new machine.

The 74Gig Raptor benches faster IIRC. Someting to do with platter density or something (I believe the access time and sustained BW are both slightly better on the 74). The 36 still makes a killer OS drive :)