There *still* isn't a single IDE drive that is going to even approach the speed of ATA100. It's kind of like driving a Yugo on the highway- doesn't really matter if the speed limit is 55 or 450 mph, you're only going 49 anyway.

Originally posted by danbarclay:
hey opus,
i've noticed that you tend to endorse the western digital jb harddrive models. i looked into these and it seems they only come in ata100. i realize that they have an 8meg cache. does this really improve performance that much over ata133. i installed a ata133 pci card for my maxtor (because the p4b266 does not support 133 as you well know). i would like to keep the pci bus as clean as possible and i'm thinking of switching to a wd jb. are you raid-ing two of these drives currently in you rig? how quiet are the jb models?

ps
did anybody read that article in EQ magazine by Pete Leoni(Thunderbirdman) on the dual processor amd? just looking for feedback.

Jon is correct..and what a great analogy! Hope you don't mind me stealing that one Jon! lol
Dan, basically ATA 100 does not mean constant 100MB/s throughput..as Jon said, no drive or controller does that. What it means is that you will get burst rates of up to 100MB/s..only "burst" rates. key word there. With ATA133 you are NOT going to see a major improvement in the long run. It's only a 5% increase "if" that at all. The reason being that those drives rock is the 8MB buffer vs. the 2MB buffer...a huge performance increase...I mean *huge*!!!! :D
Going with a controller is NOT going to improve performance like a WD JB model drive.
Opus

yeah, but is it quiet? is it cool?

Both...quiet and cool...I hardly even notice the thing spinning and heat is not an issu eat all...even in a removable bay with no fans it still remains touchable...not heat at all!
Opus

ok ok, as soon as i find the best price it's on order. but let me ask you this. i will now have this extra drive so i'm thinkin' i'll leave it as is (attached to the pci card) and use it for drum loops and other extraneous data and use the jb for my audio (probably just an 80 gig due to fiscal constraints, maybe a 100 if i can find the deal). so i'll have a maxtor for my OS, a maxtor for my loops and etc. and the jb for audio. are there any possible problems with this? i ask because i thought i read an article about mixing different drives/vendors and the system having to deal with the different dma settings effecting performance.
while i'm abusing the knowledge bank here. i currently have a stick of 512 pc2100 installed. i'd like to get to a gig and do it 256 megs at a time (again the fiscal constraints). i heard (probably here) that 2 sticks of 512 are better than 1 512 and 2 256 sticks. how much better really? alright i'm done drawing from the well now. thanks for your patience.

Well, first of all I've never heard of any issues mixing hard drives....been doing it for years with no problems what so ever. I did come across it with the WD drive with the 8MB buffer and a drive with a 2MB buffer..so there might be an issue but I suspected the second drive since it was pretty damn old to begin with...I was getting the second WD JB model drive anyways so I'm not sure what the problem was..but otherwise there are no issues with mixmatching drives...yes, you want to stay with large memory stick counts and not one large and multiple smalls...remember if you have the P4B266 you can only use two slots for single sided and the third for double sided DDR...so you sort of have to go with two 512 sticks to get 1GB...
As far as drum loops go...I stick them all on my OS drive...since they are read only they do not require their own drive..remember to disable the write caching for the OS drive and this way your read time is exponentially increased by four times it's normal read time.
Opus

alrighty, sounds like good advice to me, as usual. i appreciate it.

hey opus, could you clear up something for me?
you said in another thread,
...1GB is the most I reccomend for DAW's as anything more is redundant

where are the benefits mostly realized with more ram. i thought i'd read where you've stated 512 is a minimum and here you saying that a gig is a maximum. what tasks or processes take advantage of ram. i know plugins and soft synths but what else? how does more ram become redundant? if you had to make a choice between additional ram or a more efficient drive (remember the fiscal constraints) what would you do? you know that could be a new RO acronym (what would opus do - wwod). i'm thinking 512 + 256 + jb80 gig. your thoughts are appreciated. thanks.

Well, the only thing that would truly take advantage of serious amounts of RAM are sample based apps like Gigastudio and Sampletank....since they put the header of the sample into memory to make it perform better.
The OS itself will use 256, the application will use about 64 or a little higher and the rest is available to plug ins and samples. 256 or more left over is plenty to handle that type of pull..from plug ins that is. They don't use a lot of the memory as it they rely more on the processor than memory. Memory only helps smooth it out. Otherwise going with 768MB RAM and the 80GB WD JB drive is perfect. That should do you just nicely...
What's with the anacronyms these days! ANUS...WWOD...lmao! Too funny!
Opus :D

acronyms - they have become the lexicon of generation e, IMHO :D
one day we'll all converse in only acronyms, abreviations, and contractions :tu:

Man I need a new computer. I always run out of CPU long before disk I/O ever becomes an issue...
Someday, though, I'll be bitching about disk I/O... just you wait! :p

Brock
When intel releases that Springsdale/Prescott you won't be bitching in any way.
Also with the 3GIO PCI Express coming out in the future(two years tops) than nobody will complain in the least bit...
I myself will be waiting for the new Intel stuff later next year before even thinking about building a new system. Plain and simple
Opus :D

I think I should too. I think I should just get me a UAD card and be happy for a while. That's something I can use down the road (I hope...) and would really do me some good. Between SX and Samplitude 7.0 (when it comes out in November) I should be good to go for a while.
I'm a little worn out, did a live radio broadcast last night (patriotic tribute for 9-11). 600 voice choir and 50 piece orchestra... whew! That's allot of mics...