Fast ATA100 Drive

[BogusBill]

I just got a new motherboard and it comes with a PromiseUltra100 "installed" (onboard). Oh its a Asus A7V. I got everything else under control RAM(320MB), Processer(AMD T-Bird 900), the onlything I'm not sure about it the Hard Drive. I've heard good things about Maxtor DiamondMax 40 Plus'. And the IBM 75whatevers. But I just don't know which on is actually fastest. Because I had WD20 7200 66 drive and with the Matrox Benchmark I only recived 12-13 megs per second. I know the burst rate and all that...I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with the new ATA100 drive and had any benchmarks on them??? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Oh and I would like to capture in RGB (26.367MBpersec, supposedly)

[Eric VanHeest]

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Oh and I would like to capture in RGB (26.367MBpersec, supposedly)
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I suspect you are not going to be able to get a consistent 27 MB/sec out of any single drive for video capture; even the X15 SCSI would be nearing its limits near the end of the drive at that rate.

I have a 4-way array of Maxtor 30 GB/7200 drives that gives me about 35 MB/sec (at the end of the drive). Granted those are not the fastest drives in the world, but a striped array is probably your only bet for 27 MB/sec speeds on IDE-type drives.

From what I've read about YUY2, there's no real reason to use uncompressed RGB instead of HuffYUV'd YUY2. On my system, the HuffYUV'd (~8 MB/sec) files play better (and are more easily edited) than the 24-bit uncompressed RGB files, because the drive speed gets in the way far more than the HuffYUV processor requirement does.

[Dr Mordrid]

Amen to the HuffYUV comments Eric. This IS the way to go if you're using YUY2, and why wouldn't you?. I haven't used MJPeg for more than testing in months, especially when I plan on encoding the video to MPEG-1/2 or MPEG-4.

As for the YUY2 vs. RGB issue, YUY2 wins this one. YUY2 is the native video stream and is encoded to get the RGB signal. If you want fresh water, go to the well....

Now for the drives. First off the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus40 is an ATA66 and a tad slower than the IBM 75GXP. The IBM 75GXP is only the fastest IDE drive available at the moment.

I have four of the IBM's mounted in two 120g RAID0 arrays. Each of these arrays can do 68 megs/sec. More than enough to do almost anything.

Dr. Mordrid




[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 26 August 2000).]

[LiFe]

I'd go IBM or Seagate cause after purchasing dozzens of HDD's and pushing them to the limits for years I find Maxtors tend to blow up soon after warrenty... (in friends computers). Seagates do it too but usualy give u some warning and last a little longer (I buy seagate because I can't afford IBM).

IBM are nearly always the best when it comes to speed/quality but u pay a dear premium for it so I find seagate a decent tradeoff.

I find quantum used to always put the newest technology into their drives first (usualy 1 month ahead of seagate and on par with IBM) but their drives frequently blow up on me BEFORE warrenty and always after warrenty so I don't buy them anymore.

just my .01c.... Yes we have a crappy exchange rate atm! : )

[Marijn]

the drives mentioned are all really fast. As one can find out at www.storagereview.com, the Quantum fireball plus LM series are probably even faster than the IBM 75GXP series (IO-meter benchmarks). But still I'ld go for the IBM's because of the quality.

Marijn

[Eric VanHeest]

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I find Maxtors tend to blow up soon after warrenty... (in friends computers).
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As a contrast, I've been using Maxtor drives for the past four years, and I have yet to have one go dead on me, even after being in machines that are powered on constantly (and often used for video capture). I have purchased (and still own and use) three Maxtor 5.1 GB, two 8.4 GB, four 17.4 GB, five 30 GB, two 36 GB, two 40 GB, and four 60 GB drives, and not a single one has needed in- or out-of-warranty replacement.

[wkulecz]

My experience with Western Digital drives has been as good as Eric's luck with Maxtor despite Western Digital having a reputation for "the best warranty exchange in the business and you're gonna need it!"

I have had to send drives back to Quantum and Seagate. Both honored their warranty as advertised, so I won't bad mouth either.

Point being, its just about impossible for any individual to have a statistically significant sample of drives to comment about any particulary brand of drives overall reliability.

"Always on" systems seem to actually be easier on the drives and everything but fans.

Its the thermal stress of start, warmup, stop, cool down that seems to take its toll.

--wally.

[dchip]

I'm using a new Maxtor DiamondMax 40 plus ATA-66 7200rpm and it's a smooth as silk. Installing it was childs play, too. I don't know what the future will hold for it but for now it's sailing right along. On Matrox benchmark it shows a tad bit slower (about 2mb/sec slower) than the 18GB Western Digital ATA-66 7200rpm but it still way above the recommended specs for video capture. I don't think either of my drives are ready to capture full screen frames though.