Asus A7N8X: Perfect Timeline Playback

[Jerry Jones]

My new Asus A7N8X (non-deluxe) motherboard is performing perfectly.

Summary:

Timeline playback using MEDIASTUDIO PRO is perfect.

System details:

AMD Athlon 2.0ghz XP2400+ CPU
Asus A7N8X motherboard (NON-DELUXE)
Asus V9180 AGP Pro/8X display adapter
Adaptec FireConnect 4300 (TI chipset, OHCI IEEE-1394)
Windows 2000 Service Pack 2
DirectX 8.1
1gb of Samsung PC2100 DDR memory
40gb Atapi Western Digital system drive
100gb Atapi Western Digital video drive
36gb Seagate Barracuda Ultra SCSI drive
Panasonic LF-D311 Atapi DVD-R/DVD-RAM drive
Memorex USB 2.0 external CD writer
Antec 'True Power' 550 watt power supply

Using Canopus 'RapTest' my drive speeds are as follows:

1. C: 29mb/second READ, 23mb/second WRITE
2. D: 41MB/second READ, 41mb/second WRITE
3. G: (SCSI) 12mb/second READ, 12mb/second WRITE

I use the PRINT TO TAPE function with DEVICE CONTROL and it works beautifully with my Canon ZR20.

The Asus A7N8X board, with its NVIDIA NFORCE2 chipset, is a very good choice for DV video editing, in my opinion.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[paulw]

Looks like a good MOBO Jerry.

One question.

Why is the "much coverted by the experts" SCSI so slow compared with the "look down at my nose at them by the experts" IDE hard drives??

[Jerry Jones]

I love SCSI drives.

However, I also use lots of IDE hard drives.

I'm not sure who you're talking about regarding your comment concerning those who 'look down their noses at those who use IDE hard drives.'

Historically, the difference between the two types of drives had to do with SUSTAINED WRITE SPEEDS.

SCSI drives were always popular among video editors because of their *level* SUSTAINED WRITE SPEED performance.

This is my personal opinion concerning EIDE drives:

EIDE drives, particularly older models, have tended to feature much wider variances between write speed 'peaks' and write speed 'valleys'....

I think the UltraDMA drives and motherboards of today are *greatly* improved over the drives of just two years ago and plenty fast for DV .avi work.

But I like SCSI drives also because they can be external and chained... so that extra drives can be easily added without taking up limited IDE ports on the motherboard.

Yes, yes... I know there are ways to add IDE drives...

...but I like the ease of adding SCSI drives...

...one simply plugs them in and they're ready to go!

The external ones that I use also come with their own fans and power supplies.

I'm actually more curious these days about external USB 2.0 drives.

Has anybody used one for DV video capture and timeline playback?

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[paulw]

Thanx for the info Jerry.

"I'm not sure who you're talking about regarding your comment concerning those who 'look down their noses at those who use IDE hard drives." is based on articles and comments in news groups and magazines which basically say that if you can't aford SCSI you should not be doing NLE video work. This week I bought an Austrailain mag called Digital Video. An excellent mag for beginners but under the heading "What you need - Storage" it goes into raptures about SCSI and SCSI raid drives . It does mention about two thirds thru the article that IDE raids are now available and if you can't afford SCSI then you should use this.

However all to their own I guess.

What's the difference between the non-delux and delux boards. I only see one very featured MOBO in the Asus site??

[hippie91]

i have the same board (deluxe version) but i'm having problems getting the dma working on the drives, so far if i copy a file or anything the cpu use is 100%

what are your bios/driver version/settings to make it work well

[Brian Ellis]

Paul

SCSI was considerably faster than IDE: the gap is closing up though. The best compromise between speed and cost is with a RAID 0 array and 2 IDE UDMAs. No problem capturing analogue full size if properly set up. If you have 2 x 60 or 80 Gb, it's cheaper than a SCSI 1 x 120 or 160 Gb with at least as good a performance, if properly set up. Runs cooler, too, because the drives are sharing the load.

[Jerry Jones]

Difference between the DELUXE and non-DELUXE Asus A7N8X:

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3199

Hippie, I've read about others who are having the same troubles you are having.

But some are fixing it - strangely - by doing things like using different IDE cables.

Here's the thread:

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2295&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=1ce6065ee19862a9a03d2b148c97eaf1

I've not run into this issue at all.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[hippie91]

hrm the cables i have are fairly new and i doubt that all 3 of the cables i have onhand are bad

[hippie91]

WOO! figured it out

there was a reg hack issue with windows!

here's the page if anyone has this issue at all (could care less if it's ata66 or 100, i just don't want 100% cpu use)

edit:
(for got the link)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q247951