Promise FastTrak/100-which HDs?

[Riddek]

Hi all,
In my ongoing thirst for knowledge while planning my new PC(it's coming together piece by piece), I stumbled across the Promise FastTrak/100. I've read several posts/reviews/white papers on it and decided to go RAID or go home.(Since I'm already home, I'll go RAID)

My first question is will the FT100 work well with an Asus CUSL-2 mobo, PIII 800EB FCPGA CPU and a G400 Marvel? In other words, has anyone heard of any incompatabilities with this hardware setup? (I'm still debating on either PC150 or PC133 RAM)

Secondly, I've read about setups with Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 40 and IBM GXP UDMA100 HDs(Doc). I was wondering which HD is better suited for a RAID(0) NLE setup?(more stable, faster, etc.) Are there other UDMA100 HDs out there for consideration?

Thanks!
Long live Desktop Video World!

[Dr Mordrid]

The Maxtor Plus40's made since June are now ATA100's so the interface standard is a non issue. Both the Plus40's and the IBM 75GXP are well suited, but the Maxtors are much cheaper.

The only thing to remember about the Maxtor ATA100 drives is that they have Write Verification turned on by default. This slows them down by 50% when they are fresh out of the box. After the system has been powered up 10 times Write Verification turns itself off and the Maxtors then run full-tilt.

If for some reason this fails to happen there is a utility on Maxtors download page that lets you do it manually: WVSET.

As far as the Asus CUSL-2 board goes I have no experience with it. I'm using the Asus P3B-F BX board, which is faster than about any of the VIA or i815 boards out there. I use a Gigabyte GA-6R7Pro/6R7+ slotkey to adapt the PIII FC-PGA to it.

Both the Fasttrak100/Maxtor and Fasttrak100/IBM setups worked great the Marvel G400 on the P3B-F platform.

Dr. Mordrid



[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 29 September 2000).]

[Riddek]

Excellent.... Thanks Doc!
BTW, I believe you had mentioned in an earlier post that certain PCI soundcards wreak havok on digital video editing. I'm thinking of getting the Sounblaster Platinum 5.1 when it comes out for doing sound/music editing. Should I slap it into my existing PC and get something else for my NLE PC? If so, what do you recommend?
Cheers!

[Dr Mordrid]

It's my personal feeling that ISA audio is better for most video purposes. The reason: ISA cards use fewer resources and don't hog the bus like may PCI audio cards do. On a system where the PCI bus gets heavy use from the video editing card this can be problematic, especially if other PCI devices are present (modems, NIC's etc).

The exceptions are that if you're doing DV or if the mainboard doesn't have an ISA slot. DV pretty much requires 48k audio. If either of these is the case then you should at least disable the PCI cards ISA emulation (aka: "legacy mode"). This will free the second IRQ used by PCI cards and reduce its system overhead.

My setup for Marvel's is a good-old SB AWE64 Gold. It works great, does the 44.1k audio that is the max capability of the Marvel and and is very stable. It was also cheap at <$50.

The AWE-64 even works with the RT-2000's DV & MPEG-2 since the RT-2000 has built-in 48k audio that gets passed on to the AWE64 by a patch cord as 44.1k. The 44.1k is for use by the system speakers while the 48k audio gets output through the BOB.

Dr. Mordrid

[Riddek]

If I go with the Asus CUSL-2 mobo I would fall into the no ISA slot category. I have a SB AWE64 Gold as well (in my current system) and I love it.

If I get a SB Platinum 5.1, how do I disable the ISA emulation? Is that a bios setting?

Doc, I've read a couple of post from people saying the i815 mobos have certain "limitations" when it comes to NLE that may be fixed by later bios revisions. Do you know what these limitations are? (I can't find those posts now for the life of me)

Maybe I should explore some sort of Athlon setup as an option. Do you use any AMD systems in your lab? How do they compare to Intel systems (for NLE)?

Basically, I want this new machine to be a NLE monster. I can do all my other graphics/business stuff on my existing machine. The last thing I want to do is limit my NLE setup by choosing the wrong components (motherboard, soundcard). I want all the links in the chain to be strong.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!