Someone who is familliar with the IBM deskstar drives, can you help...

[Kookstick]

I am trying to figure out some things and I wanted to research it by myself and not bother you guys with it but it was a bit confusing. I would like to get a new IBM drive and unsure of the differences between these models: 75 GXP 20.5 gig, 34 GXP 20.5 gig, and the 22 GXP, 22 gig. All are 7200 rpm but the 8.5-9 ms and data transfer rates vary and I cannot figure out which is better. I have been on pricewatch and it shows different ms's than the IBM site shows for the same drive.I just bought Win 2k and will be installing it on this drive as soon as I get the right one. My price range is around $200 US. Anyone have any thoughts on this? THX

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Asus P2b(1010),P3 500,256 mb pc133,Matrox G400 DH,Asus 50x,Iomega zip,Mitsumi CDR,Ibm 10 gb hd,Sb Live,Win 98

[Greebe]

The biggest difference is the data density between them, with the 75 being higher (lastest design). The 75 GXP also uses an ata/100 interface (or as IBM calls it 66+). The improved interface improves the the sustained transfer of data(in theory).
The avg seek time is also less in the 75GXP since the head has less distance to travel. It also has an improved MR head to handle the higher track density. The # in it's series also designates how much data can be stored, hence 75 means upto 75 gig, 34 is upto 34 gig, etc.

Now stating that... there are no ata100 interfaces available as of yet (although it'll work with UDMA66). Also the difference in performance between the 34 and 75 series will be negligible and the only thing that'll show it is a HD benchmark(very small). The feel of it will be no different. The sustained througput is always limited to the spindle speed... since the 75's are the same as the 34 or 22's then that won't change in reality.

... did a quick search on the net and can't find any 75 GXP's available yet.

I have an IBM DPTA-372050 20.5 gig 34 GXP drive with Win2K on it and it works very well. Another BB has one with Win2k installed on his also and has no complaints. Bottom line it's an excellant HD, well suited for your needs.

[Kookstick]

Greebe- Thanks for your response, i'm getting it today and I just wanted to be sure.bye-

[Kookstick]

CK- thanks for bringing that to my attention, I didn't realize my motherboard only supports udma/33, i'm wondering if having the latest bios(which I do now, 1011)will allow me to use ata/66. What kind of problems did you have to have to use that utility? I downloaded a prog off ibm's site called ibmata66 just in case.Hopefully I won't run into any situations.What about a controller card is that an option? Damn I guess it's getting close to having to buy a new motherboard now too.

[This message has been edited by Kookstick (edited 14 April 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Kookstick (edited 14 April 2000).]

[Kookstick]

I am going to pick up a ultra 66 controller card tonight,I read that it will allow me to run my IBM on its own chanel because right now it has a zip drive slaved to it and my cdrom and cdr are on the other chanel.Could someone tell me the best way to setup my configuration using a controller card, hardrive,cdrom and cdr. I need to switch my bios to boot scsi right? Thanks for any help, im going to set this up this weekend.

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Asus P2b(1010),P3 500,256 mb pc133,Matrox G400 DH,Asus 50x,Iomega zip,Mitsumi CDR,Ibm 10 gb hd,Sb Live,Win 98

[Brian R.]

Just bought an IBM 20.5 GB 7200 rpm HD. It runs fine on a UDMA-33 controller.

I have set up the zip as slave to the CDR as master. The CDROM as master on its own channel, and the HD master on a separate channel on the 66 controller.

The instructions with the controller will tell you how to set it up. Mine was built into an ABIT MB. I just activated the controller in the bios and set auto detect. The drivers were installed from windows after the system was set-up by looking for the controllers in "other devices" (System control panel) and installing the drivers from the floppy by updating the drivers and pointing to the correct directory in the floppy. I didn't point the boot-up sequence to SCSI.

B

[This message has been edited by Brian R. (edited 14 April 2000).]

[Greebe]

cking4, I ran HDTach 2.61 on my Athlon sys.... MSI 6167 MB which has an atat66 controller onboard w/ AMD's ide driver 1.22 and get...
Random access time = 11.1 ms
Burst read = 58.7 MB/s
avg read = 22345.0 kb/s
CPU utilization = 4%

Koolstick, if your MB doesn't have an ata66 controller then you just don't have one. It's a hardware thing and not something that will ever come from a BIOS update.

If you feel it neccessary, grab yourself a Promise Ultra 66. Better yet Get 2 HD's and that controller do a quick mod and make it a Fastrak controller (raid 0) and see some really high #'s!