Bus mastering drivers-Intel or Microsoft?

[Ovi]

Hello everyone
I have a question- Should I use the Intel bus mastering drivers that are available at its site? (They are supposed to properly implement DMA,as claimed by Intel) Would they offer any performance improvement over the standard Microsoft drivers? My system is otherwise perfectly okay,but any performance improvement would be welcome!! And can they be uninstalled at a later stage?
Thanks
Ovi

My system:
Win 98(not SE)
P-3@450, 64 MB PC100 SDRAM, Acorp Intel i440ZX Mobo
Samsung 4.3 GB HDD, Creative Infra 48x CDROM Drive etc…(both Ultra ATA33)

[Rik]

From what I have read from several sources, the microsoft drivers are a better bet (stability and performance-wise). The intel drivers may possibly give increased benchmark statistics but I think it's an 'emperors new clothes' deal, rather like most software that supposedly speeds up hard drive performance (X-Store Pro, Genesis DPM, etc.)

[MultimediaMan]

I wholeheartedly agree with Rik and cking. All of those "booster drivers" are a load of hooey. Win98SE won't recognize them at all. These companies are using undocumented features in Windows, features that were substantially altered in Win98SE to the point of not doing ANYTHING. All this headache for basically telling you what you already know you have...A Hard Disk. I tried and tried to get XStorePro to work "as advertised", to no avail. Tech Support from Highpoint-Triones was friendly enough, but the bottom line is that they didn't work - other than to report your drive's model number.

Now, on the Intel TX chipsets, the Triones/Intel drivers DO make a difference, in my experience.



------------------
My (Current) Primary system:

Abit BE6 (PL BIOS)
P3 450
384MB PC-100 SDRAM (Non-ECC)
Matrox Marvel G200-TV AGP (NTSC) 16Mb w/ HW-DVD Module v2.6 BIOS
Quantum 3D Obsidian X-24 Voodoo2 card
3Com 905B-TX NIC
SBlive (W/ OD I/O Card, Liveware 3.0 + Update)
ADS Cadet Radio Data AM/FM Card (8 Bit ISA)
3x WD AC28400 EIDE HDDs (ATA66 Enabled)
Creative DVD5241E EIDE 5x DVD-ROM
M/S Windows 98SE (English)
DirectX 7a

My (Current) Secondary system

Data General/ ALR 2650 Mobo (v6.004 BIOS)
2x P2 266 (SMP)
128 MB PC-100 SDRAM (ECC)
2 x Creative Savage 4 32MB PCI Adapters
3COM 905B Onboard Adaptec AIC7895
Onboard Intel 82558 NIC
Onboard Cirrus Logic SVGA adapter (Disabled)
Adaptec 2930U SCSI adapter
Creative ModemBlaster 5630 Data/Voice/Fax Modem (PCI)
Creative SBLive! (Full Version)
2x WD 4.5 GB Enterprise SCSI3 HDD
Panasonic LK-MW602 CD-R
Nakamichi MBR 7.4
Windows 98SE/NT Server Dual boot
DirectX 7a/SP-6

Tertiary system:
Dell Inspiron 7100 Laptop

[Ovi]

Thanks everyone
After posting my message,I checked out the documentation for these drivers at Intel's site,and then I came to know that those drivers are only for Win95!! Intel itself recommends using Microsoft's drivers in Win98!
Ovi

[Maggi]

wait a minute ...

don't forget to update your chipset drivers !

ftp://ftp.fh-merseburg.de/pub/hardware/mainboard/chipset/intel/infinst_enu_pv22.zip

Revision: Version 2.20 Production Release Build 0006
Date: November 12, 1999
NOTE: This document refers to systems containing the following Intel Chipset(s):
[*] Intel(R) 810 Chipset [*] Intel(R) 810E Chipset[*] Intel(R) 820 Chipset [*] Intel(R) 840 Chipset
[*] Intel(R) 430TX PCIset [*] Intel(R) 440BX AGPset [*] Intel(R) 440DX AGPset [*] Intel(R) 440EX AGPset [*] Intel(R) 440GX AGPset [*] Intel(R) 440LX AGPset [*] Intel(R) 440MX Chipset[*] Intel(R) 440ZX AGPset

Cheers,
Maggi

[Ovi]

Thanks Maggi
I've already updated my chipset drivers.
Cheers
Ovi

[MultimediaMan]

I installed those new Intel drivers and noticed a slight performance DECREASE regarding seek time. Quite noticable, but drive throughput was increased slightly.