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How do you run more than 4 IDE Devices? Do you need to buy an IDE controller card in order to do this and how does it work? How money more can I add?
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How do you run more than 4 IDE Devices?
- Thread starter customrig
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- Dec 1, 2001
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customrig said:
I believe that you would need to buy an IDE controller card to have more than four. It would go into a PCI port (correct me if I'm wrong). I haven't done this, but I heard that this is much slower than the IDE right on the motherboard.
That, or you can get a motherboard which supports 6-8.
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The IDE cards just plug in to a PCI card and have IDE connectors on them. I don't know if they are as fast as a regualar IDE connector unless it is done in RAID.
If your doing hard drivesI would recommend getting a RAID card. RAID requires two or more hard drives of equal size(and preferably brand). It links all the drives together and it is registered as on single drive. It is significantly faster than any standard drive, becuase it has all the hard drives reading at the same time.
If your doing hard drivesI would recommend getting a RAID card. RAID requires two or more hard drives of equal size(and preferably brand). It links all the drives together and it is registered as on single drive. It is significantly faster than any standard drive, becuase it has all the hard drives reading at the same time.
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So this RAID card would have it's own port on the motherboard? I don't really understand this and your explanation. That's what the card is used for? Just to have multiple hdds running at the same time?
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HD controller cards run just as fast as the on board IDE. Yes you would need a card to run more Drives. Promise makes some, they have ATA133 cards to go with the Maxtor 133 drives cause MOBO's are just starting to support 133
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My motherboard has RAID built in, but most don't. A RAID card plugs in to a PCI slot. It has a controller so that all the drives in the RAID array are used as one drive on the computer. So if you were in Windows, rather than each drive having its own letter, all the drives would be one big one.
There are several types of RAID. RAID(1), RAID(0), and RAID(0+1). To explain this, let's say you have four 40Gig IBM hard Drives. This is how the different RAID settings will use them
RAID(0):
Used mainly for higher speed. Total array size will be 160(40X4) Gigs.
RAID(1):
Used by servers for security. Keeps files from being lost if Drive fails. Total array size will be 40 Gigs, with the same thing on all of the hard drives.
RAID(0+1):
For speed and security. Total Array size will be 80 Gigs. Each set of two of the hard drives have the same thing on both drives, then the two sets are used like 1 RAID(0) array.
RAID arrays must have at least two drives, and I believe they make RAID controllers that can handle as many as 8 or more drives. (I'm not sure about the max number of drives)
There are several types of RAID. RAID(1), RAID(0), and RAID(0+1). To explain this, let's say you have four 40Gig IBM hard Drives. This is how the different RAID settings will use them
RAID(0):
Used mainly for higher speed. Total array size will be 160(40X4) Gigs.
RAID(1):
Used by servers for security. Keeps files from being lost if Drive fails. Total array size will be 40 Gigs, with the same thing on all of the hard drives.
RAID(0+1):
For speed and security. Total Array size will be 80 Gigs. Each set of two of the hard drives have the same thing on both drives, then the two sets are used like 1 RAID(0) array.
RAID arrays must have at least two drives, and I believe they make RAID controllers that can handle as many as 8 or more drives. (I'm not sure about the max number of drives)
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Do you suggest purchasing a RAID card?
customrig said:
Other then spending money on a card, you could just use a master/slave setup on an IDE channel. You obviously need a cable that has two IDE connectors, then you need to swich the jumpers on one of the two drives from "Master" to "Slave". That will allow two devices to communicate on once channel. You do pay a performance price for this this type of setup but for a temporary solution...it works!
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If you can afford to get two identical Hard Drives, it's worth it. It will make it so you can transfer data to and from the hard drives a lot faster.
It can be done with two hard drives that are not identical, but I've heard it causes serious problems.
It can be done with two hard drives that are not identical, but I've heard it causes serious problems.
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Re: Re: How do you run more than 4 IDE Devices?
His problem is that he has already done that with all his connectors. He probably has two IDE headers, each with two drives.
WillysNut said:
Other then spending money on a card, you could just use a master/slave setup on an IDE channel. You obviously need a cable that has two IDE connectors, then you need to swich the jumpers on one of the two drives from "Master" to "Slave". That will allow two devices to communicate on once channel. You do pay a performance price for this this type of setup but for a temporary solution...it works!
His problem is that he has already done that with all his connectors. He probably has two IDE headers, each with two drives.
Re: Re: Re: How do you run more than 4 IDE Devices?
His sig says he has an AK35 "GTR" ...the R meaning RAID. The board has 4 IDE connectors so he could have more than 4 devices with a Master/Slave setup. Not sure though how IRQ's come into play and what the top limit is.
Darrenct said:
His sig says he has an AK35 "GTR" ...the R meaning RAID. The board has 4 IDE connectors so he could have more than 4 devices with a Master/Slave setup. Not sure though how IRQ's come into play and what the top limit is.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: How do you run more than 4 IDE Devices?
Oops, I didn't see that... On my Soyo Dragon+ with RAID, I can use all my RAID headers as normal IDE headers if I change one of the pins on the Mobo, so...
Customring, Read the Manual of the Motherboard, It should tell you how to use the RAID headers as IDE connectors. If you've already done so, use Willy's Nut's first suggestion.
WillysNut said:
Oops, I didn't see that... On my Soyo Dragon+ with RAID, I can use all my RAID headers as normal IDE headers if I change one of the pins on the Mobo, so...
Customring, Read the Manual of the Motherboard, It should tell you how to use the RAID headers as IDE connectors. If you've already done so, use Willy's Nut's first suggestion.
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- Oct 25, 2001
Garfield said:
As DarrenCT said, it's a huge performance gain. I highly recommend it. You won't be let down. For the price, it's one of the biggest performance improvements you can make on your computer. I'll never build a main rig without RAID ever again. Next is U320 SCSI RAID!
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donny_paycheck said:
Oh my... With that kind of speed you could take over the world!
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- Mar 13, 2001
Garfield said:
if all you want is additonal sotrage there are cheaper ways to do it than raid
raid like said above is just for speed or redundancy
if you just get a ide control card you will be able to put another 4 hard drives or whatever on your system
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So RAID aren't just for hard drives? What other devices can you put for them?
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RAID will only work for Hard Drives. You will need an ordinary IDE card to add things such as CD-Roms.
A U320 SCSI RAID, is just a couple of really really really fast hard drives plugged in to a really really really fast RAID controller.
A U320 SCSI RAID, is just a couple of really really really fast hard drives plugged in to a really really really fast RAID controller.
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Isn't SCSI it's own port? I'm not sure...
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WillysNut, ya beat me to it! I was going to offer the same info, although I was going to use my own personal favorite RAID FAQ although it's not as geared toward the layman. I refer to the same SCSI FAQ often.
Garfield you are correct. SCSI is it's own interface bus. It's totally independent of IDE and totally different. You can hook up more than drives to a SCSI bus though. Printers, scanners, UPS controllers, any type of high end hardware usually has a SCSI interface option or variant. It isn't a type of RAID array, it's the method with which the drives use to communicate with the controller. I won't reiterate what others have said because they've done it so well. If you want to get down and dirty with it then head on over to the links we've posted and you'll get filled to the brim with all the info you can take.
If you want to run an ATA RAID stripe set, I recommend getting a Promise Fastrak add-in PCI RAID card for about $50 but probably less (I haven't bought one, mine is onboard). They make cheap but effective 2 channel ATA RAID cards and also a 4 channel version too, which in theory should get you double the speed of a 2 drive, 2 channel RAID 0 stripe set, but with 4 hard drives, or quadruple the speed of a single ATA drive.
Garfield you are correct. SCSI is it's own interface bus. It's totally independent of IDE and totally different. You can hook up more than drives to a SCSI bus though. Printers, scanners, UPS controllers, any type of high end hardware usually has a SCSI interface option or variant. It isn't a type of RAID array, it's the method with which the drives use to communicate with the controller. I won't reiterate what others have said because they've done it so well. If you want to get down and dirty with it then head on over to the links we've posted and you'll get filled to the brim with all the info you can take.
If you want to run an ATA RAID stripe set, I recommend getting a Promise Fastrak add-in PCI RAID card for about $50 but probably less (I haven't bought one, mine is onboard). They make cheap but effective 2 channel ATA RAID cards and also a 4 channel version too, which in theory should get you double the speed of a 2 drive, 2 channel RAID 0 stripe set, but with 4 hard drives, or quadruple the speed of a single ATA drive.
