Ata Speeds - Many Questions....

[Dreaded Lurgee]

Help!

I've built myself a nice cheap little system :-

MSI 6339 i850 Pro board
P4 (skt423) 1.7
2 x 256 PC800 Rambus
1x Maxtor AT133 60gig (6Y060L0)
1x Wester Digital ATA100 80gig (WDC WD800BB-00DKA0)
1x MSI 8348 43x16x48 CD/RW
1x ARTEC 16X DVD Rom
Silicon Image SiI 680 Ultra-133 RAID Controller
XP Pro (SP1)

I have them set up as follows at present - Maxtor on the SiI's Primary channel, WD on the SiI's secondary, CD/RW on the motherboards primary and the DVD on the secondary. And I'm using ATA133 rated cables.

The HD's are set up as standard IDE (will use the RAID functionality when I can afford more drives)

The problem seems to be the transfer speeds. I was under the impression that ATA133 meant (up to)133MB/s. Is this wrong as HDTach says that the max transfer rate for the Maxtor is 49611kps(average 39800kps) and the WD is 58157kps (average 48000kps). I've copied/pasted the info on the drives given by the SiICFg utility that came with the card below (makes no sense to me).

Should my drives not be quicker than this???
How do I make them quicker?
Also, why do the drives capacities not match what they should be (Maxtor is 58644MB, WD is 76319MB) ROBBED!
And my CD/DVD drives don't seem to sharp neither....

Thanks
DL.

SiICfg Configuration Information. 22-July-2003 20:58.43
SiICfg Version 1, 1, 0, 9

Computer Information -
Name MONKEY-E8387SSY
Windows NT 5.1
Service Pack 1

Adapter 0 Information -
Chip Model PCI-680
Chip Revision 0001
Chip Type RAID
Driver Status 0
Major Version 1
Minor Version 1
File Version UNKNOWN
File Date UNKNOWN
PCI IRQ 11
PCI Bus Number 2
PCI Device Number 1

Primary Channel Information -
IDE Base Address A000
Alt Base Address A402
DMA Base Address B000
80 Pin Cable Yes

Master Device Information -
Device Type Disk
Hot Spare No
Model Number Maxtor 6Y060L0
Firmware Version YAR41VW0
Serial Number Y2R20RZE
Current Mode UDMA 5
Supported Modes UDMA 6,UDMA 5,UDMA 4,UDMA 3,UDMA 2,UDMA 1,UDMA 0,MDMA 2,MDMA 1,MDMA 0,PIO 4,PIO 3,PIO 2,PIO 1,PIO 0,
Bytes\Interrupt N/A
Media Type Nonremovable
ATA Version ATA/ATAPI-7
SMART Support Yes
SMART Enabled Yes
SMART Status OK
Look-ahead Enabled
Write Cache Enabled
Capacity 58644 MB

Indentify Data -
0000 0040 3fff c837 0010 0000 0000 003f 0000
0008 0000 0000 3259 3252 5230 455a 2020 2020
0016 2020 2020 2020 2020 0003 1000 0039 4159
0024 3452 5631 3057 614d 7478 726f 3620 3059
0032 3036 304c 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020
0040 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 8010
0048 0000 2f00 4000 0200 0000 0007 3fff 0010
0056 003f fc10 00fb 0110 a120 0728 0000 0007
0064 0003 0078 0078 0078 0078 0000 0000 0000
0072 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0080 00fe 001e 7c6b 7b09 4003 7c69 3a01 4003
0088 207f 0000 0000 0000 fffe 600b c0fe 0000
0096 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0104 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0112 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0120 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0128 0001 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0136 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0144 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0001 0000
0152 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0160 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0168 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0176 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0184 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0192 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0200 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0208 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0216 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0224 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0232 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0240 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0248 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 6ea5

Slave Device Information -
Slave Not Present!!!

Secondary Channel Information -
IDE Base Address A800
Alt Base Address AC02
DMA Base Address B008
80 Pin Cable Yes

Master Device Information -
Device Type Disk
Hot Spare No
Model Number WDC WD800BB-00DKA0
Firmware Version 77.07W77
Serial Number WD-WCAHL2454607
Current Mode UDMA 5
Supported Modes UDMA 5,UDMA 4,UDMA 3,UDMA 2,UDMA 1,UDMA 0,MDMA 2,MDMA 1,MDMA 0,PIO 4,PIO 3,PIO 2,PIO 1,PIO 0,
Bytes\Interrupt N/A
Media Type Nonremovable
ATA Version ATA/ATAPI-6
SMART Support Yes
SMART Enabled Yes
SMART Status OK
Look-ahead Enabled
Write Cache Enabled
Capacity 76319 MB

Indentify Data -
0000 427a 3fff 0000 0010 e100 0258 003f 0010
0008 0000 000e 4457 572d 4143 4c48 3432 3435
0016 3036 2037 2020 2020 0003 1000 004a 3737
0024 302e 5737 3737 4457 2043 4457 3038 4230
0032 2d42 3030 4b44 3041 2020 2020 2020 2020
0040 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 8010
0048 0000 2f00 4001 0280 0000 0007 3fff 0010
0056 003f fc10 00fb 0110 f8b0 0950 0000 0007
0064 0003 0078 0078 0078 0078 0000 0000 0000
0072 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0080 007e 0000 346b 7f01 4003 3469 3c01 4003
0088 203f 0000 0000 0000 0000 604b 80fe 0000
0096 0000 0000 0000 0000 f8b0 0950 0000 0000
0104 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0112 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0120 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0128 0001 0041 0000 0000 0000 0340 0000 0000
0136 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0002 0001
0144 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0152 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 001f
0160 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0168 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0176 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0184 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0192 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0200 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0208 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0216 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0224 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0232 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0240 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0248 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 a9a5

Slave Device Information -
Slave Not Present!!!

RIO information -
Major revision 1
Minor revision 1
Array conflicts No
Number of sets 0

 

[Erbmaster]

Had a quick look on the forums....
and found these two threads that should help

ATA Speeds defined in this thread
and,
Real HDD sizes explained here

Hope this helps mate

 

[Zedric]

To summarize:
1. The interface can handle up to 133 MB/s. The drives however never reach this except during data bursts from the cache.

2. Manufacturers count 1000 bytes = 1 kbyte.
Windows counts 1024 bytes = 1 kbyte. The latter is the correct way due to the nature of binary numbers.

 

[Dreaded Lurgee]

Thanks guys.

I must say though that I feel more than a little deceived.

I just wish that when the time comes for my boss to review salaries, he rounds it up in a similar fasion.

Cheers!

 

[Admiral Michael]

Put the two har drives on the primary IDE contoller and the cdrom on the secondary controller. You should not mix cdroms with hard drives on the same controller.

 

[jonifen]

The way I have my system set up is as follows...

Onboard Primary IDE - 40gb seagate ata100 (master)
Onboard Secondary IDE - 16x DVDROM (master) : 48x CDRW (slave)

RAID/ATA133 primary IDE - 80gb maxtor ata133 (master) : 30gb maxtor ata133 (slave)
RAID/ATA133 secondary IDE - 30gb quantum ata100 (master)


I've had problems with having the primary hdd on a ata controller card before and therefore wont do it again to avoid any similar problems as I had before. However, I wouldnt (or would try not to) mix up ata100 with ata133 on the same channel - I'm sure both drives would run at the slower speed.

 

[Admiral Michael]

sorry, I mis read ur orifinal post.

 

[Erbmaster]

Originally posted by jonifen
However, I wouldnt (or would try not to) mix up ata100 with ata133 on the same channel - I'm sure both drives would run at the slower speed.

You're right m8...they would

 

[Taurus]

Originally posted by jonifen
However, I wouldnt (or would try not to) mix up ata100 with ata133 on the same channel - I'm sure both drives would run at the slower speed.

not at all. windows will show different dma speeds for each drive on that channel in device manager...

 

[Erbmaster]

OK OK.... Re-read the above question.............

/Me saw RAID and assumed it was a JBOD array he wanted.

Even so, the drives are read/written to at different access
speeds, although in real terms this doesn't amount to a great deal.

In theory the transfer should be 133MB/s and 100MB/s but
these are burst transfer speeds.

Not many drives can transfer above 30MB/s sustained even
though they may be >=UDMA100 drives.

Provided the drives are of similar rotation speed (i.e.7200rpm)
and of equal size, be it UDMA33 or UDMA133 drives, the
performance difference is negligible.