johnnyMon

Hi Everyone, If anyone can help me with this I'd be really greatful. I bought a WD 500GB drive and an Icy Dock eSATA/USB enclosure. It came with an adapter, a SATA cable to plug into the mobo connected to an eSATA (external SATA) back panel jack. When I have it connected, my system won't boot. The BIOS recognizes the IDE drives, then when it usually says it's detecting the SATA drives, now it says Detecting IDE drives... then it hangs. The drive does work fine connected via USB. But I really want the eSATA speed. I have tried the drive in another SATA port that works fine with one of my internal drives - the same thing happens. I have both SATA 1/2 and 3/4 enabled in BIOS. I have the PCI speed set to 100MHz. The one thing I can't test is whether the drive will hang the system when it's attached directly to the mobo as an internal drive. The drive only has SATA power and I have only molex power connectors. Setup in my sig. Thanks for any help!!

^ Maybe I should install the Nvidia IDE SW driver? Gurus here say not to install it if I'm not running RAID, but maybe it will make a difference. Right now I'm pretty sure Windows sees my Raptor as an IDE drive. I would need to image my hard drive first in case it messes something up. I've read a few horror stories about this driver, but that was a little while ago.

Thanks ExRoadie.

OK, if you can stop laughing long enough , is there anything I can do to improve these scores? :confused: I'm not using the Nvidia IDE SW drivers; maybe they might be faster? I also could try a different cable or a different SATA port on the mobo. WD says this drive should have sustained read speeds of 84mb/s, and I'm getting about 74. I could exchange the drive to see if a replacement's better, but I'm out of my RMA window. I wish I'd read this $**#&$ thread so I could have gone the RAID route!

Yeah, its overhead been getting worse every year. I finally dumped it and am using ZoneAlarm Security Suite. So far so good...

Do I have to use RAID to post my benchmarks here? My single-drive scores are terrible for my Raptor 150GB. I have a post today on the NF4 board, and no one responded. If I post to this thread, can anyone help me figure out if there's a way to increase my performance?

After further research, I'm pretty sure I don't see the controller because I didn't install the Nvidia IDE SW driver (as per the recommendation on this forum if you're not running RAID, which I'm not). But this means Windows sees the SATA drive as a PATA drive and I don't have access to the controls. I've read reports of people having data corruption with the IDE SW driver, and others saying the current version works fine for them. I've put a lot of work into this system so far, software-wise, and while I can back up my disk, I really don't want to have to start from scratch if something goes wrong. At the same time, my system doesn't feel nearly as fast as it should given my hardware, and I think the problem is in my HD subsystem. I've read here that the Sil SATA controller is not fast. If that's the controller on my Ultra-D, and if this is true, I'll be really bummed. I could have saved big $$$ by not buying the Raptor and my other SATA drives if IDE drives would be faster! EDITED TO ADD: I just read the RAID Benchmark thread. I wish I'd seen it before I bought my system. One of the recent posters is using 2x80GB Hitachi drives that cost $50 each on NewEgg, and his scores are 47% higher than mine. I could have saved $200 and gotten 47% higher performance! Short of getting another drive, which I can't buy right now, is there anything I can do to increase my performance?

The OCZ people have a close relationship with DFI, spending time working on BIOS revisions and giving close support for memory issues. So naturally people here are going to recommend OCZ, because they know it works and the support is good. But I'm sure Mushkin would work just as well for ya. My Mushkin PC4000 (DDR500) works great for me, although it would not overclock past DDR530, so I had to put it on a divider. But for all I know, the OCZ at the same price would run at the same speed.

I'm not getting the performance I expected from my new 150GB Raptor. Sandra2005 reports the drive at 73mb/s, which it charts comparatively low. Sandra suggests that acoustic management is on, and says this could hurt its performance. Also, I'd like to turn off NCQ, as the StorageReview.com test of this drive shows lower single-user perf with that feature on. However, when I look for the control, I can't find it. In Device Manager, I have 9 IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers: 3 each of Primary IDE Channel, Secondary IDE Channel, and Standard Dual Channel PCI. But none relating to my SATA controller. I can't find that controller anywhere in Device Manager. When I installed my nvidia 6.70 driver, I said "no" to the option of installing the IDE SW driver. Is this the driver which will give me access to my SATA drive settings? Any other suggestions for improving my drive performance (other than RAID)? Thanks for any help!

UPS is extremely reliable where I live (L.A.). I've shipped outbound packages with them for 10 years for my business several times a week and in all that time they've never lost a single one. I hear horror stories from time to time (just go on the audiophile forums to hear about damaged equipment), but for me UPS is like a fine Swiss watch (and Newegg, too). Good luck with your replacement board, tho! I hope they take good care of you. It sucks to spend big $$$ and wait for it then not get your product!

^ You still did better than me, mursaat. I have the same stepping 165 as you, and I am at 9*287 at 1.513v. Core 0 is my weak core as well. I was hoping for 2700 at 1.45v like some of them out there. Oh well.

What PSU are you using? Have you connected all four recommended connectors to your mobo (24 pin, 4 pin, 4 pin molex, floppy connector)? See this thread for more on the power connections, complete with photos.

Can I still find the starting high-point of my CPU by using SuperPi on my Opty 165 per the "Definitive" OC sticky-post? Or does that procedure not work as well for dual core CPUs? Should I be running two instances of SuperPi as I'm finding the max of my CPU? Or one of OCCT? Thanks!

I have the SI-120 and chose the Silverstone FM121 fan. It's 16 bucks and comes with a controller that fits in a 3.5" bay. I don't run a floppy, so I just put it there. It's not the most perfect fit in the 3.5" slot, but my case has a front door, so it's only visible when I have the door open (it's a bit set back from being flush with the front). I can turn it up if needed, otherwise I have it running silent at my currently-stock speeds and I have great temps. Newegg - Silverstone FM121

Awesome!