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EES1

30 Posts

16811

March 27th, 2007 15:00

SATA dvd writer on 8400 SATA Raid1

I have the following configuration just now:
 
Dimension 8400 with A09 BIOS
3 GB ddr2 ram
ATI Radeon X800 XT
3 SATA WD 160 GB disks, 2 of them in RAID1
DVD reader Liteon JLMS XJ-HD166 slave on IDE
DVD writer  LG H10N master on the same IDE
USB devices: Canon printer, Epson scanner,...
Firewire ocassionally: video camera, mp3 jukebox,...
XP Home SP2 full updated
 
Everything runs ok, and the only point is that writing on the flight dvd to dvd 16x takes almost 30 min. The reason seems to be that both devices are on the same IDE bus. But my system only has one.
 
So, if I should change my dvd writer in the future should be better to move to a SATA one, I think, as I have one SATA port unused. But I really don't know if this is a good solution, as I read about compatibility problems between optical SATA devices and motherboards, mainly in raid configurations, maybe because of RAID controllers thought for hard disks more than for other devices.
 
One question is: would the SATA dvd writer depend on Intel Application Accelerator, that is now my sata raid controller? Are the compatibilty problems mentioned a real issue? What sata dvd writer would be appropriate?
 
I will appreciate any comment on this.
Thanks. Esteban.
 

Predator

15.3K Posts

March 27th, 2007 16:00




Hi EES1,

In theory all you should have to do is enter the BIOS and turn the SATA controller on you wish to use, then attach your SATA optical drive.
Will you see a speed difference in the drives compared to SATA v PATA, considering SATA I is 150 / PATA is 133, in the real world slightly maybe but most of the time no. However speaking of copying disc to disc, separating them, one on SATA and one on PATA channel, yes you should see a good difference.
As for the UDMA modes, the PATA devices have pretty much run their limit, that is the reason for the big push on SATA. Although some say support for UDMA mode 4, 5, do they really reach that, hard to say, usually UDMA-2 is the best you will get out of ATAPI devices (Again SATA is suppose to change that)
I used a ASUS motherboard on my last system, SATA hard drives but what I liked about the board, it still supported two IDE channels, a Primary and Secondary, the Plextor 708a is the only drive on the Primary channel and Device Manager is saying UDMA-5, now is this drive actually runing in that mode, I doubt it.
My Sony CD/RW is on the Secondary Channel, Master for both both drives. To play around, I tested the system bye creating a video file, opened Roxio, selected the Plextor and started the burn. Then opened Music Match, selected a playlist, popped a CD-R in the Sony and started the burn with it. Both drives worked fine and the discs completed with no errors.
Sorry for rambling but what I am getting at, separating them, whether one on SATA or a PCI card if you have an open slot, would do a good job for what you want I believe.

Best Regards!



God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones I do and the eyesight to tell the
difference.

CD/RW Link

EES1

30 Posts

March 27th, 2007 17:00

So, you mean that just enabling the SATA dvd/rw on Bios would be enough and then WinXp will recognize it, and any cd/dvd writing program such as Recordnow 7 or 1click dvd copy that I use will work with it without problem? That's good. No relationship to IAA though I have raid1 for 2 of my three disks? Perfect.
 
My idea was to separate dvd reader and writer on two different channels. That's right. And I remembered that I have one sata port unused, but other solution would have been to buy a PCI-IDE controller card and change one of both devices there. Both solutions would cost around 30-50 euros and I thought that the SATA one don't add more hardware to the MB, so no extra power needed.
 
Any idea on what solution should I choose?
Thanks
 
 

Predator

15.3K Posts

March 27th, 2007 23:00




Hi EES1,

I totally forgot this, I have an article from one our Members Andrew, on installing a SATA DVD/RW drive in his Dell 8400. The site has grown so much, I tend to lose site of all the articles.
Please click on the CD/RW link in my post and scroll to Section 4-0, article 12. See what you think.
If you were ever to consider another hard drive, then going with the PCI card would be your best bet for the IDE (PATA) optical drives but that is just my dime and worth about a nickel ;) !!

Best Regards



God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones I do and the eyesight to tell the
difference.

CD/RW Link


EES1

30 Posts

March 28th, 2007 23:00

I have opened the 8400 box and checked if I had any available PCI slot, and discovered there is only one PCIe 1x that is useless for what I want, I am afraid. So, if I want to separate dvd-reader and dvd-writer that now share the only IDE channel, one option would be to buy a SATA dvd burner and plug it to the fourth empty SATA slot.
 
Could anyone confirm, please, if a SATA dvd burner would be compatible with the BIOS specifying SATA operation=RAID On (as it is now)? (Or should I change it to RAID autodetect/AHCI (no??) or to RAID Autodetect/ATA (maybe??)).
 
Would it be possible otherwise to connect in some way, externally or better internally, the IDE dvd reader to an unused USB or Firewire port, that I have free? Is there any hardware providing this kind of conversion?
 
Thanks

Predator

15.3K Posts

March 29th, 2007 18:00




Hi EES1,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you but I believe Dale~Majestic may have addressed your issues with your post on the Dim-BIOS board. Dale is an excellent VIP and I believe covered your questions, hope it was helpful.


Best Regards!



God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones I do and the eyesight to tell the
difference.

CD/RW Link

EES1

30 Posts

March 29th, 2007 19:00

Yes, he did it. Thanks anyway. I decided to ask the question in the other forum when I realize that maybe the main question was closely related to BIOS. I hope this is not an inconvenience, and sorry if it was. I am not very used to the forum procedures.
 
The answer was that he does not see any problem in plugging the burner to the SATA port, the same as I have a disk not in raid and two in raid1. Tomorrow I will buy the burner. I am willing to check that configuration.
 
My fears came from an old thread in this forum. Someone spoke of that possible incompatibility and the question was not answered. Now I am very confident that it will work.
 
By the way, I had thought to buy a NEC AD-7170S. Other possibilties I have are Samsung SH-S183L or LiteOn SH-16A7S (and LG GSA-H30N or Asus DRW-1814BLT waiting some days, not available just now). Is that a good choice? Any other?
 
Thanks a lot

Predator

15.3K Posts

March 30th, 2007 01:00




Hi Esteban,

You will find that the majority of the Regular Members here with a few years and 6,000 + posts work well together and most of us can call each other friends. So seeking help from another board related to the issue is fine. Many times we may be already speaking to each other on a subject. Both Dale & Ron are great guys.

The Lite-on or the NEC would be my choice of the ones you listed. Good luck and keep us posted...
I m going on alittle trip, so will not be back until late Sunday, however I will check back.



God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones I do and the eyesight to tell the
difference.

CD/RW Link

EES1

30 Posts

April 6th, 2007 01:00

I finally bought the NEC AD-7170S sata burner; installation was clean, no problems at all, and now the time to copy a 4,7 GB from verbatim +rw 4x to verbatim +r 16x has been reduced from 25 min to 14. I believe this is a very good performance now.
 
So, thanks for your help.
Esteban

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