Stuck at IDE ATA-66

OvenMaster

OvenMaster

VIP Member
I've got two ATA-100 hard drives that won't even reach 50MB/sec transfer rates... HDTach says I'm getting around 35MB/sec or so.

SiSoft Sandra and XP's Device Manager say my IDE interface is at ATA-66. I'm using 80-wire IDE cables, the latest VIA chipset drivers, and a motherboard rated for ATA-100. BIOS is set on Auto-recognition. Setting the Device Manager to PIO, rebooting, setting to re-detect and reopening it still says ATA-66.

What am I missing here? This bottleneck is starting to pi$$ me off.
 
What's the spindle speed on those drives? I assume the 80GB is 7200 but the 20GB might be 5400. What burst speed do you get?
 
Both are 5400's with 2MB buffers :(
HD Tach says the burst speed on the Maxtor is 63.7MB/sec, the WD gets 55.7MB/sec.
I just took a look at the data sheet for the Maxtor: Data Transfer to/from the media is rated at 46.4MB/sec, and maximum sustained at the outside diameter is just 39.3MB/sec.
I think I've discovered the bottlenecks: the HD's themselves, probably. I guess I can't get blood from stones and it doesn't matter that my interface is stuck at ATA-66.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top