SIIG 133 IDE/ATA controller (or other...) |
May, 31, 2003 10:59 AM |
bondtrails |
Hi all you good people, My Umax S900 is humming along quite nicely with Jaguar OS X Server (10.2.6), a NewerTech G3 333 Mhz Card, ATI Rage 128 Card, and 640 Meg of RAM, USB Card, Firewire Card. I would like to upgrade it to be able to use IDE ATA drives (because they are cheaper and of higher storage than SCSI). I'm not sure what controller card to get. I've been told to look out for certain things: - That it can boot into OS X - That it can handle larger drives (greater than 137 gig) - That it doesn't require to partition the first 8gig. So having said that, I see the SIIG 133 IDE/ATA card being sold right here on OWC for a decent price. Can anyone recommend this card? Or any other card that hasn't posed a problem? --Bondster!! |
. |
RE: SIIG 133 IDE/ATA controller (or other...) |
June, 01, 2003 3:18 PM |
mjoecups358 |
. |
The siig card boots, and supports large drives, although I haven't installed onto one with the installer, so I don't know if the installer complains about the first 8 gig issue. It certainly boots and runs with a larger partition. Marty |
. |
RE: SIIG 133 IDE/ATA controller (or other...) |
June, 01, 2003 12:42 PM |
ian |
. |
Well, gregoryy is pretty much dead on. The Promise chipset is a straight ATA card, and the system sees the drives as ATA. This would allow you to connect, say, a Pioneer DVD-R/W drive and use iDVD. I believe that the Sonnet card is a Promise-based card. SIIG cards are ACARD chipsets, and they do a conversion to SCSI. While you use ATA drives on the card, the computer sees them as SCSI devices. I am not sure what the speed difference is, but it looks like the ACARD-based cards are less expensive. Because the computer sees SCSI drives when using the ACARD, the 8GB limitation is eliminated, making the ACARD attractive. However, if you want to use iDVD, the Promise card is the way to go. I personally have a SIIG ATA/133 card and love it. Your mileage may vary. http://frankenmac.ath.cx |
. |
RE: SIIG 133 IDE/ATA controller (or other...) |
May, 31, 2003 11:59 AM |
gregoryy |
. |
Make sure that it supports the drive you plan to use, ie, if WD Caviar Special Edition series, and whether you want RAID version (not as much benefit). Have you started over at the drive upgrade database on www.xlr8yourmac.com? Also search on ACard and SIIG, there seem to be some minor differences, even though they are basically the same chip and card. I think some Sonnet (Promise chip?) controllers are IDE so that you can use ATAPI devices (CDRW etc) might require 8GB but otherwise, you shouldn't have to. Tempo Trio? so you can free up PCI slots? You sure you don't want your system on one of the new 10K.6 Cheetahs, now that they are down to $169 in 36GB capactiy (69MB/s as well as quiet(er). |
|
|