Additional disk controller for home pc

[jonwolds]

Current set up: P4 2.4ghz, 1gig ram,

The 3 physical IDE hard disks and dvd writer are set up as follows:

1st channel
C: WinXP - master (80g)
F: My Documents - slave (200g)

2nd channel
D: Program Files - master (80g)
E: DVD Writer - slave

I am getting some performance problems, which I think are caused by the multiple disks sharing the same channels. If I buy a new disk controller with 2 new channels and move 2 disks onto these should it help reduce queued read/writes to the disks?

Thanks
Jon

 

[ski]

What is the nature of the performance problems?

Do the problems happen when you just access the program files on drive D while not using the DVD drive or accessing drive F?
If so, then is drive D connected with an 80 wire IDE cable, and is it configured with the correct DMA setting?(The same goes for drive F)

 

[rvnguy]

jonwolds,

I am getting some performance problems

I take it that you are refering to read/write speed hits.
As these calls occur over the PCI bus via the south bridge, I do not think you will see a major difference. Calls will remain "queued" as you call it, for all PCI traffic. As these PCI traffic items are processed at rates much higher than normal HD seek times I actually don't think that is what your road block is.

I would check each of your drive specs for DMA mode supported. Then in BIOS set the drive access mode accordingly. See if this helps at all.

Post back with more specifics as to what behaviour you are seeing.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[jonwolds]

Usually I am operating my pc with the following running:

Virus Scanner
Music playing through Itunes
Ripping music
File sharing app running

Opening a window in XP, an IE browser or Outlook can take a good 30-60 seconds.

Also even when very little is running on the PC Itunes stutters quite often when tracks are playing.

I do not think there is a memory issue as the Commit Charge (K) Peak is never above 750 meg. The processor also never seems to max out.

Forgive the terminology but as I understand it 2 drives sharing the same ide cable can not work simultaneously. My thinking was that a new controller would increase parallelism.

Thanks
Jon

 

[ski]

Shut down everything including the music, and see what happens when you single task, i.e., run an application, or browse the Web, or do e-mail, etc.

 

[PRPhx]

When was the last time you defragged your hard drives? Have you ever run chkdsk on them to see if there were any problems?

Also, as part of on going maint. you should clean the registry, clean out .bak, .log, .tmp files, etc. There are several programs that will do this for you. Then do a defrag.

 

[jonwolds]

When nothing is running on the system, performance is fine (except Itunes still stutters).

The hard drives are regularly defragged and checked for errors.

The system in general runs fine, it's just when all disks are in use there is a bottleneck, which I thought an addtional disk controller may relieve.

 

[ski]

Is the antivirus program still running in the background?

 

[jonwolds]

Yes

 

[ski]

Turn it off like I previously suggested("shut down everything including the music"), and see if that helps.

 

[jonwolds]

("When nothing is running on the system, performance is fine (except Itunes still stutters).")

 

[jurgen36]

Well I do believe Itunes is the problem, shut it down and see what happens. I-tunes can take a hell of a lot of processor power.
Regards

Jurgen

 

[rvnguy]

jonwolds,

I do not use ITunes, so enlighten me:

Are you getting this "stuttering", when playing a CD source for music or when playing something like a MP3 file from the HD?

I realize that you are theorizing that the "stuttering" is caused from over taxing the system. I think? Or you might see this as a separate problem as you have stated that processor use is minimal. I place this as caused from a separate distinct problem, One not related to what you state as a "performance problem".

it's just when all disks are in use there is a bottleneck

If you can please describe in detail what it is that you are doing and what it is that you see that gives you the impression there is a "bottleneck".

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[ski]

When you said that the AV program was still running in the background, I interpreted that as meaning that it was never shut down during your troubleshooting, and hence the reason for my response in my previous post.

 

[jonwolds]

I think the problem was being caused by data being written onto the same drive that Itunes was reading from. I will monitor this to confirm the problem has been solved.

Thank you all for your help.

Jon

 

[firewolfrl]

What Motherboard are you running?
does it use the NVIDIA chipset?
there is a known issue with the NVIDIA chipset and audio play back stutter.
if you have a spare drive load xp and all the drivers on the drive and load your audio program and see if it stutters.

I had this issue and a clean install cleaned it up.
this can also happen when using the manufacturer's drivers for the IDE. sometimes the Microsoft drivers are better(This is the case with NVIDIA IDE). though I will admit I am using the NVIDIA driver with no issues right now.

sound stutter can happen from totally unrelated reasons. from AGP BUS timing to network card sharing the same PCI BUS.

go into the BIOS and in the PCI BUS section (goes under different names & some don't display the share)
look and see what is sharing the PCI BUS IRQ for your Audio. it may be as simple as plugging in the card that is sharing into a new PCI slot.


good luck