Dell Dimension 8100 PCI slot specs for controller cards

[videomaker]

I'm looking to add 2 harddrives for video editing to my Dell 8100 with a Maxtor Ultra ATA 133 PCI adapter/Controller Card but one of it's requirements is a PCI 2.1 expansion slot which I'm not sure it has (it has 4 available PCI slots). I checked everywhere, does anyone know off hand if they are 2.1?

Point is, I'd like to add the fastest drives possible to this system and it *seems* ATA/133 EIDE is my only option but I'd like to make sure the PCI slots are up to the controller card before making that investment.

FYI: I will be loading win 98SE since that is the best OS for operating the Matrox 2000 editing system (according to it's specs).

 

[paparazi]

I'm pretty sure this PCI 2.1 standard is just the latest spec and all modern mainboards with standard PCI slots are this.

I will just point out:
The PATA version of the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 is actually one of the slower drives available.
Don't let the ATA133 label kid you! this is just the speed of the interface and the majority of ATA100 drives actually beat the Maxtor.
See this review:
Note* Parallel speeds not serial where the Maxtor performs better.

http://techreport.com/reviews/2003q1/ata-comparo/index.x?pg=1

This review is over a year old and newer products maybe quicker but my point is don't be fooled by the ATA133 banner, most modern hard drives only have a sustained transfer rate of around 60mb/sec with max burst below 100mb/sec so they don't take advantage of this percieved faster interface speed.

Martin

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[videomaker]

Thanks Martin,

Not that I'm big on Maxtor (had a bad experience w/one of their drives once) but that particular controller card seemed to offer the most options in terms of channels (4 vs. 2 that I've seen everywhere else) -- honestly, I don't believe I need more than two additional (for video and audio each). So would you (and anyone else reading this) recommend just getting an ATA 100 controller card and similar drives?

Another issue was the drive size; would I have to be concerned about the limitations of my system? I was considering getting two 160gigs or one 160 and one 120. Currently I have a 330watt power supply although I won't be rendering any heavy effects while editing.