>> Anyone on the list have experience with these newer drives? What >> advantage(s) do they have over UltraATA-133 drives. OWC has a PCI >> controller card. > > I'd like to know as well. Only thing is whether a PCI Mac's slower PCI > bus can take advantage of one. My 9600/g4/450 has a Sonnet Tempo ATA66 > card with Maxtor 30GB 7200rpm drive and it benchmarks at around > 32MB/sec. read, well short of the theoretical 66MB/sec. max. I gather a > SATA card and drive wouldn't fare much better due to the bottleneck. > Has anyone benchmarked a SATA card and drive in a PCI Mac?
In my 8600 I have an acard ATA 100+ with 3 hard drives and my LG burner. They are all 7200rpm and from different manufactures (IBM, Maxtor, Western Dig.). They all benchmark pretty much the same as above, so I agree that the motherboard must be the bottleneck. The only advantage I would see is the cables are a lot thinner and allow for easier routing and air flow. At OWC the firmteck card is only $67.95 so even with the slightly higher price for the drives you would gain the benefits I mention. On the other hand you can only connect 2 drives. So in a 9600 with 6 PCI slots it would probably be OK but in a 7?00, 8?00 or beige G3 series with only 3 PCI slots it would limit your expansion. -- PCI-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PCI-PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/pci-powermacs.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/pci-powermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
