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Daryl · Jul 18, 2003, 04:37 AM

Hi

I have a QuickSilver 733 mhz PowerMac with a an ATA 66 bus supporting two hard drives.
I have heard that the ATA 66 bus will only support hard drives up to a certain size.
Can anyone confirm this?
If there is a limit, does it apply in total to the ATA 66 bus?
What would be the limit for a master/slave combination?

Thanks

Eriamjh · Jul 18, 2003, 05:24 AM

Yes. Up to 127GB. Do a search.

awcopus · Jul 18, 2003, 09:10 AM

Daryl, that's true, but if you buy the Sonnet Tempo ATA/133 card, you can support the largest driveson the market in your enclosure, and they'll be on a faster bus than Apple's.

Good luck.

Daryl · Jul 18, 2003, 02:57 PM

How is this limit applied?
Is it in total across the bus, or individually per hard drive?
I currently have a 40g hard drive that came with the computer.
I am considering an additional 120g WD SE w/8 mb cache.
Would this combination work as master/slave setup?
I may well lok into an ATA 133 card, how much of a difference would this make, speed & capacity wise?

Thanks

Xaositect · Jul 18, 2003, 03:06 PM

127GB per drive.

There are supposedly some logic boards that support 42bit LBA, thus will support the larger drives. They were only in the second set (I believe, based on your processor, you have one from the first set).

I recommend you set the 120 as master, the 40 as slave, as the newer drive in the master position tends (not always, but tends) to be more stable. You can still boot from the 40 if you want, but I recommend the 120 as your boot drive as it will be faster.

awcopus · Jul 18, 2003, 07:16 PM

Daryl, omygodwhatadifferenceitmakes.

The Sonnet Tempo is cheap, it enables you to use a 250 GB WD drive (wow) and, if you connect two drives to it you've got a lot of storage online at the same bandwidth as your boot disk.

I recommend calling Sonnet and asking if the Sonnet Tempo ATA/133 now ships with firmware upgraded to support drives larger than 137. I had to download a firmware upgrade to gain this functionality. It was a painless one-time thing and my 200 GB drives have worked flawlessly as DV scratch discs for over half a year. As I recall, the firmware had to be installed from booting up in OS 9. But again, they've probably got the cards shipping upgraded by now. Research: http://www.sonnettech.com

This is a no-brainer. Beats the expandability of the G5 handily. Purchase, implement, do not look back.

MilkmanDan · Jul 21, 2003, 10:14 PM

I know for a fact, as in its here next to me, that you get a free ATA 133 PCI Card with a western digital 200 GIG HD. I've yet to try it with my beige G3 Server under OS 10.2, but the chipset on the card is the same as some other cards that are supported under 10.2.

Must actually try it out.

awcopus · Jul 21, 2003, 10:29 PM

MilkMan, you're right. Because I purchased the Sonnet simultaneous with my extra internal drives, I basically never tried that included card out.

Even if it works, I'd got with Sonnet. When Panther comes out, if it's necessary to perform firmware upgrades, Sonnet is there for me. It's worth the $100 for that alone.

-Adam

Eriamjh · Jul 22, 2003, 05:57 AM

Other than being able to use the larger drives, I doubt you'll see any speed/performance increases unless you set up a raid.