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rotuts · Jan 28, 2006, 05:12 AM

Hello

Id like some help in upgrading my HD’s in my main faster slots on one of my G4dual 1gz. In the info it says I have a ATA-3 bus ( two cd/dvd’s there) and a ATA-6 bus, with two drives in there. The ATA-4 bus is empty.

I was thinking of some ATA-133 in the faster ATA-6 bus, but on the ads for the drives it says they are for ATA-7.

Therefore, what is the fastest ATA (EIDE) drives I can put in the ATA-6 bus on this computer? Is ATA-133 too fast for this bus?

its the mirrored door G4 windtunnel but not the last one where the ATA bus is I think faster.

Thanks

rotuts

OreoCookie · Jan 28, 2006, 06:43 AM

Have you checked the Storage FAQ sticky thread?

bowwowman · Jan 28, 2006, 06:44 AM

Dont worry about it, since ATA 133 is the fastest PATA drives you can get anyways, and they are backwards-compatible with the slower busses, and will automatically run only as fast (or slow) as the bus allows them to......

chefpastry · Jan 28, 2006, 08:16 AM

Yes, bowwowman is correct. Any ATA133 or ATA100 drive will work fine. Just move one of the two drives you currently have in there to the ATA66 bus (under the optical drive bays) and put your new drive on the ATA100 bus.

rotuts · Jan 28, 2006, 08:21 AM

thanks sorry I misseed the sticky. but Im more confused: the machine came with a drive in the ATA-66 bus, and I assume this is the fastest. the bay under the CD/DVD-R drives is the ATA-4. does anyone know the speed of these bus's? what is ATA-7 that the ad seemed to think was neecxed for the ATA133? is the card and this computer too slow for the max speed of a ATA-133 drive? what sort of boot and preformance whill I get with two 133 drives in the ata-66 bus?

cheeers and thanks

rotut

chefpastry · Jan 29, 2006, 06:40 AM

The ATA bus used by the optical drives is ATA-33.

The ATA bus underneath the optical drives is ATA-66.

The ATA bus behind both of the above is ATA-100.

I don't know about benchmarks, but, as far as I know, there are few if any hard drives that can saturate an ATA-100 bus. Some of the newer drives may be able to saturate the ATA-66 bus now, though, but I don't think it's by much. I've booted up from both buses and honestly can not tell the difference.

However, if you decided to set up a RAID 0 array, things may change.

bowwowman · Jan 29, 2006, 07:20 AM

putting the ATA/133 drives on the ATA/66 bus will NOT get you any performance advantage. So put them on the ATA/100 bus and get as much out of them as you can.

Or you could always buy an ATA/133 pci controller card and connect them to it for the best possible performance. But if you are inclined to go that route, you might as well step up to Serial ATA-2 drives & card, which have over 3x the (theoretical) performance of ATA/100 setups......

rotuts · Jan 29, 2006, 01:08 PM

I think I have the G4 rev that does not have a ata-100 bus, which came a year later. I have the ata-6, the bus the main HD was on, the ata-3, for the optical drives, and beneath that the ata-4.

im trying to find out the speeds of the fastest, the ata-6. Im betting unless i hear otherwise that this bus is slower than the ATA-133 drives. the next G4 rev has a faster bus I think.

too bad its so confusing. can't find anywhere the speeds of these bus's

cheers. any further thought?

rotuts