Mark LaCoste Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 I might be ready to go for a second hard drive in my sooper dooper DAW. But some questions are coming up -- I'm sure many of you have had to answer them already for your own systems. 1. Two drives is the right way to go for a really decent DAW. One on each IDE channel. But wait! There's a burner playing "master" on the secondary IDE right now. If a second drive goes there as master, will the presence of the much slower burner effect performance? How are you guys doing this? (I know you have burners on your DAWs... c'mon, fess up). 2. What would be the impact if I had a 5200 rpm drive as primary master? Wouldn't a 7200 rpm drive (secondary IDE) be unaffected? It would be the audio drive. Would dropouts and such occur sooner because WinXP, Sonar, etc. would be on a slower drive? I have a GiggleBite of RAM... wouldn't XP, Sonar, and plugins be executing fro ram, making the speed of that 5200 rpm drive sort of irrelevant? 3. What is the airspeed of a southbound sparrow... oh never mind. -mark lacoste Rubber Lizard Studio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addix Metzatricity Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 [quote]Originally posted by Rubber Lizard: [b] I have a GiggleBite of RAM... wouldn't XP, Sonar, and plugins be executing fro ram, making the speed of that 5200 rpm drive sort of irrelevant?[/b][/quote]I'll only answer the one part that I can. Regardless of how much actual RAM you have, windows uses a certain percentage of your C: drive (or whichever drive Windows is on) as extra RAM... called Virtual Memory. In short... Yes. Windows running on a faster drive will make a difference. Whether you'll notice it or not, I don't know. It all depends on your machine and use. "Bass isn't just for breakfast anymore..." http://www.mp3.com/Addix_Metzatricity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark LaCoste Posted August 21, 2003 Author Share Posted August 21, 2003 Wow, quick reply, Addix! You have trouble sleeping? I'm aware of Virtual memory, but don't you use it less if you have adequate RAM to hold all your running apps? I'd like to find a utility that reports on virtual memory usage, so I can answer questions like this. It would come in handy at work, too. Oh, man, it's past my bedtime... best get under covers or a Wewus will get me. Times are so complicated now! I remember when our biggest problem was fear of lobsters under the bed, easily avoided if you could run and jump into bed from at least 3 feet away. But a Wewus could be anywhere... Rubber Lizard Studio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip OKeefe Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 Mark, you've probably got a primary and a secondary interface on your mobo. You can connect the C drive (system) to the primary as the master (end of cable), and the D drive (audio) as the slave (middle connector on the cable). You would then connect your burner and CD-ROM (ie any optical drives) as the master (and if you have two such drives) slave on the secondary interface. I'd advise against putting any optical drive on the same interface as a hard drive. Make sure you use good quality, 40 pin / 80 conductor cables, and that you have the jumpers on all the drives set appropriately - master or slave. I normally use these (as appropriate) and don't bother with CS (Cable select). A potentially better option (assuming you have the spare PCI slot and IRQ available) is to get something like a Promise IDE controller card. Then you'd put each drive (as master - using the end connector on the cables) on its own interface. But in actual practice, unless you're doing seriously heavy duty stuff, this isn't really a requirement. As far as the 5,400 RPM drive, use that as the C drive. A 7,200 RPM will probably speed things up a tad, but in actual practice, unless it's a really slow 5,400 drive, you shouldn't have any problems. You definitely want the audio drive spinning at 7,200 RPM - the faster the drive, the better the performance will be - more simultaneous tracks, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip OKeefe Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 Sorry, I'm not a Wewus. But as far as virtual memory, you want to set the min and max size to the same value. Some people will tell you that with a gig of ram you can set the values to zero, but that makes me nervous. But unless you're running several apps at once (or a ton of virtual instruments), you'll probably never hit the virtual memory with that much RAM. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Wewus nightmare. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alndln Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 Always keep your recording drive on a seperate ide channel,then slave your CD burner to your OS(C:)drive.If your running 2K or XP,the default VM settings are fine.You don't want to slave an ata 7200 drive to an ata 33 5400 for many reasons,1 being the 80 pin Ata 100 cable. "A Robot Playing Trumpet Blows" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtrmac Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 Just get a Promise ATA-133 controller card. $40 will allow you to have up to 8 devices in your system. I have 3 drives and 2 optical drives in my DAW and all the hard drives are master on seperate channels. It works great. I don't think that 5400 RPM drives belong in a DAW. Mac Bowne G-Clef Acoustics Ltd. Osaka, Japan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 I have the C drive and burner on one channel, and two fast drives on the other. Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark LaCoste Posted August 21, 2003 Author Share Posted August 21, 2003 Okay, this is what I'm gonna do: Basically Alndln's suggestion, with the burner on primary. Phil, if both hard drives are on the same IDE channel you lose a little performance. You want the OS to have access to it's HD without having to interrupt audio access. The way you are running is more like having one large, partitioned, drive, right? Still, the fact that you are running the way you are and doing quite well tells me it may not be such a big deal... But just in case it will avoid even a few clicks and pops I'll put them on different controllers. Rubber Lizard Studio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 [quote]Originally posted by Rubber Lizard: [b]if both hard drives are on the same IDE channel you lose a little performance.[/b][/quote]Mabye. It depends on the IDE spec being used on the bus. Most drives hardley exceed UDMA 33 specs, so if your using a UDMA 100 or 133 controller you should be fine. I'm with Phil where I like having my HD's on one bus and optical drives on another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark LaCoste Posted August 22, 2003 Author Share Posted August 22, 2003 Thanks, D Man. It does make sense that a controller could independantly handle both drives. Maybe it's outdated knowledge I was working with. -mark lacoste goats@jeffnet.org Rubber Lizard Studio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Heins Posted August 23, 2003 Share Posted August 23, 2003 Scsi or ATA Raid...though dual scsi has my vote, but would surely have my wallet too ;) Darkon the Incandescent http://www.billheins.com/ Hail Vibrania! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark LaCoste Posted August 23, 2003 Author Share Posted August 23, 2003 Dood... SCSI is for Old School guys with DEEP, DEEP pockets... and raid? Yeah, I would do that if I... Wait. If people were paying me for studio time day in and day out I think I would be right in there with Dorkon the Incongruent. He's right. But I'm still doing the odd job, still counting pennies for which I must wrestle my spouse. You gotta understand, I'm cheaping out here, and fully aware of it. The thing is, Darkon (can I call you Darkon?), Technology keeps bringing things within reach more and more. If I still had to buy a tape recorder that used tape that looks like toilet paper I wouldn't even be in the game. But now I can be "in the game" with a half-ass computer that has two IDE controllers. If I were depending on this computer to pay the rent I'd be crazy not to do SCSI or RAID. And yet, Craig, Phil, and others too, are using plain ol' IDE professionally. These are interesting times. Come to think of it, if I were really serious I'd be depending on a wooden guitar and my songwriting and performing skills. Fuck the computer. -ml Rubber Lizard Studio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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