promise vs. other brand controllers

[psabi]

Are there other good controllers besides Promise? I'm considering an SIIG controller and wanted to know if anyone would look to steer me clear of those. And to try to be impartial; does anybody have any negative experiences with Promise?

[andyswork@beci.net]

I have 3 all differant. They all work just fine, I have not had any problems with any of them. I would say go for any of them and have fun.

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One day I will be a pro, Thanks Andy

[j_sanborn]

I have a Promise dual IDE expansion card.
It works fine. My PC sees it as a SCSI Controller Card.
I looked thru several listings on "Pricewatch" and found that almost all of the brands were Promise.
They supplied Win'98 & 2000 drivers, patches, support, etc.
I would recommend it to anyone.

J.S.


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("If at first you don't succeed, suck harder, then you will succeed!" cited Curly Howard of the 3 Stoogies)

[BigBlue66]

Hey,

I'm assuming that you can get the SIIG controller for less money? The only product I have used from SIIG is a video card. Had no problems with it though.

I have also used the Promise ATA66 and ATA100 controller cards. I had no problems with either one.

I'm going out on a limb here, and say that with ATA controller cards, you will get what you pay for.

Cheers,

Big Blue 66


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Life = Karma, or is it, Karma = Life?

[psabi]

I did check the SIIG site and they have 98,2k, and XP drivers for the model I am considering even though it is a slightly older model (ATA66). The price I am getting it for ($24.50) is about what I would pay for a promise with ship and handling. The reason is the SIIG is at the local "BestBuy" 2 miles away as compared to the mystery company that will charge me a 15% restocking fee if it "doesn't work out"; best buy will take it back no problem. Plus the gratification is immediate instead of waiting for the package...

Under "operating system troubleshooting" I had a post about not being able to get DMA to work in win2k for a certain box. This SIIG controller is my last effort to work around the Sis chipset that is supposed to support UDMA33. And by all means take a look at my post and see if you think there is anything I haven't tried Blue...

[BigBlue66]

Hey,

I just got a brand spankin new computer at work with WIN2000 Pro on it. Have been using NT 4.0 SP6a up to this point. I will look around in 2000 and see what I can find out about DMA. Will have to learn it sooner or later anyway.

As for the SIIG controller card, that's not a bad price by any means. However, I wonder how it will handle the EZ-BIOS you just installed? You may have to uninstall the EZ-BIOS, but don't quote me on that. From what I understand, the DDO software only allows the machine's BIOS to see the full capacity of large harddrives that it wouldn't otherwise support.

If it were me, I would uninstall the EZ-BIOS before I tried the controller card. Besides, if the controller card is Enhanced IDE, it should do the same thing that the EZ-BIOS was designed to do, plus allow for the faster transfer rate.

Oh, just had a thought. As for the DMA problem, you say your mobo is four years old or so? That might very well explain the lack of DMA capability. I don't remember exactly when it came out, but now I'm thinking that your motherboard does not support DMA, so the controller card will surely help in that respect.

Good luck.

Big Blue 66




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Life = Karma, or is it, Karma = Life?