Sata

I've been in the Hardware forum for so long, I thought that I'd come and ask you guys some questions about SATA.

This is what my pc has

- Biostar TFORCE 6100-939 mobo which supports dual channel ddr
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 320-G hard drive
- AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz / 512KB Cache / 1000MHz FSB / Venice / Hyper-Transport / OEM / Socket 939 / Processor
- Corsair 620W PSU
- Windows XP X64, SP2
- Ballistix 2x1G RAM, 184-pin DIMM,128MX64 DDR PC3200, Unbuffered
- NetFramework 2.0 Redistributable Pack for X64

My pc has had loads of problems and, in the hardware forum, it's basically been decided that either my mobo or cpu or both were damaged when a SATA adapter card flew my psu and fdd when I turned on one of my SATA drives. I bought a Corsair 620W psu and a new fdd. The new fdd sparked when I plugged my pc into an outlet and turned it on. I bought another fdd and it works fine. I barely had the pc built and up and running when the SATA adapter card damaged the psu and fdd so it's hard to tell what damage it did to the mobo and cpu, but my pc crawls along, as slow as a 56k modem used to.

I just wanted to give you a brief description of the problems that I've had with my hardware because they might also have affected my software. I formatted and reinstalled my mobo softwarre. My hdd and mobo support SATA. When I installed Windows XP X64, I didn't set up a RAID array because I use my pc mostly for videos and my understanding of a RAID array is that parts of files are placed in different locations. I now have 17 ext hdds and I don't want any of my video files spread out over several drives because I can't have them all turned on at the same time.

So, to make a long story short, the question I'm asking is, is one of the reasons that my pc is slow because I didn't set up a RAID array so that it's not running as SATA but as IDE and it will never have the speed of SATA if I don't set up a RAID array? I understand that my RAM and southbridge is slow also, but don't take them into consideration. I just want to know about SATA.

 

The lack of a RAID array should have nothing to do with your PC being slow. My PC has similar specs (A64 3200+, 1.5gb DDR400, 250gb SATA2 HD, XP Pro) and it is FAST!! The slowness is caused by the software (IMO); something isn't configured correctly, or is corrupt, or ..... You mentioned that a SATA adapter card was installed even tho' the MB supports SATA... why is there an SATA adapter card installed? Just curious. Hardware rarely causes slowness (unless the HD is crashing); usually bad hardware will cause crashes and erratic behavior, and not slowness..... this probably isn't a whole lot of help, but without knowing exactly what's happening, I can't offer much...

hd2k

 

I built the computer and had several problems due to 32-bit software, such as CCleaner, because they deleted files that X64 needs (in my pc). So it was formatted 3 times due to 3 programs. I decided not to use any more of those programs and I installed the SATA card. I have 2 SATA external hdds. I plugged them into the ports on the card, turned on my pc, and it died. It had no power at all. It somehow ruined my psu and fdd. I removed the SATA card, psu and fdd and purchased a new psu and fdd. The new psu works great. I waited a while and then installed the fdd. When I turned on the pc, sparks flew out of it. I bought a new fdd and cable and installed it and it works fine, no problems at all with it.

But something happened to either the motherboard and/or the cpu when the SATA card caused my psu and fdd to fail because my pc runs very slowly. I ran several tests, MemTest, CPU-Z, HD Tack Test and a few others. The results of a HD Tack Test taken right after I rebooted has deep and constant spikes and the results of a HD Tack Test performed when I was copying files from one drive to another show it was down around 5Mb/s. Someone mentioned that the Tack Test shows that my computer might be running like an IDE computer because I didn't set up a RAID array and not because my cpu or mobo is damaged, so I wanted to know if that could be a possibility . . . covering all bases before I decide what I need to do. Since you don't have a RAID array and your mobo is similar to mine, it appears that the lack of a RAID array isn't affecting its speed and is more than likely my hardware.

I installed a SATA card because I have 15 ext hdds, 2 of which are SATA and I was planning on purchasing 2 more SATA ext hdds. I wanted to have the card installed so that I could plug the 4 SATA ext hdds into the ports on the card that were accessed from outside the case. There is only 1 additional internal SATA port and I believe that its purpose is for an additional internal hdd. There are no SATA ports that can be accessed from outside the case as it stands right now.