Best PCI UATA-100 Controller Card?

[ktchong]

What is the best PCI Ultra-100 controller card right now?

Thanks~!

 

[LXi]

Promise Ultra100

 

[Insane3D]

The Highpoint 390 chip is also very reliable and performs slightly better than the Promise card, but it is harder to find in a card form. I think Abit makes a "hot rod" card that has that chip, but I am not aware of any other card variations on the Highpoint chip.

 

[LXi]

<<The Highpoint 390 chip is also very reliable and performs slightly better than the Promise card, but it is harder to find in a card form. I think Abit makes a &quot;hot rod&quot; card that has that chip, but I am not aware of any other card variations on the Highpoint chip.>>

You gotta be kidding me, people have had horrendous experience with HiPoint products, especially their onboard controllers found on Abit boards. Their driver support is a joke, you can forget about Win2k with HiPoint, the quality is also rock bottom. I'd say stick to Promise.

 

[Insane3D]

&quot;You gotta be kidding me, people have had horrendous experience with HiPoint products, especially their onboard controllers found on Abit boards. Their driver support is a joke, you can forget about Win2k with HiPoint, the quality is also rock bottom. I'd say stick to Promise.&quot;

Actually, the highpoints that were troublesome were the early Ultra66 ones, but now apparently everyone thinks that all of them are junk because of this. As far as onboard ones being nothing but trouble, please tell that to the one on my KA7-100 that is running my two 30gb 75GXP's at ATA/100, RAID 0 for over 9 months with NOT ONE PROBLEM. Please also tell that to the 4 friends that I set-up Raid on their KA7-100's and the 5 friends that I helped set-up Raid on the KT7-Raid mobo's......all without any problems. As far as Win2K, I guess I didn't install Win2K pro as my operating system directly to the RAID array on the highpoint...must have imagined the whole thing. I also must be dreaming everytime I boot up Win2K on my computer and it performs perfectly. Also, I have the Promise card and the IBM drive in regular ATA/100 mode gets better readings in Sandra than when it is on my Promise Ultra 100. Also, in RAID 0, I get a buffered read speed of 91mb/s..that's nearly using the entire bandwith of the ATA/100 protocol. Also, I am using a Beta bios with my KA7-100 to enable Raid capability, and it still works fine. I seem to remember some pretty major problems with the onboard Promise chip on the A7V's when they first came out, there were several topics about it being troublesome. Sorry for the sarcasm Lxi, but I was just trying to help him make a educated choice by explaining that there are other cards, and because that differed with your opinion you needed to take a tone like that. As far as driver's, there have already been eight seperate drivers released for the Highpoint 390 chip, four for non-raid operation, and four for Raid operation. After all this though, I would agree that Promise is a better choice just because it is more available in card form...that is the only reason.

 

[LXi]

We'll see if others agree. I'd say you and your friends are lucky.

 

[Insane3D]

I knew those rabbit's feet that I bought for myself and my friends were a good idea......

 

[ahfung]

Lowpoint produces craps and provides ZERO customer service. I am one of the victims but never alone:

ABIT boards With HPT controller SUCKS bigtime!!!
Problems with BE6 and Highpoint (ATA/66) Controller
Problems with Highpoint Raid controller.
Highpoint is REALLY suck!!
Highpoint 366 is SUCK!
Problems ATA66 Highpoint Controller running win2k

 

[LXi]

Thank you ahfung. I just want to prevent ktchong from joining the victim list.

 

[ahfung]

Highpoint SUCKS for 2 things:

1. Their products SUCK. Look good in benchmark but stink in compatability and CPU usage.
2. They are IRRESPONSIBLE. Their tech support/customer service NEVER respond. (even repeated emails and cc to their sales dept).

 

[LXi]

I know, I read your post about their service, totally scared me away. I sure dont want more people to go through a hell tour with HiPoint.

 

[oldfart]

I would buy the Promise Ultra66 card. The fastest IDE drives are finally breaking out of Ultra33 speeds at 37-38 MB/S. None of them are anywhere near Ultra66 levels yet. Why spend the extra on a U100 card that gives you a 0% improvement? Onvia sells the Promise U66 card for about $20.

 

[Insane3D]

Like I said before...all those problems he metioned were with the ATA66 highpoint controllers. I believe the original question was &quot;Best PCI UATA-100 Controller Card? ....

 

[Insane3D]

Oh and ahfung, let me just say that you have a gift of eloquently expressing your opinion. I will need to remember to use words like &quot;suck&quot; and &quot;rule&quot; when I discuss hardware...thanks.

 

[Nessism]

I'm with Oldfart on this one, why spend twice the money for a ATA100 card when ATA66 is more than enough? Based on receint advances in hard drive performance, it will be quite some time before ATA66 is maxed out. Am I missing something here? Or, are we chasing a spec-mark again like AGP 4x?

 

[SF DUDE]

Back to the original question.....

I have had a Promise ATA100 card for about a month now. Installed without a hitch-everything auto-detected perfectly. Have no compatability problems of any kind. Have never had any experiences with any others.

 

[Budman]

Insane3D,

Not everybody here has english as their first and only language.

Give the guy a break would ya.

And yes Lowpoint IS SUCK.

 

[Noriaki]

I'd go with the Promise. Promise has excellent support, compatibility and just plain quality hardware.

As for HighPoint, as far as I can tell their products aren't bad, it's just ABit makes a mess of them (just like ABit makes a mess of anything they touch). I believe that Soyo uses the HighPoint controller on their 6BA+IV do they not? And from what I've heard the 6BA+IV is one of the best BX motherboards there is. I can't comment on HighPoint customer service because I've not used it.

I'd still stick to Promise though, they make excellent cards and have a proven track record. HighPoint is questionable.

 

[Perce]

I'd also recommend the Promise ATA100 card, based on my experience in numerous setups. Easy, no problems and as for performance....geee I never checked, either it works or it doesn't. LOL As for the people suggesting the ATA66 controllers, hmmmmm....they do have a real solid argument there.

 

[ahfung]

ATA66 controllers are hard to find now. Plus ATA100 costs just about the same as their ATA66 siblings so why don't get the better one?

 

[Insane3D]

Ok..OK..you all win. I guess my highpoint on my Abit board is...what was it...oh yeah..IS SUCK. I will promptly shut my computer off and rip it off the motherboard. I was just trying to show that there is another choice other than Promise..jeez. I would like it if someone could point me to problems with the High..err..sorry..Lowpoint ATA100..I have only seen people complain about the ATA66 one. Also..I did recommend the Ultra 100..


Mental note: Do not offer any opinion that is different from anyone else's on anything...

 

[TheOverlord]

with all due respect to you guys who are bickering...

[rant]
quit thread crapping!

ktchong is trying to get a good idea of what card to but so lets not flame on another for opinions held in his thread...

i would like to commend those like oldfart who kept their post 100% on topic, many of you that are crapping are better than senior members...try to make a better example for the new guys
[/rant]

ok sorry to add to the spam ktchong but i wanted to set this straight,
i think i would have to agree with oldfart and others in saying it would be better to go with a cheaper ata66 card due to the performance issues...course if you find a great deal on a ata100 card then by all means go for it...and i tihnk promise is probably your best bet, they seem to have good products and customer service

 

[culex]

I'll also voucher for the Promise Ultra ATA100 PCI controller... not a single problem has happened so far.

As for HighPoint controllers... I absolutely detest them. Very low quality products and their email technical support doesn't exist as far as I can tell. As for their phone support, their reply is &quot;We have NO idea what you are talking about sir... But I thank you for calling HighPoint and hope that you'll continue to use our great products&quot; *click*.

 

[Budman]

<< Mental note: Do not offer any opinion that is different from anyone else's on anything... >>



Insane3D,

That's good advice there.

Follow your own advice &amp; you should be fine.

 

[Octoberblue]

Man I'm telling you the Promise Ultra100 was so flaky it crashed my system numerous times and there was no way to get back into it even using Norton Emergency disks. I plugged the same hard drive (IBM 75GXP) into my ata33 mobo and it has been perfectly stable ever since. (And don't give me that nonsense about me not knowing how to set it up, blah, blah, blah. It's not rocket science and I knew exactly how to set it up.)

No hard drive can make significant use of the ata100 spec anyway, so if anything you should go with the Promise Ultra 66, which is reportedly much more stable and is extremely cheap. If you're thinking what's the point of having the ata100 drive, I can tell you drives like maxtor's and ibm's are still much, much faster on an ata66 connection than anything else out there.

BTW, if you're interested in raid, you can convert that $20 Promise66 card into a Fastrack66 card with a little ingenuity as explained here. Raid striping can give you a heck of a lot better throughput than any ata100 could dream of anyway, and if you got 4 drives (I know it's expensive but you could add them one at a time) you can strip and mirror for blinding throughput speed AND incomperable stability. If you mess up and destroy the card, hey, it's inexpensive anyway, pick up another one.