Blast from the past: originally published June 17th 2003.

I’ve finally started playing some games on my X-Box. A guy at work was selling his X-Box with two controllers and some games for a song, so I couldn’t pass up the deal. Got it home and read the manual. Grabbed an HDTV adapter the next day and set it to take advantage of the various resolutions available, plus hooked an optical cable for Dolby Digital sound. My X-Box was ready for whatever I threw at it, which was nothing for about two months.

I’m a die hard PC gamer, and while I own a Genesis, Playstation, Dreamcast, Playstation 2 and now X-Box, I don’t consider myself a console gamer. I wanted an X-Box for two reasons: high definition picture and Dolby digital surround.

There are quite a few HDTV adapters for the X-Box from third parties, but I went with the Microsoft branded High Definition AV Pack. It features three RCA component connections, two RCA audio and one optical digital audio (remember when these were called TOS link) connection. Included is a six foot component cable, the HDTV adapter and a two page instruction leaflet. Hook it up and start using, to boil it down. Listed as $19.99 U.S., but $39.99 Canadian: can you say hosed? It worked as advertised, giving me 1080i with NFL Fever 2003. The back of every X-Box game states what features it supports, which I greatly appreciate. In reality, why shouldn’t every game has surround sound and at least a progressive video output? If you’re gaming in the living room, take advantage of the big screen and surround sound. For those without component connections, the Microsoft Advanced AV Pack features a s-video connection and optical digital audio.

If you have a large screen television and a surround sound system, run, don’t walk to get yourself a High Definition AV Pack.

Blast from the past: originally published September 27th 2002.

The concept is so simple it makes you wonder why it wasn’t thought of before. Take flash memory and put it into a compact size, small enough to fit on a keychain. The entire unit is comprised of the cover and the DiskonKey memory module; a hard oblong plastic unit with a USB connector on one end. The picture says it all; simple, effective, easy.

Operation takes simplicity to another level. For Windows ME users forward to XP, plug the device into a USB port and it’s recognized as a removable drive. Windows 98 users require a driver to be loaded, as do Windows NT 4.0 users. That’s right, a USB driver for Windows NT is available. With sizes available from 8 MB to 512 MB, there’s one to fit your requirements and budget. Copy files to and fro; USB 1.1 and 2.0 are supported with the DiskonKey line, with speeds what you’d expect from removable media. Rated at 1 MB / second, that’s not too shabby. A small light in the unit illuminates when it’s plugged in and flashes when data is transferring. Don’t unplug it when it’s flashing and you’re safe.

I wish there was more to say about the product. M-Systems DiskonKey was the first for this media type, and offers lots of niceties on their web site, such as KeySafe password protection, NT 4.0 drivers, MyKey customization. Most will think they don’t really need this; I thought the same until a friend bought one for transferring files between work and home. Once I saw how small the unit was and realized the possibilities, I knew a purchase was looming in my future.

When you look back at the life of the computer, a few standouts have gone the distance. The floppy drive began as the only affordable way people could run programs and trade files, and has carried on in various shapes and sizes. Today all of us have a 3.5” floppy drive in our PCs, ready for those hard little diskettes. Who could imagine a computer without the off white mouse, two or three buttons and a rolling wheel underneath to guide it’s way across the mouse pad. Both are functional, ubiquitous and just have to go. Don’t wait for McCoy to proclaim “they’re dead, Jim” before you look at replacements.

A modern 3.5” floppy drive comes into use a handful of times a year. It’s clean, does the work and costs about $20 new. Blank floppy diskettes hold 1.44 MB of data and come 10 to a box for $5. I use diskettes for two things: updating my BIOS and for boot disks when a computer is acting up. Of course most companies allow you to update your BIOS via a Windows program now, so there goes that reason. And CD writing software lets you make bootable CD-ROMs, eliminating my other reason.

What can you replace the floppy drive with? Two options spring to mind: CD writers and flash memory. The CD writer has become an inexpensive option, costing less than $100. With write once ( CDR ) and write many ( CDRW ) discs available for under $1, it covers the removable media format easily. Of course we’re limited to 650 or 700 MB per disc, but that’s a lot for a portable media. They’ve become so common it’s hard to buy a new PC without a “burner”.

Flash memory is the true successor of the floppy drive, for several reasons. Look at what the floppy did: small and easy to carry, rewritable, accessible on any computer. Flash memory has had many shapes and sizes; you’re probably using it in your MP3 player, digital camera or PDA. It was the genius of mating it with a USB connector and making a package the size of your baby finger that ready earns it the title of successor. On the market over a year, these “keychain storage” devices ranging from 8 MB to 2 GB are very small and plug into an available USB port. Your system recognizes it without a need for drivers, and you read and write from it as easily as, you guessed it, a floppy diskette. Who doesn’t have a USB port; why they’re as common as…you know.

I recently had a chance to use one from M-Systems (www.diskonkey.com), the current market leader in keychain storage. Called the DiskOnKey, it’s 10 cm long and weighs 22 grams. A snap cover pulls off to reveal the USB plug; two indicator lights flash for connectivity and transfer activity. For a full look go to www.ebabble.net/html/diskonkey.

Moving to number two on the hit parade: the mouse. Most of you are probably thinking I’ve lost it at this point: how can any modern computer operate without a mouse? I readily agree, but wholeheartedly call for the extinction of the “ball” mouse. You know the one; it’s probably on your desk. Standard cream ( or tan, off white, beige, whatever that computer colour is ), two buttons, slightly dirty. Flip it over: a rubber covered ball dead center. Open the cover: inside are three or four small wheels, probably covered in some kind of dust and dirt. No matter how many times you clean it out, a few weeks later your pointer is moving herky-jerky across the screen. It just has to go.

To replace that old mouse you’ll want, nay need, an optical mouse. That crappy ball and wheels have been replaced by an optical sensor that tracks the movements precisely, without a mouse pad. It doesn’t need to be cleaned: it just works. The leaders in this technology are Microsoft (www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouse/tech.asp) and Logitech (www.logitech.com). If you’re really ready for the next revolution pick up a wireless mouse and be free of that nuisance. Take deep breaths and try to relax if I’m moving too fast for you.

Step up to “the now” and replace those dinosaurs with something for this millennia.

This article originally appeared in L.A.I.D. Magazine December 2002 issue.

The packaging bills this device as a replacement for a laptop keyboard but it works wonderfully on a HTPC.  The keyboard is a netbook chiclet style and there is a small button on the top left and right.  The mouse works by gliding your right thumb over the button on the right side: clicking it is a right click and clicking the left button is a left mouse click.  It’s very straightforward and simple to get used to.

The keyboard is quite light and easy enough to hold in your two hands for mousing.  I found the keyboard to be about 92% of regular size and about the same as a 10″ netbook’s keyboard.  It’s slightly too large to hold with one hand and type: I had to put it on my lap but it was very comfortable.

Installation required me to plug in the very small USB dongle and wait for Windows 7 to recognize the device: that was it.  It uses two AAA batteries that were pre-installed.  My only concern was that I lost the ability to control the mouse when my kitchen microwave was running, about twenty-five feet away.  Other than that no issues.

It’s a sad time when I can’t get in any game playing, but that’s what happened this week.  I’ve beaten most of my games in single player mode and look for the challenge of multiplayer mayhem, but none of my friends were available.  I know I could just log in and fight a stranger, but what’s the point of that? I want to team up with a friend and then crush strangers into dust.  Otherwise why play games at all?  When Conan was asked what was best in life, he replied: “to crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women”.

I was putting together a system for a friend and he needed a reliable mid tower case from a reputable manufacturer at a good price.  Isn’t that what we’re all looking for when building a computer?  I looked around at what was available and decided on the Aopen HX45A mid ATX tower case.  Let’s take a look at this rugged unit.

The HX45A is Aopen’s current mid tower offering.  I had purchased a few about three years ago, and boy have things changed!  Almost a complete redesign of the original model and all very positive improvements. Again I only have basic pictures of the case; check out a detailed interior diagram and parts explosion.

Starting from the outside and working in we have three 5.25” drive bays and two 3.5” drive bays accessible. Power and hard drive LEDs accompany power and reset switches and the ambiguous sticker spot on the outside. The front bezel is a sturdy plastic and at no time has to be removed, ever.  The case is the standard one millimeter steel and has a good feel all around.  Two side doors are secured with two screws apiece, and a recessed indentation allows you to get a grip on a side panel for easy removal.  The panels slide back about an inch before they come off.

Once inside we see a clean and reasonably spacious layout.  One internal 3.5” drive bay brings us to a total of six drive bays for the case.  The 3.5” drive cage is removable and held in place by one screw.  Annoyingly there are those metal inserts in four of the drive bays; you know the ones, blocking your expansion at every turn.  Why do manufacturers still but these in?  I had to wrestle with a hammer and screwdriver to get them out, but luckily didn’t harm the case. ( Note from Brian Wilcox at Bowne Technology: These are left in for Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI) shielding since the plastic drive covers do nothing as far as EMI is concerned. Also, the best way to get these things out is to insert a screwdriver into the hole in the middle of the metal insert and lever the screwdriver up and down to twist the area where the insert is attached to the case frame. )

The motherboard area is a good size, enough for most ATX boards.  Six motherboard posts are permanently mounted in the case, with spots for the extra brass posts that came with the generous assortment of screws. The rear I/O connector is removable, but you only get the standard ATX design with the case.  Of note is the detailed parts diagram and assembly foldout included, adding a small but nice touch.

The power supply is an Aopen brand 250 watt ATX 2.03 model.  It has a manual switch on the back, and has plenty of vent slits for drawing air off the CPU.  It comes with six power connectors, just enough for the six drive bays.  I should also mention it is AMD certified.

Cooling is handled by the power supply and by the one front mounted optional case fan.  The one thorn in my side about Aopen has been the lack of a rear fan mount behind the CPU; monitoring CPU temperatures on an AMD Athlon 900 MHz showed nothing out of the ordinary.  I guess the power supply does a good job of getting the hot air out, but I’d still like the option of the second case fan.

Last but not least are the expansion slot covers.  Aopen has used a screwless cover for some time, but it’s a two-edged sword.  While I like the way they snap into place, it leaves me scrambling for a screw when I add a new card.

All in all the Aopen HX45A mid tower ATX case is a good buy; sturdy, well laid out and from a reputable manufacturer.

On reboot I again connected my iPhone and was prompted to install the new OS.  It first started a backup of my phone and I waited for it to advance.  And waited some more: I gave it an hour and nothing was happening.  I checked my resources and iTunes.exe was taking 90-95% CPU utilization but there was no disk activity.

This was happening on Windows 7 Professional x64 and I had read about issues with iTunes and 64 Windows 7 so I hit the internet and chased down searches.  I found this thread that suggested ending the MDCrashReporter.exe process: tried it but the backup was still just sitting there.  Since I was at a standstill I also stopped the applemobiledevicehelper.exe process: suddenly everything started progressing and my OS update completed without issue.  I would have liked to try it again and only stop applemobiledevicehelper.exe but that wasn’t possible, plus I was happy to be done and didn’t want to mess with success.

Perhaps need is a bit strong.  My home PC is used for gaming, email checking and web browsing, occasional photo editing and CD ripping.  I’m currently using a Dell 27″ monitor with a native resolution of 1920×1200; before that it was a Dell 24 ” with the same resolution that prompted the 8800GTX purchase.  My goal is to run all games at 1920×1200 with features set to high and get smooth gameplay.  So far my PC is doing that.

My current PC is using an Intel E6600 and eVGA 680i motherboard purchased in November 2006 and an eVGA 8800GTX video card purchased in June 2007.  RAM started at 2 GB  in 2006 but got bumped to 4 GB in 2007 and then 8 GB in June 2008.  Each time I paid less than the previous upgrade for double the RAM.

Two long term games for me are Company Of Heroes and Medieval II Total War.  They play silky smooth for me.  I recently started with Left 4 Dead and it’s running great.  This weekend I started playing Empire Total War and it happened: performance is not stellar.  It’s very playable but I can see the occasional stutter.

My existing hardware has served me well for over two years and I feel I’ve wrung out my money’s worth.  Since it’s been that long I will need to purchase a new CPU, motherboard and RAM: so the cycle continues.

The BC4000 RAID HBA family, comprised of 64-bit, PCI-X low-profile compliant controller cards, are the only 2U compatible SATA RAID controller cards available today. The product family provides both four-drive (BCM4452-H) or eight-drive (BCM4852-H) support and are based on Broadcom’s new BCM5770 Serial ATA controller chip. The new Broadcom BCM5770 SATA chip and the BC4000 controller card significantly boost reliability with efficient power consumption and thermal load balancing, and feature a MTBF (mean time between failures) of 3.5 million hours, which is nearly three times greater than that of competitive SATA RAID controller cards.

Enterprise-class RAID functionality for the BC4000 RAID HBAs is provided by Broadcom’s XelCore RAID software, based on proprietary Fulcrum architecture (a highly integrated storage architecture). These enterprise-class RAID features include:

• Online RAID level migration – the ability to change the RAID level of an array without taking a system offline
• Online capacity expansion – the ability to add storage to an array without taking a system offline
• Online array creation/deletion – the ability to add, modify or delete arrays without business interruption
• Controller spanning – the ability to create a very large array that spans up to 32 disks and achieves extremely high read/write performance using a large number of spindles in a single array
• Drive roaming – the ability to move drives between systems and controllers without keeping track of the controller and channel to which a drive was attached
• N-Way disk mirroring and hiding – the ability to create a secure backup of a data array while hiding it from the operating system
• Distributed sparing – the ability to use all disks in creating a spare as a means to achieve higher performance by using all disks in an array

The above encapsulates the features of the RAIDCore controller, as defined by Broadcom. RAIDCore is now part of the Broadcom family, but a new addition. I couldn’t find anything on the Broadcom site by means of navigation and search, so I went to the old www.raidcore.com URL and was redirected to the proper page. Read the above and check out the links to get a good understanding of this product group.

In an interesting turn of fate I was contacted by the RAIDCore PR rep months ago regarding the site, and I was quick to request a review unit. Unfortunately they were in the process of merging into Broadcom and switching over to the BCM5770 controller chips. Some time passed and I received my shiny new BC4852 SATA RAID controller, my first for a PCI-X 133 slot. I had to test in a 64 bit 66 MHz slot in my test configuration since that’s what I have and I can’t seem to get a deal on a new Opteron board and the new Xeon boards aren’t available yet.

Luckily I did wait on the card, since there were some issues with the RC4000 series controllers. Broadcom is offering a card replacement, so if you have an older RAIDCore card take advantage of this offer. Broadcom is also working to remove the “RAIDCore” name from the product, or so it seems.

Let’s jump to the chase and talk about performance, then take a step back and look at the card and it’s features and interface. Open our benchmarks and look for yourself: the BC4852 stands shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the pack. It leaps ahead in WinBench, and in Atto and HDTach writes. The only issue to show itself is a high CPU utilization, 11-25% depending on which benchmark you believe. This is because there is no onboard cache or XOR engine. They’re depending on your system having a reasonably fast CPU.

Looking at the BC4852 you’ll see a clean design. Without cache or a dedicated processor there’s room to spare. In the center is the BCM5770 controller chip, to the right six SATA connectors with two on the other side. On the left are eight pin headers for individual HDD LED connections, if you want to connect your drive cages that way. As well on the back of the card are eight small lights that flash as the array is utilized. It’s a low profile PCI adapter that comes with a PCI MD2 low profile bracket.

The key to the BC4852 is it’s rich feature set; just read the laundry list on the previous page. Let’s touch the highlights, most of which center around the ability to make changes to the array without bringing it down. The two biggies are RAID expansion and RAID migration; while the array is in use you can expand the capacity or change the RAID level. It’s not a quick process, but it works. Move from a RAID 10 array to a RAID 5; the only catch is that you can’t go to a smaller array, so no four disk RAID 5 to RAID 10 migrations. Add disks to your array and then expand it. Once you’re done expand the formatted partition with Microsoft’s diskpart utility.

Lots of other goodies as well. Up to four BC4852 cards can be used in one system, with arrays stretched across. Multiple arrays can all use the same hot spare drive, minimizing disk waste. The controller marks the drives, so they can be unplugged and reconnected in a different order without breaking the array. Staggered spin up allows each disk connected to spin up in order, so there’s not one power draw on boot up. Options abound, and all are well documented in the included PDF and HTML manual. This covers the entire spectrum of using and working with the BC4852 and should be an example for all manufacturers. It sounds geeky but it was a very enjoyable read, and provided all the information most would need regarding RAID. The drawback is a lack of printed material in the box.

Installation was smooth and straight forward. Creation and management can occur through the BIOS or via the RAIDConsole application. I used both without incident. The RAIDConsole is very easy: there’s one screen to work with, and right clicking on objects gives context options. It can also be run from the command line, but I didn’t try it. Inside the box was the controller, eight half meter SATA cables and a CD.

Once an array is created a full disk integrity is run, referred to as initialization. The array can be used immediately, but a performance hit obviously takes place with the initialization is occurring. Every option available can be performed from the RAIDConsole interface.

There has been a lot of talk about RAIDCore and availability since it’s initial launch last year. A where to buy page is available from Broadcom, and I checked PC Mall for pricing and availability: $385 US. That price puts it in the mid range of SATA RAID controllers.

Bottom line on the Broadcom RAIDCore BC4852: it’s a feature rich SATA RAID Controller that provides good performance. If your server is running a 1.5 GHz processor or higher then you won’t be hit too hard by the BC4852 using the host for XOR calculations. Each of use and feature set make it an excellent choice.

Editors note: this review was migrated from the old eBabble.net site and the photos updated. Originally published August 10th 2004.

I’ll do my usual case review of moving from the outside in. Let’s look at the model number first: SLK3700AMB. Antec likes long model numbers, and this is no exception. AMB stands for Antec Metallic Bronze, referring to their new metallic colour schemes. Opening the box revealed this stunning colour. The paint job is very sharp, even and a glossy automotive finish. I’m used to a mat finish and haven’t been impressed by aluminum cases that are all the rage these days. The front bezel is plastic, the top and sides are painted steel. That’s right, heavy non pliable steel. Hefting this unit makes you realize you’re not getting that fancy new aluminum the kids are talking about.

Following in the steps of the SX and Plus series, there is a front swinging door that covers the drive bays and buttons. This is the first area we see cost cutting, with no lock on the front or side panel. Not really needed anyway.

Swinging open the front door shows the power and reset buttons, plus four lights. One power, one hard drive and two generic for whatever you’d like. The hard drive and two generic lights are labeled “HDD LED” on their two pin connectors, so there’s a bit of playing around during set up to determine which is which. Below the front door are two USB connections. Very handy indeed.

Moving to the rear, we see the usual complement of ATX cutouts, colour coded and labeled via universal symbols. The second change for Antec shows in the rear fan: a single 120mm fan as opposed to dual 80mm fans. This is an Antec 120mm Fan, nothing special, that spins at 1200 rpm. I found it a little loud for that speed, but it moved a good deal of air. One rear fan comes standard with the case.

The side panel is removed by pressing the two levers, opening them to 90 degrees and pulling the panel towards the front. Once inside we see a lot of difference from other Antec cases. Instead of two removable 3.5″ drive cages with handles, a single two drive cage sits in the middle. Below that is a five drive removable cage. Two things about this are unique: it’s secured via a thumb screw and handle, and is removed by pulling it directly out of the case. This is a great feature, as the other Antec cages have to be pulled towards the back of the case, along the motherboard before coming free. The second great feature is the rubber washers that secure the drives into the case. To accommodate this special screws are provided, which is a two edged sword for those who tend to misplace small items. No more worries of vibrating drives and metallic rattling. Unfortunately the rubber washers are only used on the five drive cage, not on the 5.25″ drive rails or two drive 3.5″ cage.

The interior is clean and well designed, with labeled motherboard mount holes. differentiating ATX, AT and Extended ATX.  Another great new feature is a permanent mounting post in a hole used by all three motherboard types, on the right middle. This allows you to put a motherboard into the case and keep it in place via this mount, so you can screw the board down comfortably without trying to juggle it with one hand while you hold a screw and screwdriver with the other.

Mounting 5.35″ drives now requires the front bezel to be removed. It comes off by pressing on two clips on the bottom, then pinching two clips in the internal middle. It was a bit tricky the first few times, but got easier after. Drives need rails which come with the case, and slip into the slots. This time the drive rails are all metal, and come loose in a box. Once the drives are mounted the front bezel snaps back on and leaves a clean look to the front. My other Antec cased didn’t require the bezel to be removed, but the front didn’t look as clean because of the exposed clips on the drive rails.

Inside the front bezel is a removable filter covering the front air intake. This is a great way to keep that dust out of the case. In behind the front air intake is a mount for another 120 mm case fan, not included. Antec’s fan mounts have clips at the top and bottom, so the fan’s don’t need screws.

Included with the case is a 350 watt Antec power supply. Great build quality, but not one of the new TruPower models that use the noise “Silencer” technology. Not to say it’s loud, as a “standard” power supply from Antec is a step above.ATA RAID testbed. This case has been improved by the additional of a small PC speaker mounted behind the removable hard drive cage. Now if only they would change the front USB connectors…

Not to say I loved everything about the case. The front mounted USB cables have all ten pins with individual plastic covers, so you have to read your motherboard manual and try to match them up. While this allows for maximum compatibility, it took me a few tries to get them working. Another problem is the lack of a case speaker. Case manufacturers are moving away from them, but most include at least a small circular speaker attached to the four pin motherboard connector. My final gripe is the fact that full size PCI cards won’t fit. While this seems minor, to use all five hard drive bays you’ll be using an ATA RAID or SCSI controller which may require the additional real estate.

Let me sum it up: I love this case and will be buying them from now on. Nuff said.

Update / Revision April 11th 2003

I just picked up another Antec SLK3700AMB case for my ATA RAID testbed. This case has been improved by the additional of a small PC speaker mounted behind the removable hard drive cage. Now if only they would change the front USB connectors…

Editors note: this review was migrated from the old eBabble.net site and the photos updated. Originally published January 30th 2003.

This piece should be prefaced with the comment that this is a commentary on user experience with the Asus A7M266-D motherboard, not a full blown review.

I’ve always been a fan of dual CPU designs: the prospect of all that extra power just captivated me. Being a fan of AMD as well the Athlon MP line was too good to pass up. The draw of dual AMD CPUs and 64 bit 66 MHz PCI was strong: the focus of the site was moving to ATA RAID controllers and those PCI slots were needed for definitve benchmarking.  Initial MP chipsets were expensive and required unique power supplies, but with the release of the 760 MPX chipset dual Athlons were ready for prime time. Or so it seemed.

Right after the release of the MPX chipset it was discovered there were problems with the USB 1.1 implementation, causing hangs when they were used. Most companies already had the motherboards finished, so a stop-gap measure was put in place: motherboards came with a USB 2.0 PCI card. Checking online specs and reviews I decided on the Tyan Tiger MPX, which was out of stock in Southern Ontario for over two months. This let to option b: the Asus A7M266-D.

More specifically I ordered the A7M266-DL model, which included 10/100 ethernet as well. Imagine my surprise when it arrived and the ethernet came in the form of a small PCI adapter. Now I had five PCI slots, two being occupied with USB and LAN, both of which should have been onboard. Not a huge deal, but annoying none the less.

This is a dual CPU workstation board, and as such has onboard six channel audio via a C-Media chip. Since I’ve used this board as the basis for a server, the audio hasn’t received much of a workout; just system sounds.

With four DIMM slots there’s a lot of headroom for RAM. If you’re using standard DDR RAM, only the first two slots can be utilized. If using registered DDR RAM all four slots can be filled, which is what I did with four PC2700 ECC Registered 512 MB DIMMs. For some reason, no matter what type of ECC Registered DIMMs I used the BIOS always showed registered non-ECC RAM. Switching brands and slots made no difference. My other machines recognized the RAM as ECC, but this board wouldn’t.

For a workstation or server board, Asus should know it needs to have at least three fan headers plus one for each CPU. Modern powere supplies have one fan connection, plus one for the rear of the case and one for the front. The board has two plus two for the CPUs, leaving the front fan covering hard drives unmonitored.

The Asus A7M266-D holds up very well under heavy loads. I’ve used it for days on end running benchmarks and have never experienced a hiccup, blue screen or lockup. The Athlon MP is fading into the sunset with the release and push of the Opteron, but still a great contender for a low cost dual CPU system. Asus has removed mention from it’s site, except for specific searches of the model number. The last BIOS update was March 18th 2003, so don’t expect any more updates.

Editors note: this review was migrated from the old eBabble.net site and the photos updated. Originally published February 25th 2004.

Promise controllers and I are old friends, all the way back to their first ATA RAID controller. Their latest is the Promise FastTrak S150 SX4: a four port Serial ATA RAID controller. Looking at the image, you’re probably thinking you’ve seen it somewhere before: the S150 SX4 shares the same PCB layout and size as the SX4000. The only differences are the SATA connectors and the Marvell PATA to SATA converter chips. For a complete rambling on the Marvell chip check out our 3ware Escalade 8506-8 review.

This time around I didn’t get a retail package for review, but a review’s package. What should come in the box is the controller, SATA cables, installation manual, and drivers and management software on 3.5” floppy disk and CD-ROM. In case you’re wondering the review’s package came with the controller, photocopied manual, burned CD, reviewer’s guide and 128 MB DIMM. You’re not missing out on anything, and it’s a good thing I already had SATA cables.

Looking at the S150 SX4 board layout, it’s a match to the SX4000. The same single Promise PDC20621 ASIC to handle XOR ( RAID 5 parity calculations ) and the four ATA channels. What’s been added to the S150 SX4 are four Marvell 88i8030-TBC parallel to serial ATA converter chips. As well and I2C connector is in the top left, for those motherboards that support it for system monitoring. The only mention of it in the user manual is in the board layout. A very large board that in it’s next version will be about half that size. It’s interesting that the four status lights from the SX4000 have been dropped: since they weren’t documented it’s left a mystery.

Installation was very simple. I configured an array via the S150 SX4’s BIOS, called FastBuild. Entering Windows 2000 I was prompted for drivers, then a reboot and installation of the PAM utility.

Feature wise Promise has everything there you’ll need. It’s a 32 bit 66 MHz PCI controller capable of bursting 266 MB per second. It handles four SATA drives in configurations of RAID 0, 1, 10, 5 and JBOD ( just a bunch of disks ). The manual and all configuration screens I encountered showed the S150 SX4 handling RAID 0+1 and not RAID 10, but the Promise website and it’s datasheet both list RAID 10. Check our RAID Types to see the difference. Promise calls it’s ability to recover from an error by drive hot swapping or hot replacing PerfectRAID, although all controllers support this. With Promise they would like you to use their Superswap 1100 enclosures. Cache is required for the controller to operate, and a user installed SDRAM DIMM of 64 – 256 MB must be installed. I found it funny that page 30 of the user manual shows an example of the BIOS configuration with a 512MB DIMM installed.

Management of the S150 SX4 is handled via the Promise Array Management, or PAM. This utility has been around for some time, but is updated for every generation of Promise cards. It’s very clean the menus follow a nice flow. IT has the usual features: array build, monitoring and SMART support, email and pager notification. It’s standout feature in my opinion is array expansion and conversion, covered on pages 67 -73 of the PAM user manual. This allows an array to be expanded by adding more disks, or converted to another RAID level. Some caveats of course, but it works and works well. I added a fourth disk to a RAID 5 array. It was time consuming but worthwhile. Once completed it’s best to use a partition management package to resize the partition and get the benefit of the extra space. This functionality screams out for a controller that can handle more than four drives: when will Promise match 3ware’s eight and twelve drive controllers?

Performance has been increased substantially to match the 3ware Escalade 8506, judging by our extensive benchmarks. While the previous Promise SX4000 trailed the 3ware Escalade 7500 across the board, now we see a neck and neck race. Promise pulls ahead of the competition in price: the FastTrak S150 SX4 can be found for almost half of the 3ware Escalade 8506-4, it’s direct competitor. Where it falls short is drive capacity and PCB size: let’s see some 12 port SATA controllers in a low profile PCI-X packaging. If four drives are all you need, the Promise FastTrak S150 SX4 is the SATA controller for you.

Editors note: this review was migrated from the old eBabble.net site and the photos updated. Originally published November 28th 2003.

I’ve been a big Promise fan since the original FastTrak (later renamed FastTrak33 to fit with the product line). At the time I had a bunch of 2 GB Western Digital hard drives that I didn’t know what to do with. The idea of using a RAID controller to make one big 8 GB ( wow, that’s big ) drive was fantastic. Of course there were some growing pains, but the card worked great. What’s even better is that I just requested a new BIOS chip for the card and it was sent for free; unfortunately Promise didn’t switch to a flash BIOS until the FastTrak66. But as usual I digress.

In the early days of ATA RAID controllers RAID 0, 1 and 0+1 was the limit of availability, thus relegating it to workstations and enthusiast machines. Of course SCSI RAID controllers allowed for so much more, but at an exorbitant prices which flew in the face of the entire ATA RAID concept. Adaptec was the first to release an ATA RAID 5 controller, the AAA-UDMA, which was a SCSI RAID card with a “translation” chip for IDE drives. It’s performance was adequate, but more importantly paved the way for Promise SuperTrak100, and the rest is history.

My focus has shifted to RAID 5 controllers, since they are perfect for entry level servers used in small to medium enterprises ( SME or SMB ). Today’s motherboards bundle RAID 0, 1 controllers onboard for a minimal charge, and Intel and VIA are now building them into their chipsets with the advent of serial ATA. Unlike these controllers, RAID 5 requires some hardware horsepower to calculate the parity bits and spread the data across the array. Onboard RAM is also a necessity, along with the CPU and ATA controllers bringing the complexity and cost of the product up. Imagine my surprise when I heard of the Promise FastTrak SX4000 RAID 5 controller selling for less than half of it’s competitors.

The SX4000 is a new step for Promise in a lot of ways. Their two previous RAID 5 cards, the SuperTrak100 and the SuperTrak SX6000, used Intel i960 processors along with three Promise ATA ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuit ). They were full length PCI cards with six IDE connections, one RAM slot and battery backup.

Let’s look at the SX4000. Cracking open the box we get the card, a quick start guide, a product manual, drivers and software on 3.5” floppy and CD-ROM, four 80 wire 40 ping ATA cables and two thick molex power “y” splitters. On to the card: it’s a mid length ( not small but not full length ) PCI card with four ATA connections. Bottom right is the 168 pin DIMM slot for SDRAM from 64 MB to 256 MB. A small speaker sits above. The only processor or ASIC onboard is the Promise PDC20621, which is described in the literature as an XOR engine. This single chip solution saves cost from the previous SuperTrak series, described above. On the faceplate are four red status lights; it’s interesting to note they’re not mentioned in any of the literature as to what they do. From the card layout you can also see what isn’t there: a spot for a battery backup in the bottom left and one can only guess what that space in the top right is for.

Installation was straightforward: plug the card into an available PCI slot, either 32 or 64 bit, 33 or 66 MHz. The SX4000 is a 66 MHz 32 bit PCI controller capable of 266 MB/s maximum. I installed an available 256 MB ECC DIMM in it’s single memory slot: you can use 64, 128 or a 256 MB DIMM. The case I’m using, and Antec SLK3700AMB, has three drive lights, so I connected one of them to the header on the SX4000. Hooked up the four drives and powered the system. The card is longer than most PCI adapters, but it isn’t full length either. I had to move one of my hard drives to accommodate it, but that was the only issue. For some reason all AMD 768 MP motherboards put the 64 bit 66MHz PCI slots in the middle of the board, instead of the bottom where most cases leave room.

Once the SX4000 initialized it prompted me to enter the BIOS and define an array. Here you can view, define, delete or repair an array. RAID levels 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD (just a bunch of disks) are supported. As well all these functions and more can be performed in the operating system via the Promise Array Management, or PAM in Windows and the Array Utility in Linux. That’s right, the SX4000 is supported in various Windows and Linux flavors. For this review Windows 2000 Server is used. The BIOS interface is dead easy, and arrays can be deleted and created with no delay or wait time.

Booting into Windows 2000 server I installed the drivers and rebooted. The SX4000 shows as a SCSI device in Device Manager, as do all ATA RAID controllers. The array shows under disk drives as a Promise Array. Installing the Promise Array Management utility was another non event, but a username and password has to be created for array management. Once installed PAM can be managed from any PC over the network by installing PAM wherever and selecting remote management. PAM is straightforward to use and allows for the gamut of options, including enabling write back cache. I didn’t find this aided performance, and the default is having it disabled. Changes to an array require a reboot, but it nice to make changes remotely and schedule a reboot without interacting with the machine.

Performance was excellent, in relation to the SX4000’s abilities and cost. Check the benchmarks and testbed for more information. Promise designed the card as a one chip solution, covering the ATA controllers, RAID calculation and the like. Check the cache size comparison to see what fits your needs; I anticipated better performance from more cache, but that’s not the case.

I’ve had this card for the better part of six months, trying to arrange competitors. It performed flawlessly across three platforms as I ran various benchmarks and changed my platform and software. I that time there were BIOS and driver revisions, which were implemented on this final benchmarking and platform.

As I went to format a RAID 5 array for the final PCMark2002 benchmark, I received an error that the format failed. I played around and ran diagnostics on all the drives individually, plus used them with other ATA RAID controllers without incident. I submitted an incident report via the Promise website, or tried to. For two days the form created SQL errors. On the third day it went through, but I didn’t receive a reply. I waited more than a week and didn’t hear back again. I’m sending an email with the same information this week and will post what happens. This is my first bad experience with Promise’s tech support, and I’m hoping it only a bug with their online reporting form.

I heartily recommend this card for users looking to utilize four or less drives in a RAID 5 array. It’s half the cost of the Adapter 2400A or 3ware 7500 series, even with the additional purchase of the required DIMM.

Update / Revision

May 30th 2003

After my email to tech support I received an answer three days later suggesting the problem lay with the DIMM I was using. Replacing it with an available 128 MB ECC PC133 DIMM seemed to do the trick.

August 9th 2003

Promise has released new drivers, BIOS and PAM for the SX4000. Included is a utility to test memory installed on the card. As well Windows Server 2003 drivers are included.

Editors note: this review was migrated from the old eBabble.net site and the photos updated. Originally published May 22nd 2003.

Installation was straight forward, as everything is well positioned on the board and the manual gave all the pertinent details.  For it’s initial home I installed it into an Antec Atlas case, using every onboard function I could and only adding RAM, hard drive, DVD-ROM and PCE-E video.  Performance was good; pretty well matching my Nforce4 motherboard with the same CPU and RAM.  Life was good, except the system saw no usage and I needed the case elsewhere so out everything came and sat around.

The opportunity arose to sell a system so this motherboard went into a new system built inside an Antec SLK3700BQE case: one of my all time favourites and the last I had hanging around the shop.  The build was smooth without a hiccup.  Loaded Windows XP, drivers and updates and still no issues.  I passed the system along to the new buyer.

The system came back: no sound.  Checked the drivers and software setup: Windows XP believed the sound was working as advertised.  I compared the two systems: the Atlas had front audio and the SLK3700BQE didn’t.  Pouring over the manual gave no indication of fault, but that had to be the issue.  I checked for default jumper configuration for the front audio connector but there was no mention.   In the PDF of the manual (since the print copy was with the owner) I zoomed into the front panel audio connector and noticed some pins darker than the others: I took this to represent jumpers, so I put two on as the manual ever so slightly illustrated.  Bang on, audio was working.

Being a fan of computer cases, especially Antec cases, last year when I was building a new system I came across an excellent price on an Antec Atlas 550. For reference I suggest reading my original review: for this piece I’ll cover the differences between the two. This was a new model, the second in the Antec server line, a reworking of the Antec Titan that I had enjoyed so much. At the time the Atlas had the same 550 watt power supply (the Titan now comes with a 650 watt power supply), but had reduced the overall dimensions significantly. This was accomplished by removing two internal hard drive bays and shrinking the width to accommodate only ATX motherboards and not extended ATX. As well the front hinged door was removed and a fan grate added to the side panel, but these four items were the only changes. I loved the Titan so the Atlas seeemed a shoe-in.

Once I had the Atlas on my work table and started installing components did I realize what those changes meant. When they shortened the width for ATX boards they went a little too far: in the picture above you can see that an ATX board fills the space completely, with nary a cables width between the edge of the motherboard and the drive bays. You cannot install a large video card such as a Geforce 8800 GTX or Radeon 2900XT. That pretty much killed my use for this chassis.

The two other changes are welcome additions. The side fan grate allowed me to put a low RPM 80 mm fan and vent some of the heat from my Geforce 7900GT that I installed. I didn’t miss the hinged door on the front panel at all. I found the Atlas to be much quieter than the Titan, possibly because of the reduced space. Overall the built quality was solid and excellent, like practically all Antec products.

I’m still miffed at this being called a “server” case: the hard drives can only be accessed once you remove the side panel, pull off the front bezel and loosen two thumb screws from a medal door that doubles as the dual 92 mm fan grate. Antec’s removable drive cage from the 3700AMB is much more elegant. Antec, please develop a hot swap drive cage!

Antec products are solid, reliable and affordable. The Antec Atlas for me overall was a disappointment, as the available motherboard space was very restrictive and the hard drive bays remain difficult to access.

ECC or error correcting code RAM contains extra chip(s) that check for any memory errors and corrects them.  Just like it sounds.  Buffered RAM has a buffer for memory transactions to make sure no errors occur.  Again pretty straightforward.  Combine the two and you have RAM that buffers and checks for errors: solid memory protection but at the cost of some performance.   That’s why most RAM has neither functionality and we don’t really notice any memory problems.

Single CPU socket motherboards and their chipsets normally support ECC but not buffering.  The Tyan i3210w uses the Intel 3210 chipset and supports ECC/non-ECC and unbuffered, but not buffered memory.  Since this is Intel’s current single socket server chipset that’s pretty definitive.  My current favorite motherboard, the eVGA e-7150 uses the Nvidia 630i chipset and doesn’t support ECC or buffered memory.  Unfortunately I couldn’t locate any more information about Nvidia’s chipsets and their support of ECC and buffered memory.  At least you don’t need to use ECC and Buffered memory: it’s a requirement for almost all two CPU socket motherboards.

Once I had the system up and running I remembered the horrible fan noise from the chipset fan. It was a very loud and irritating 40mm fan: screeching at boot up and settled to a roar the rest of the time. The chipset sits behind the PCI-E x16 slots so I couldn’t use a normal heatsink in place of the fan. Looking around I found the Thermalright HR-05-SLI chipset heatsink.

As you can see the fins jut out on two heatpipes to get it out of the way of the SLI slots. On my motherboard it could face three ways: up, right or down. First two wouldn’t work with other connections on the motherboard so I installed it facing down. When they say it will work with SLI they must mean single slot graphics cards, as with a 7900GT in the bottom slot there’s a hair’s width between the graphics card and the heatsink fins.

Let’s back up a bit: installation is very easy. Remove the motherboard so you can pinch the plastic pins that hold the existing fan in place. Once that’s off clean the chipset off and put down the heatsink: for my chipset I had to put a rubber outline on the bottom of the heatsink so it would be level all around. Securing the heatsink to the motherboard is done by using one of the arms included: put the arm on the heatsink, line up it’s nub with the indent in the center, secure the arm with two plastic push pins. It’s really easy and there’s a nice walkthrough on their site. If you need it they include an arm with grooved ends that can be used with plastic zip ties and four holes in the motherboard.

Once on I reinstalled the motherboard and got everything back together. So far performance is quite good: I don’t think I’ll need to attach a fan for maximum cooling, but I’m not overclocking anything and my case has good airflow.

All in all an excellent product for those of us who need it.