ATA-66 vs. ATA-100 -- here's my actual test results.

[leoblob]

Almost a year ago, I asked for opinions on speed increases going from ATA-66 to ATA-100. http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=27459

I finally got around to checking it out.

First, the computer: IBM PC300GL (6563-99U) with 1.4GHz PIII-S (1400/512/133) in Powerleap converter, 1GB PC133 SDRAM at CL2, Western Digital 80GB, 7200RPM, ATA-100 drive, with 8MB cache. Drive is about 85% free. WIN2K.

"Before" was with the hard drive plugged directly into the motherboard (ATA-66). "After" was with the hard drive plugged into a Promise Ultra 100 controller.

Numbers here are ATA-66 / ATA-100...

End of POST until desktop appears: 36 sec / 30 sec
End of POST until icons appear: 52 sec / 45½ sec
End of POST until hourglass goes away: 62 sec / 55 sec
Boot up Firefox 2.0: 7 sec / 5½ sec
Open 88 MB TIFF file: 5 sec / 5 sec
"Save As" 88 MB TIFF file: 6½ sec / 5½ sec
Convert large Word file to Acrobat: 21 sec / 18½ sec
Adaware scan: 4.78 min (287 sec) / 4.48 min (269 sec)
Clibench-mkiii avg read: 25,650 kB per sec / 57,110 kB per sec
Clibench-mkiii avg write: 22,570 kB per sec / 49,050 kB per sec

I'm not actually sure what to make of all this. The computer does feel faster, although not by the large margin that the Clibench results might indicate.

It's fun hot-rodding an old beater!

[ryengineer]

Great info.

So ATA-100 is faster, atleast by some margin.

[fefrie]

I was obsessed about 'thinking' about upgrading my p3 aio netvista using the powerleap adaptor and a tualatin processor and putting in a card to get ata-100.

Then out of pure luck I managed to latch onto a p4 1.6 AIO netvista for $100 on ebay WITH a power adaptor. It used the same memory, so for a quick swap, the old p3 was retired to a friend and now I run the p4 AIO.

The BIG thing that I hated with the p3 AIO was the fact that ripping and burning DVDs took FOREVER.

It's alot better now. It was cheaper to get a p4. Just trying to bid on a cheap tualatin processor is a trying process, but I do love the small form factor.

Unfortunately, I want to upgrade the processor, but I fear that the sdram may be the limiting factor in getting max performance (and the 16mb vid memory too)