ATA100 ATA66 bus for Audio/System in G4 Dual 1.42 & 10.4

[DBorgers]

I bought a used G4 FW800 1.42ghz Mac because my Dual 867MDD was getting dropouts when I added a UAD card to my PCI-324 and UltraSCSI cards on the PCI bus. Thought the higher bus speeed in the 1.42 would help. G5's changing too fast for me to jump in there just yet.

So, now I'm configuring the new (used) G4 FW800 1.42ghz...

Master/Slave questions...

If I put OSX 10.4.6 on the ATA66 drive (using a 60 gig Maxtor ATA100 7200 rpm), and record audio to the ATA100 bus (using IBM 120 gig stock 7200 drive that came with the computer) will I: ???

1. Get acceptable performance for over 48 tracks of audio

2. Will samples like BFD, The Grand, etc work from the internal drive well

3. If I add another drive to the ATA100 bus just for samples for use with
VSTi's and Reason NN-XT (usually 2 4 samplers)will I have trouble
with the IDE read/write NOT at the same time issue that my UltraSCSI
drives didn't have as they can read/write at the same time and get
stutters if another ATA100 drive is on the same bus for Audio only

4. Is the ATA66 bus fast enough to run the OS

I have FW800 port on my new (used) G4800 Use Firewire 800 for Audio or samples only? Trying to figure out what's best WITHOUT adding a SATA card to my PCI bus, as I need the bandwidth for MOTU PCI card and 2 UAD cards.

Thanks in advance for your kind replies

[Frodo]

If I put OSX 10.4.6 on the ATA66 drive (using a 60 gig Maxtor ATA100 7200 rpm), and record audio to the ATA100 bus (using IBM 120 gig stock 7200 drive that came with the computer) will I: ???

1. Get acceptable performance for over 48 tracks of audio

Pending no other conflicts, yes.

2. Will samples like BFD, The Grand, etc work from the internal drive well

Technically, as long as your VI samples are not on the same drive as your OS, yes. This doesn't speak to other possible compatibility twiddles with these VI's which may present (have presented) different challenges to overcome.[/quote]

3. If I add another drive to the ATA100 bus just for samples for use with
VSTi's and Reason NN-XT (usually 2 4 samplers)will I have trouble
with the IDE read/write NOT at the same time issue that my UltraSCSI
drives didn't have as they can read/write at the same time and get
stutters if another ATA100 drive is on the same bus for Audio only

I wouldn't guess so, but I confess I'm not entirely sure. I don't recall having any read/write restrictions with my Adaptec SCSI card when doing audio, but that doesn't mean that I had the circumstances which prompted such a restriction. Anyone else have any ideas?

4. Is the ATA66 bus fast enough to run the OS

Yes. Plenty-- again, as long as you're not running anything else from this drive except for maybe the app and OS, but not audio tracks or VI's

I have FW800 port on my new (used) G4800 Use Firewire 800 for Audio or samples only? Trying to figure out what's best WITHOUT adding a SATA card to my PCI bus, as I need the bandwidth for MOTU PCI card and 2 UAD cards.

There should be no problem with audio files on the FW. Generally, there ought to be no problems with VI samples. Much depends upon how much data you require at one time to travel up and down the bus. If there's a way to keep VI's and audio separate, that would be my recommendation.

Thanks in advance for your kind replies

[DBorgers]

Thanks again, Frodo. Great that you're so helpful to others

Any feedback for others using ATA100 internally only would be helpful and appreciated.

Danny

[emulatorloo]

Any feedback for others using ATA100 internally only would be helpful and appreciated.

Hey Danny - an older article from soundonsound where the author connects ATA drives to different busses in a G4 and charts the differences he gets w number of tracks.

Originally starts off as an article on raid, but he tries most every option and reports on it. . .may be helpful to you.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Jul03/a ... edtest.asp

[DBorgers]

Thanks Emulatorloo,

That article was VERY helpful. I appreciate so much your taking the time to post.

Danny

[emulatorloo]

Thanks Emulatorloo,

That article was VERY helpful. I appreciate so much your taking the time to post.

Danny

He really tries out all the options, doesn't he. . .glad you got some use out of it. . .

Keep us posted -- I'm curious as to what you end up doing.

--

[Tritonemusic]

Keep us posted -- I'm curious as to what you end up doing.--

I have to make the same decision and would also like to know what you chose and how it's working out. Thanks.

[DBorgers]

666 (ever think about changing your name? lol),

I'm going with Firewire 800 for my audio files (different bus than the internals or using PCI card and plenty fast), Using the ATA 66 for my system drive, and the ATA 100 internal bus for my samples. Some samples, like Reason, will be stored on the system drive automatically and there's not much I can do about it. Since I use Ivory, The Grand, etc.,- samples that use a LOT of juice - I'll put them on the fastest bus internally (in my case ATA 100)

I may TRY a RAID 0 configuration on 2 drives in the ATA 100 bus to see if that makes any difference.

Will post as soon as I have everything hooked up. I'm waiting for one more piece of updated software before I put it all together.

I didn't go with running audio internally after reading good specs on large number of tracks on Firewire 800. Since I'm using some PCI peripherals too, it keeps stuff spread out evenly between all the internal and external buses.

[DBorgers]

I meant to include VST instruments to 'samples' which I'll be putting on my ATA 100 drive bus.

I think the portablility of using Firewire (which I already used for storage) will be good. I'm moving up to Firewire 800 from 400 which is why I didn't use Firewire before for my main audio drive.

The 2nd drive on my ATA 100 bus will be for backup of audio files and Cubase songs. The 2nd drive on my ATA 66 for backing up my system drive.

I've gotten good feedback here and elsewhere about using the ATA 66 bus for the system drive, as it's not really that busy and mostly is telling the processor what to do when it is. So, I'm not too worried.

Will post again in the next week. Please remind me if you don't see one and I'll update with a running system.

Been busy getting a couple of projects done and working a little at a time on my new system. Multiple orders to wait on for multiple drives, software, VST's, upgrades to do and all that. Going as fast as i can and still take my dog to the lake for swimming in all this nice weather. LOL

[DBorgers]

PS. The Firewire drive boxes HAVE to have the Oxford Chipset in them to work at maximum efficiency with audio. I'll post the brand of Firewire enclosure I pick up in the next couple of days. Ordered them locally. Don't know what the enclosures are yet.

Will have a DiamondMax 10 200gig ATA 100 drive in one an a Hitachi/IBM Deskstar 200gig in the other. After comparing them I'll post performance results.

Changing out hard drives sure doesn't scare me anymore if I get better results for another 50 bucks on a newer hard drive in a year.

[emulatorloo]

Changing out hard drives sure doesn't scare me anymore if I get better results for another 50 bucks on a newer hard drive in a year.

I appreciate all the updates. . .KEEP 'EM COMING!

I need to redo my Quicksilver sometime soon, so I look forward to hearing how it is going.
---

[Tritonemusic]

Hey DBorgers,

Thanks for all of the detailed info you provided. It's extremely helpful and I'm grateful for your input. I still haven't decided which route I'll take, but when I do, I'll post back in case anyone's interested.

666 (ever think about changing your name? lol)

Yes, I have. I changed it to "666."