Are you running SSD? because 30MB/s is respectable for PATA mechanical drives. VIA VT82C693A in general is not great, you could maybe gains 20-30% by switching to 440BX board and running that with overclocked 133MHz FSB, but that brings its own set of problems (GPU tolerating overclocked AGP etc).

ATA66 requires a 80-conductor cable and it seems like if you are using a converter card like ide to sata or ide to SD they cant go to full speeds.

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-12-27, 22:14:

Are you running SSD? because 30MB/s is respectable for PATA mechanical drives. VIA VT82C693A in general is not great, you could maybe gains 20-30% by switching to 440BX board and running that with overclocked 133MHz FSB, but that brings its own set of problems (GPU tolerating overclocked AGP etc).

Im running a Seagate 20Gb and a WD 40Gb both Ata100 capable.

I'm not targeting a 440BX nor overclock.
Im currently running a P3 933, 1Gb Ram, why should i get in trouble downgrading a chipset and overclocking at the same time?
I'd rather go for an 815 series intel chipset mobo. Anyway, if I would be switching motherboard so easy, I wouldn't post that thread.

Grem Five wrote on 2023-12-27, 22:29:

ATA66 requires a 80-conductor cable and it seems like if you are using a converter card like ide to sata or ide to SD they cant go to full speeds.

I'm running an 80 conductor cable mate. No adapter on it.
IDE Drives, connected as primary master on each bus.

Morx wrote on 2023-12-28, 08:16:

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-12-27, 22:14:

Are you running SSD? because 30MB/s is respectable for PATA mechanical drives.

Im running a Seagate 20Gb and a WD 40Gb both Ata100 capable.

As I said before, respectable normal numbers for drives of this vintage http://ixbtlabs.com/articles/hddreview0112/index.html

Morx wrote on 2023-12-28, 08:16:

I'm not targeting a 440BX nor overclock. Im currently running a P3 933, 1Gb Ram, why should i get in trouble downgrading a chips […]
Show full quote

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-12-27, 22:14:

VIA VT82C693A in general is not great, you could maybe gains 20-30% by switching to 440BX board and running that with overclocked 133MHz FSB, but that brings its own set of problems (GPU tolerating overclocked AGP etc).

I'm not targeting a 440BX nor overclock.
Im currently running a P3 933, 1Gb Ram, why should i get in trouble downgrading a chipset and overclocking at the same time?
I'd rather go for an 815 series intel chipset mobo. Anyway, if I would be switching motherboard so easy, I wouldn't post that thread.

Yes, 815 would be equally good upgrade with no downsides associated with overclocked 440BX, except for ridiculous Intel max ram capacity shenanigans. From what I heard 694T is another good option.
Why? because by using 693A you are leaving that 20-30% overall computer performance on the floor. One could argue performance is not that important, but then here we are in this thread with you complaining about performance 😀
Since you dont want replacing parts I can point you away from HDD (performance is fine) to pathetic 693A RAM speed. There are hacks available reprogramming VIA memory controller to claw back at least 10-20% speed (cant find any links right now 🙁). I wont dwell on AGP/gaming speed since you installed NT2K, meaning you arent about that retro gaming life 😀.

WD 40GB won't do much above 30MB/sec unless it's the WD400BB then it will hit 66 out of the cache do a bit at 60 and decline to 40 by the end of the drive.

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-12-28, 23:25:

Yes, 815 would be equally good upgrade with no downsides associated with overclocked 440BX, except for ridiculous Intel max ram capacity shenanigans. From what I heard 694T is another good option.
Why? because by using 693A you are leaving that 20-30% overall computer performance on the floor. One could argue performance is not that important, but then here we are in this thread with you complaining about performance 😀
Since you dont want replacing parts I can point you away from HDD (performance is fine) to pathetic 693A RAM speed. There are hacks available reprogramming VIA memory controller to claw back at least 10-20% speed (cant find any links right now 🙁). I wont dwell on AGP/gaming speed since you installed NT2K, meaning you arent about that retro gaming life 😀.

First of all I'm sorry for really late response on that. Missed my e-mail notification for some reason and I've been super busy for months.
Now that I'm relaxed and finally got to sort things out with my collection.

You were right about HDD speed, it's been many many years since I had similar performance PC and I was way younger back then, I almost forgot that sustained 30mb/sec was almost a "miracle" for that era.

So far i'm running W2K cause XP might feel a bit heavy for that machine, plus 98SE is not-so-modern for things I'm going to do.
I've got wifi in my garage and this retro tower is isolated in a Vlan from where i can only access my MP3s, my PDFs and stuff when working on my toolbench, bikes etc...
Until I'm done finalizing the manageable switch rules, tidying up in the garage, cables, desk, hifi speakers etc.... i won't be "gaming". BUT....

A few weeks ago, I tried a GF2 MX400 64mb on 3dMark2001se and got 2800 points. I think that's not bad, right?? (everything on stock clocks).
(Azza 693atx, 2x 512MB kingston PC133 sticks, GF2 MX400 64Mb SDR 200/166, P3 933mhz)

Oh, any reference on those "hacks" about memory controller? Do you mean the "Memory interleave enabler" ?

As for benchmarking my drives I'll post the results at some point in this thread. Found some faster drives I'm about to test.

Morx wrote on 2024-02-16, 16:05:

Oh, any reference on those "hacks" about memory controller? Do you mean the "Memory interleave enabler" ?

yes, but more. For example Re: Low memory score
Order Queue depth prefetch depth post-write depth
There was a post by someone wpcredit/WPCRSet modding the living pants out of a bad VIA board bringing it back to almost normal performance level, I cant seem to find it now 🙁

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-02-16, 18:32:

yes, but more. For example Re: Low memory score Order Queue depth prefetch depth post-write depth There was a post by someone w […]
Show full quote

Morx wrote on 2024-02-16, 16:05:

Oh, any reference on those "hacks" about memory controller? Do you mean the "Memory interleave enabler" ?

yes, but more. For example Re: Low memory score
Order Queue depth prefetch depth post-write depth
There was a post by someone wpcredit/WPCRSet modding the living pants out of a bad VIA board bringing it back to almost normal performance level, I cant seem to find it now 🙁

Overclockers.com had a front page article on WPCREDIT with Apollo 133 and 133A chipsets: https://www.overclockers.com/wpcredit/

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-02-16, 18:32:

There was a post by someone wpcredit/WPCRSet modding the living pants out of a bad VIA board bringing it back to almost normal performance level, I cant seem to find it now 🙁

I finally remembered! It wasnt VIA, it was SIS chipset pcchips board, worst of the worst. PCChips M747 / SiS 600 Tuning: The Anti Thesis Thread. NOT the bane of MY existence. 😀

@RepoMan11 .... appreciate the link. This is crazy and I'll definitely attempt to mess up with it as soon as I hook up this PC in it's place!!

So i've tested some drives. Here's the results...
Sorry for direct pictures instead of screenshot, i was lazy transfering files here and there.

Seagate ST320413A ... was REALLY slow capped to 30mb/s above 64k files.
I think IDE bus can give a bit more, right?
Is there a real benefit going into an IDE to Sata adapter?