IDE - usb through a Spider - a good alternative to powerflyer?

[Boot_WB]

Am probably going to get a spider for my mediator when I get it fixed - does anyone know what the transfer speed is like using an IDE-USB or SCSI-USB converter.  

According to Elbox the speeds are - potentially - remarkable (can't remember exact figures, but seemed better than powerflyer on the face of it).

So, given a standard IDE hd to boot off, and a nice big SCSI hd through the USB why would anyone still want a powerflyer?

Please don't flame my ignorance, I've never yet had USB on Amiga experience.

[Boot_WB]

Fair enough, I'll shelve my plans for the spider for now.

[Boot_WB]

Is that on your amiga, or your XP?

Elbox state compatible with USB 2.0 (480Mbps) and USB 1.1 (12Mbps) devices.
I know 'compatible' doesn't necessarily mean 'runs at this speed,' but surely it's not cripplingly slow like native IDE port.
Furthermore the mediator has DMA transfers between devices, so a usb cdrom - usb hdd should surely be a better, faster option than IDE or SCSI.

If anyone has a spider - hdd setup i'd be most interseted in a diskspeed test.

[Boot_WB]

@ all

Lordy, I wish Elbox would state that in their description - something along the lines of "USB 2.0- compatibility at USB 1.1 speeds"

So, this speed limitation will also apply to the possibility of using a USB scanner, digital camera etc.

All of a sudden, USB on amiga 1200 seems less of a good idea.

With the mediator 4000 it seems it has DMA access to the motherboard space (presumably limited to the 16mb on board, not the extended fastram on a turbocard).  Does the mediator 4000 then allow USB2 speeds?

Presumably if the Shark is released (or indeed ever exists) IT will provide dma access between PCI and fastram.  
Can't seem to find anything on the Elbox site which mentions this though....
Pity I won't have the megabucks required to buy one.

[Boot_WB]

I'm stunned.

I'd read mention of the RDB trashing code on the Yahoo poseidon user's group, but didn't know the details.

I don't see how they can claim this doesn't destroy your data.  I have a couple of hard drives where the rdb has become trashed (notably a toshiba which reads as a Uoshiba in HDtoolbox), and firstly - they come up as unsinstalled hdd, secondly - the hdtoolbox program errors out (error 4 I believe).  

It does seem a rather rabid response from an allegedly professional company.

[Boot_WB]

Hmmm... there doesn't seem to be a smiley for ducking out of the crossfire.   :-D

[Boot_WB]

:whack: :flame: :destroy: :argue:

Yikes, (ducks under table to avoid chairs being thrown across bar)

I'm almost afraid to ask, for fear of inciting further aggression in the community  :-)

From: http://www.elbox.com/products/mediator_pci_4000d.html
"
• DMA to A4000 motherboard space
Mediator PCI 4000D includes a busmastering controller supporting transfers between PCI cards and the A4000 motherboard space.
"

Is this, then, inaccurate?
If the 4000 supports dma to the mediator from fast & chip memory (and a noticable speed difference in memory-pci transfers) I'd consider making the switch from my 1200 - otherwise I probably won't bother.

[Boot_WB]

@platon42

Thanks for the info re: a4000 dma.  Don't think I'll bother making the switch to a4000 then.  Too much cost, and memory/accelerator on a1200 is easier & cheaper than the a4000 equivalent.

Think I'll just get a powerflyer (which also seems to run at a LOT less than the16MB/s Elbox quotes :-) - the review quoted on the elbox website shows transfers of around 5MB/s, and if that's their PR review then you can bet normal transfer rates are slower) or blizzard scsi until the magical mysterious Shark pops out of the clouds into reality :lol:  .