recomended fast ata IDE controller and software

[Dantron]

Looking for some advice.
My system is currently:
a3000 in elbox mirage 3000d tower
warpengine 3040
32 megs ram
2 megs chip
1 internal 2 gig scsi hard drive running off warp scsi controller
Mediator from elbox
voodoo 3
network card
picasso IV
DPS PAR card
AD516 sunrise sound card

I would really like to be able to burn CD's or DVD's even better.  I would also like to get a bigger hardrive.
So I am thinking access to IDE drives would be the way to go, no?
So to do that, what controller would you recommend for my system?
Once the controller is in, do I just buy any PC DVD re-writable cheap drive?  What burning software should I use?  I browsed the net a little, and found frying pan, which seems to be still in development which is good.
Also, if I plugged a new hard drive into said controller, would it work concurrently with the scsi drive through the warp controller?
Thanks for the help all.
Dan

[motorollin]

Dantron wrote:
So I am thinking access to IDE drives would be the way to go, no?

No. Stick with SCSI. You can either use an IDE -> SCSI adapter to connect an IDE drive to the SCSI interface, or get a SCSI drive and connect it directly. But I would definitely not recommend using the IDE controller if you've got a SCSI controller.

--
moto

[Dantron]

I appreciate the advice.  Out of curiosity why do you recommend this?
My thoughts are if I had a ide controller I could buy a dvd burner and a 200gig hard drive.... like both for around 150 bucks.  A scsi dvd burner alone could cost.... well alot!
If it's a scsi speed versus ide speed issue, I think I could put up with the slower performance.
What are your thoughts?
Dan

[rkauer]

Dantron wrote:
--zip--
I would really like to be able to burn CD's or DVD's even better.  I would also like to get a bigger hardrive.
So I am thinking access to IDE drives would be the way to go, no?
--zip--
Once the controller is in, do I just buy any PC DVD re-writable cheap drive?  What burning software should I use?  I browsed the net a little, and found frying pan, which seems to be still in development which is good.
Also, if I plugged a new hard drive into said controller, would it work concurrently with the scsi drive through the warp controller?
Thanks for the help all.
Dan

 I agree with Moto, stick to the SCSI. Why?

 SCSI is faster, non-cpu eater, easy to expand.

 An IDE to SCSI converter is cheap.

[arkanoid]

rkauer wrote:
 An IDE to SCSI converter is cheap.

orly? :-) would you mind linking to one. The only ones I have seen sell for around $90. :-(

[rkauer]

arkanoid wrote:

orly? :-) would you mind linking to one. The only ones I have seen sell for around $90. :-(

 Orly? Are you french? - Sorry for the joke.

link1
link2
link3
link4
etc.... :roll:

[narmi]

The first three links are not IDE to SCSI adapters, they are 80-pin to 68-pin SCSI adapters.  The fourth link is to a $40 item.

If they were cheap I would have one by now

[motorollin]

Dantron wrote:
I appreciate the advice.  Out of curiosity why do you recommend this?
My thoughts are if I had a ide controller I could buy a dvd burner and a 200gig hard drive.... like both for around 150 bucks.  A scsi dvd burner alone could cost.... well alot!

Yes, of course IDE devices are cheaper than SCSI devices.

Dantron wrote:
If it's a scsi speed versus ide speed issue, I think I could put up with the slower performance.

All I will say is that when I first made the move from IDE to SCSI (back when I had my A1200T), it was like a different machine. The SCSI controller uses significantly less CPU than the IDE controller. The machine booted in half the time, and EVERYTHING was faster. When I then got my A4000 and had to go back to IDE, it was painful. And again, when I got set up with SCSI on the A4000, it was like a new machine again.

Dantron wrote:
What are your thoughts?

Well of course the decision is yours, but in my opinion you will never truly see what your Amiga can do while it is tied up thinking about making your disks work! Do your Amiga a favour - take that job away from it and give it to the SCSI controller, and you will be a lot happier with your Amiga experience. Yes it will cost you more, but being totally honest not a huge amount. I think I paid about £30 for my SCSI hard disk and probably about the same for my SCSI CD-RW. Yes that's probably three times what I would have paid for IDE equivalents, but the improvements in performance speak for themselves.

[EDIT]
Corrected stupid errors
[/EDIT]

--
moto

[spirantho]

Plus of course even at $40 a throw, you could buy 2 IDE->SCSI bridges for the price of a fast IDE card for your Amiga, but this way you get better performance and you don't use up a Zorro slot.

Make sure you can use a CD/DVD writer with the bridge though...!

[A6000]

spirantho wrote:
Plus of course even at $40 a throw, you could buy 2 IDE->SCSI bridges for the price of a fast IDE card for your Amiga, but this way you get better performance and you don't use up a Zorro slot.

Make sure you can use a CD/DVD writer with the bridge though...!

What bridge?
I have just got a GVP a2000 HC+8 without a manual so I am completely in the dark about how to use it.

Will it work with DVD rewriters, I have heard that early attempts resulted in ruined disks ( coasters) because something was not fast enough.

Any hints or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

I have a 25mhz 030, but will upgrade if necessary.

P.S Anyone got a manual they no longer need? or a link to an on-line manual, Thanks.

[rkauer]

A6000 wrote:

What bridge?
I have just got a GVP a2000 HC+8 without a manual so I am completely in the dark about how to use it.

Will it work with DVD rewriters, I have heard that early attempts resulted in ruined disks ( coasters) because something was not fast enough.

Any hints or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

I have a 25mhz 030, but will upgrade if necessary.

P.S Anyone got a manual they no longer need? or a link to an on-line manual, Thanks.

 The problem with your machine is caused by two major bottlenecks: The ZorroII bus (no more than 8~10Mb/s) and the processor itself. DVDs need at least 1.7 Mb/s continuous flux of data. Make sure you're not trying to burn in a speed higher than 1x.
 

[Dantron]

Ok, cool, that is all really good advice.  Having always had the amiga 3000 with a scsi drive I never knew about the processor slow down issues.  I do use programs like the AD516 which need to read and write directly to the HD so a slow down could have been bad.

Now as to burning software.  What is a good choice both for functionality, but also future.  If there are 2 programs that both do the task fine, but one is still being developed I would prefer to support that one.

Thanks,
Dan

[Dandy]

Dantron wrote:

...
Now as to burning software.  What is a good choice both for functionality, but also future.  If there are 2 programs that both do the task fine, but one is still being developed I would prefer to support that one.
...

Regarding IDE vs. SCSI:
I can only confirm what the others already said: Forget about the IDE, use SCSI instead - your system performance is much faster with SCSI.

Regarding DVD drive:
I have an IDE DVD-RW (LG) connected to the UW-SCSI hostadaptor of my CSPPC via an UW-SCSI to IDE bridge by ACARD in my A4000 and it works flawlessly without any slowdowns. AFAIK ACARD has the adaptors with the best performance.

As burning software I use FryingPan (full version), which is still supported, AFAIK.

[countzero]

if you have a warpengine, use its scsi controller. it should be faster than a3000 native scsi or gvp zorro2 board.

[marcfrick2112]

well, another vote for SCSI and the warpengine controller. The WarpEngine SCSI controller seems quite fast to me, perhaps twice as fast as the DCE 1230 SCSI module on my A1200T, using the same 2.1GB HDD, and 100MB Zip drives.
I had an IDE DVD burner on my A1200T, was painfully slow, and not too reliable even when only burning CD-r's....

If you have the option, stick with SCSI....