Need Great Combo Drive - hoxlund's question

[hoxlund]

Ok tomorrow at work im buying two 250GB SATA 16MB Cache hard drives, this will bring my total of SATA drives to 5

One more then my mobo allowes, so i have to sell my MSI SATA Combo Drive, and buy another PATA combo drive

So I ask, I need your guy's feedback on great combo drives, main thing is that the DVD part has to rip as fast as possible

In case you were wondering, im buying the 2x250gb sata hard drives for $10 after i return my 2x250gb pata drives

this brings my current hard drive size for this computer (excluding external hard drives) to 740GB

including externals and xbox storage ive got 1,154 Terrabytes

[hoxlund]

oops also as you might imagine im selling my MSI SATA Combo Drive

model number is the MSI XA52P

16x dvd-rom
52x32x52x cd-rw

[burninfool]

I have a Lite-On SOHC-5232K($42@newegg.com),it rips a DVD-5 at 14x and a DVD-9 at 8x.
52x32x52 and can be made region free.

BTW...the SOHC-5235 is similar.

[hoxlund]

whats the difference between the 5235 and 5232?

those are nice ripping speeds, does it come in black

i forgot to mention that as well, all my drives are black right now so my new one has to be

also where is that hacked firmware? didn't see it on firmware forum

[ClayBuster]

Why not add a SATA 2 port card to the system. I use the Sil3112 and it works fine.

[hoxlund]

no i don't wanna add cards, with a computer like mine i need it as clean as possible on the inside

[burninfool]

The differance is the 5232 has a headphone jack and volume control.
Yes newegg.com has the 5235 in black.
I don't use the hacked firmware,I use KProbe to make region free.
BTW..in case you're wondering about write quality....

[hoxlund]

you sure about the headphone and volume thing?

cause newegg's picture tells a different story:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 971&depa=1

hmm at least there picture of the white oem version doesn't have those

but the black does, so I would guess the black model does not have headphone and volume

btw those scans are beautiful

[cfitz]

btw those scans are beautiful

Too beautiful, in my opinion. I suspect that this combo drive is subject to the same phenomenon that Lite-On's straight DVD-ROM drives exhibit: they read the C1/C2 errors in "cooked" mode rather than "raw" so they dramatically under-report the true errors. I suggest sticking with a CD-RW drive for CD-R C1/C2 testing and a DVD-RW drive for DVD-R PI/PO testing.

cfitz

[hoxlund]

ordered:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe ... 932&depa=0

$42 shipped, thx for all the input

[hoxlund]

damn there fast, i just noticed i ordered the 5232, i wanted the 5235 without the volume and headphone jack

i used paypal, and less then a minute later its already on step 3

ohh well, no biggie, its what i get for ordering after coming home from ruby tuesday's with 6 beers in me

[LoneWolf]

What, you're not going to take this as an opportunity to go with an MSI K8N Neo 4 Platinum mainboard?

8 SATA port goodness...

[hoxlund]

I just threw a $340+ staples cash card on ebay, im thinking of either getting a 6800 ultra or new SLI mobo and go with 2 sli capable video cards

[LoneWolf]

I wouldn't go SLI. After doing extensive reading and finding out it won't work in every game (and is completely incompatible with some), I firmly believe that a single powerful card is the best way to go.

Anandtech just had the new DFI NF4 boards out for review this morning. If they had one onboard serial port, I'd consider one (have to config a router or other gear occasionally), since they don't my choice will likely be the MSI K8N Neo 4 Platinum one things have matured a bit.

[hoxlund]

last time i used a serial port was for my nintendo 64's dex drive, so you can see i have no use for one

as for msi i just never trusted em, ive seen capaciters start leaking and stuff like that on msi's

ill probably go with the gigabyte SLI mobo and 2 6600gts, total right now for that setup is $645.98

[dodecahedron]

sorry for off-topic, but what's SLI (in a nutshell) ? (yeah, i'm showing as a great big ignoramus, i know)

[hoxlund]

heres a good article:

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphi ... index.html

testing and benchmarks are showing that SLI setups are damn near double the video performance or FPS (Frames Per Second) - before you even ask dodecahedron

but there is the occasional game that doesn't support SLI, like flight sim 2004, as you can see in those benchmarks on tom's the 6800 ultra alone without another 6800 ultra performs better

but me coming off a 5900 ultra anything is better then this, my vid card is just really showing its age

[LoneWolf]

Once available in quantity, my next vid card will probably be a Radeon X800XL VIVO edition of some sort.

If I was going nVidia, I'd probably go single 6800GT instead of two 6600GT's, then upgrade if the SLI bug bit. There are more games than flightsim currently not supported, World of Warcraft, Chronicles of Riddick, Everquest 2, and others aren't on the list as well (though they may be compatible if nVidia ever tests them and codes them into new drivers). Due to nVidia's slow driver releases, plus their broken promises on the onboard video processor for most 6800 cards, and the way they're marketing SLI (not being clear to end-users that it isn't supported in all games), I'll be going back to ATI next time around. My Radeon 9700 was a good card.

For SLI to even be a thought with me, nVidia would have to commit to driver updates the way ATI has. Since the Radeon 8500 release, they've really cleaned up what once used to be miserable driver support, in quality as well as in frequency of driver updates. nVidia's most recent WHQL drivers are dated November 9, 2004. ATI has had at least two driver updates since then.

[hoxlund]

my last ati card was also a 9700 pro all in wonder

great card

aww not going with the x850xtpe?

there only $699

[LoneWolf]

my last ati card was also a 9700 pro all in wonder

great card

aww not going with the x850xtpe?

there only $699

I was really tempted to pre-order the X800XL on ATI's website when it was available, with 20% coupon code you could get it for $246. I held off because of the one issue with ATI: paper launches. Didn't think I'd want to wait x months to get one, even though ATI won't charge your card until it ships. I'm starting to wish I had ordered one, as even if it takes a month or two it'll be the cheapest price on a performance PCIe card there is. Lowest market price right now through retailers is $399, which is $100 above MSRP. Still dropping, but I don't think it'll drop below MSRP all that quickly.

Apparently you can still pre-order the card by phone at the $299 price from ATI, but the coupon code is no longer available.

[hoxlund]

the x800xl is less of a card then the x800xt right?

cause you got me looking at the x800xt pci-x version

for the price its really good on memory speed and core speed

[Bhairav]

the x800xl is less of a card then the x800xt right?

cause you got me looking at the x800xt pci-x version

for the price its really good on memory speed and core speed

X800XL - 12 pipelines, X800XT - 16. Ergo, XT>XL :p

[hoxlund]

yeah gotta go with the 16 piper, right now im leaning more towards a ultra 4 board and a x800xt

[LoneWolf]

the x800xl is less of a card then the x800xt right?

cause you got me looking at the x800xt pci-x version

for the price its really good on memory speed and core speed

X800XL - 12 pipelines, X800XT - 16. Ergo, XT>XL :p

Nope, the X800XL is a full 16 pipelines. The X800 Pro is 12. X800XL is also on the new .11 micron proces instead of the older .13 used for even the X850 cards.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2299

[hoxlund]

hmm thx for all the info, the x800xl's are looking good