Upgrade motherboard ? Asus P4S8X - stability issues

[TJ2004]

I am new to the forum so Hi everyone,

Ok my current pc configuration is Asus P4S8X, I have 4 IDE HDD connected - totalling 400 GB (I do a lot of video editing, and yes use a greatdeal of space!!! 400 GB is almost full!), 3x removable drives. CPU P4 2.4 GHz, socket 478. Power supply 400W.

I have to use a PCI Promise controller for the added IDE support. I also am using 1 GB ram 2x PC2700 256 mB, and 1x PC3200 512 MB.

There appears to be a stability issue which maybe because of the memory or the added promise controller (there is already an intergrated promise controller on board).

I wish to recify the situation with the cheapest alternative available, so the possibilities I have thought of are some of the following options:

1. Change the Motherboard. There are now some cheap socket 478 motherboards on the table as this socket is not the most up to date, and therefore should hopefully be cheap. But which is a suitable alternative? Also are there any adapters so one can use a socket 478 cpu with an alternative socket?

Alternatively would it be better to switch to an AMD motherboard and cpu?, as I am performing video editing and the PC does slow when engaging transcoding and editing.

2. Using the onboard SATA controllers for HDD. If this is the case is there a way of using Parrallel ATA HDD with SATA controllers?

Or alternatively Buying additional SATA drives.

3. I also have limited RAID capability on board which I am not using - actually not sure how to, so advice on this would be great if this is an option.

4. Would removable drives be an option? and can one have SATA drives?.

5. How about Power - do you think a 400W power supply is sufficient? If not which supply do you recommend, with enough connectors for components, and ideally fairly quiet.

The may be other alternatives so I am open to suggestions.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and suggestions of suitable replacements.

[DT1]

Hello, welcome to Kustom. :)

If that is a generic PSU I would be tempted to say that that is your problem. Can you run with a minimum configuration of drives for a while to see if the stability problem goes away?

You can test the memory using something like memtest to make sure that it is OK.

It is unlikely to be the Promise controller, I use a PCI RAID card with an onboard SATA RAID controller with no adverse affects.

Can you give some idea of how much you want to spend?

[TJ2004]

The power supply I have is an QTechnology Ultra-Quiet 400 W power supply, and I have a feeling that with 4 HDD on board, and 3 devices it may be a little too much for the pc.

I was hoping to spend under £200, but may be slightly flexible on this.

The reason I was wondering about the promise controller is that the board also has a promise controlled on board as well my addition of a PCI so I wondered if it was a clash of components. The board specification is http://uk.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4s8x/overview.htm

You have a raid array, how do you set up the raid so you can use them as a single drive? eg if i put 2 identical IBM deskstar 120 GB on the raid will it consider them as a 240 GB drive?

Can IDE HDD be connected to SATA drives?

[DT1]

I don't actually use RAID I just have the drivers installed so that the controllers work for the devices attached. :)

Do you really need RAID 0? Remember that if one drive goes all the information is lost on both drives and the drives get wiped as part of the RAID procedure so you would need to backup the 240Gb of info that you already have before you start (or are you talking new hard drives?)

The section in the ASUS manual about creating a RAID array is pretty comprehensive so I would be just repeating what they say, besides which I use an ABIT motherboard. :)

I would be tempted to get

Western Digital SATA 200Gb (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_6235.html) = £88.00 (it's out of stock at the moment but you can ask KustomPCs when they are due a delivery)

There is a 250Gb version but that is £137 so on price per Gb the 200Gb HD is better value.

Tagan 480W (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1763.html) = £70.44
or
Antec NeoPower PSU 480w (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1774.html) = £94.00 (this has a nifty power cable set up which might interest you)

Total = £158.44 plus p&p (Tagan) or £182.00 plus p&p (Antec)

Increases storage by 50% (gives you something to backup to if you do want to go down the RAID route) and cures your power problem (if that's what it is).

However, there are others here that are more into video editing so might be able to advise you better.

Edit: Yes, you can get IDE-SATA adapters for HD's.

[vantim]

The power supply I have is an QTechnology Ultra-Quiet 400 W power supply, and I have a feeling that with 4 HDD on board, and 3 devices it may be a little too much for the pc.

I was hoping to spend under £200, but may be slightly flexible on this.

The reason I was wondering about the promise controller is that the board also has a promise controlled on board as well my addition of a PCI so I wondered if it was a clash of components. The board specification is http://uk.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4s8x/overview.htm

You have a raid array, how do you set up the raid so you can use them as a single drive? eg if i put 2 identical IBM deskstar 120 GB on the raid will it consider them as a 240 GB drive?

Can IDE HDD be connected to SATA drives?
Your Correct!!!!
Setting them up as raid 0 it will see both drives as 1 240gb drive. It's easy as pie to set up. 1st you need to start with blank drives. Which means backing up all your data! Is this something you can accomplish?

I would like to know before explaining the rest.

[Big Adam]

Provided your PSU is QTechnology and not Q-Tec, then the PSU is NOT the source of your stability issues. A good quality 400W PSU is ample for your setup.

I'd take a look at your RAM first, especially if it is generic or mixed brand.

Whilst it is perfectly possible to mix RAM speeds, brands and sizes as you have done, it's far from ideal. As suggested, run memtest and see what spits out.

Assuming it is functioning properly, you do not need to change your motherboard. I'm a bit of an Asus fanboy, but even with a 'neutral' hat on, I'd still say your mobo was a solid bit of kit.

I'm assuming that you are using a 2x IDE device PCI card? I'd suggest that your simplest solution may be to sell that and buy a 4x IDE device unit. That way, once your system was stable, you'd be able to add either IDE or SATA devices depending on budget. 4x IDE Promise cards can be sourced cheaply.

[TJ2004]

Thanks guys for the tips.

I was considering further HDD, maybe a larger one to replace some of the smaller I have - maybe 200GB instead of the 120 GBx2 Deskstar I already have. I was considering putting the Deskstar (I can transfer the data around)onto the Raid array after backing such up (probably using the new drive) and then use the desksatr the raid blanking them, I am not sure how to backup yet but was planning on reading the ASUS handbook for that.

Another thought was to use the ideskstar ide HDD with the sata controllers if the leads or connectors can indeed do such.

You are right I am using a 2 IDE port for the PCI, so maybe the upgrade to a 4 IDE may be a possibility or maybe an addition as i have spare pci ports. I guess none of you think having more than one promise controller is a problem (the onboard one and the pci one).

I will try the memory test as suggested and let us see the difference.

Thanks Guys.

[TJ2004]

Ok guys memtest left over night showed no errors so I guess the memory is ok.