VIA vs. Intel & NV IDE Controllers

[swaaye]

I just got myself a new Dell Inspiron 9300. I upgraded from my eMachines 6805. Sold it to my dad.

This new Inspiron is a P-M with the i915 chipset. The 6805 was a A64 with K8T800. I used the same hard drive in both, a 7200RPM Hitachi 7k60. Defragging used to be so terribly slow on the 6805. Now with this Intel-based system it is lightning fast. It is tremendously faster. I defragged my Windows partition with Windows defrag in like 10mins instead of 30mins with the 6805. This was the first defrag since installing XP and all my progs.

I've always been suspicious of VIA's IDE controllers since the VT8232 on the KT266A. That board is so sluggish compared to my NF2 board, even when they are both equipped with Western Digital SE drives. Now I'm seeing the same thing between this Inspiron with a ICH6 and the 6805 with the VIA K8T800/VT8325 combo.

 

[swaaye]

It just occurred to me that I switched from FAT32 partitions to NTFS with this new Windows install on the new notebook. Does XP's defragger like NTFS a lot more?

 

[Tokelil]

One of Microsofts PR claims for NTFS is that it doesn't fragment and that there's no need to defrag. (Can't remember why they claim it) So my guess is that, yes XP likes NTFS a lot more.

 

[Pete]

FAT defrags seem to be a lot more thorough than NTFS defrags IME, which might also help explain the discrepancy. And doesn't Intel have their IDE Accelerator or some such? Maybe that helps, too.

 

[{Sniping}Waste]

When it comes to PATA and SATA controlers then VIA and Nforce are the slowest out there. The fastest out there is SIS and Intel just behind SIS.

Look up reviews that deal with disk intensive test and you will see what im talking about.

 

[swaaye]

I don't have Intel Application Accelerator. Just used their INF update. I don't even think there is an IAA for the newest chipsets (just for the RAID ones).

 

[MasterBaiter]

Not sure on it as well. The Intel IAA driver was essentially an IDE replacement for Microsofts. Had a nice little gui for checking your IDE essentials as well.

From my experiences I'd say from best to worst in regards to IDE driver quality: Intel, Nvidia, VIA.

 

[swaaye]

I've used IAA on a i845 board. It's decent but can mess with optical drives, just like NV's SW IDE drivers can. VIA even had their own IDE accelerator driver but it was not good.

One can IMMEDIATELY feel the speed of a nForce 2 board vs. a KT333 for example. Everything just feels quicker, even with the same CPU. NV and Intel on close enough that you can't feel the difference.

Defragging NTFS vs. FAT32 is just as much faster on that eMachines 6805 K8T800/VT8325. Something about FAT32 makes defrag take a lot longer...