E521 and Promise Ultra133 - anyone tried this ?

Has anyone actually installed a Promise Ultra133 (or similar other
brand) in the E521 to add IDE capability? If so,

1. What happens to the SATA ports? According to one Dell tech, he
thinks it will disable (or require disabling) two of the SATA ports.
Any experience?

2. Can the E521 be set to boot from an optical or HD attached to the
IDE card?

3. Does it work OK, or any other problems? Performance?

On Apr 17, 2:47 pm, Frank <F...@home.com> wrote:
> Has anyone actually installed a Promise Ultra133 (or similar other
> brand) in the E521 to add IDE capability? If so,
>
> 1. What happens to the SATA ports? According to one Dell tech, he
> thinks it will disable (or require disabling) two of the SATA ports.
> Any experience?
>
> 2. Can the E521 be set to boot from an optical or HD attached to the
> IDE card?
>
> 3. Does it work OK, or any other problems? Performance?

In general, the addition of a second hard drive controller, like the
Promise card does not require disabling anything. I've even used two
promise IDE cards, plus a SCSI card in the same machine, for bulk hard
disk wiping. Simultaneously overwriting random data on about 8 hard
drives. The machine couldn't quite keep up with all the IO... but it
didn't crash, it just went slower.

Unless there's been a problem with that particular machine, i think
the tech is feeding you bogusity.

If there IS a reported problem, then likely they have a bios update to
deal with it. Or will soon have.

"Frank" <Frank@home.com> wrote in message
news:i2ga23ddim81fc4n3vb2sir5ph4us6ajsu@4ax.com...
> Has anyone actually installed a Promise Ultra133 (or similar other
> brand) in the E521 to add IDE capability? If so,
>
> 1. What happens to the SATA ports? According to one Dell tech, he
> thinks it will disable (or require disabling) two of the SATA ports.
> Any experience?
>
> 2. Can the E521 be set to boot from an optical or HD attached to the
> IDE card?
>
> 3. Does it work OK, or any other problems? Performance?


I think it should work, but you run a risk of some confusion and headache
configuring things between the system BIOS and Promise card BIOS - depending
on how you configure things.

You don't mention RAID, so that's a good thing in making life easier in
using the card.

Stew

On Apr 18, 6:33 am, "S.Lewis" <stew1...@mail.com> wrote:
> "Frank" <F...@home.com> wrote in message
>
> news:i2ga23ddim81fc4n3vb2sir5ph4us6ajsu@4ax.com...
>
> > Has anyone actually installed a Promise Ultra133 (or similar other
> > brand) in theE521to addIDEcapability? If so,
>
> > 1. What happens to the SATA ports? According to oneDelltech, he
> > thinks it will disable (or require disabling) two of the SATA ports.
> > Any experience?
>
> > 2. Can theE521be set to boot from an optical or HD attached to the
> >IDEcard?
>
> > 3. Does it work OK, or any other problems? Performance?
>
> I think it should work, but you run a risk of some confusion and headache
> configuring things between the system BIOS and Promise card BIOS - depending
> on how you configure things.
>
> You don't mention RAID, so that's a good thing in making life easier in
> using the card.
>
> Stew


OK, I'll mention RAID. I just bought the same machine. I've got PATA
DVD-RW and PATA secondary hard drive. I have a RAID IDE PCI controller
card. When I install the card, the machine won't recognize the boot
(SATA) drive. Do I have to buy a non-RAID controller?

<scoop113@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1178567707.083386.25450@o5g2000hsb.googlegrou ps.com...
> On Apr 18, 6:33 am, "S.Lewis" <stew1...@mail.com> wrote:
>> "Frank" <F...@home.com> wrote in message
>>
>> news:i2ga23ddim81fc4n3vb2sir5ph4us6ajsu@4ax.com...
>>
>> > Has anyone actually installed a Promise Ultra133 (or similar other
>> > brand) in theE521to addIDEcapability? If so,
>>
>> > 1. What happens to the SATA ports? According to oneDelltech, he
>> > thinks it will disable (or require disabling) two of the SATA ports.
>> > Any experience?
>>
>> > 2. Can theE521be set to boot from an optical or HD attached to the
>> >IDEcard?
>>
>> > 3. Does it work OK, or any other problems? Performance?
>>
>> I think it should work, but you run a risk of some confusion and headache
>> configuring things between the system BIOS and Promise card BIOS -
>> depending
>> on how you configure things.
>>
>> You don't mention RAID, so that's a good thing in making life easier in
>> using the card.
>>
>> Stew
>
>
> OK, I'll mention RAID. I just bought the same machine. I've got PATA
> DVD-RW and PATA secondary hard drive. I have a RAID IDE PCI controller
> card. When I install the card, the machine won't recognize the boot
> (SATA) drive. Do I have to buy a non-RAID controller?
>
>
>

Do you mean a SATA DVDRW and a SATA secondary drive AND the RAID IDE PCI
controller?

I think? Maybe?

Anyway, you probably just need to go into the system BIOS and check your
boot devices and boot order and point the machine towards your boot SATA
drive.....(not sure how the IDE controller will be listed there in the list,
but it should be there.....)

Stew