IDE Busmaster - To Enable, or Not

LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, Alaska Icrontian
edited August 2003 in Hardware
(Didn't quite know whether this should go in software, motherboards, or storage forum.)

In the BIOS of both my No. 1 and 2 systems, there is an option to enable or disable the IDE Busmaster. By default on both systems, the busmaster is set to disabled. I tested No. 2 with busmaster turned on; I then tested the hard drive write and read speed with ATTO. It seemed to be a slight speed increase, but so small to be within the margin of error of ATTO's measuring.

Advice: advantages, disadvantages of enabling the IDE Busmaster for each machine.

Thanks in advance.

Comments

  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited August 2003
    It´s basically there to improve read/write speeds in Ghost only.
    You won´t see any diffeence in the real OS world with or without.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited August 2003
    Well then, since I use Ghost religiously, I'll set both machines to IDE Busmaster enabled.

    Thanks, Mac.:thumbsup:
  • Al_CapownAl_Capown Indiana
    edited August 2003
    Ghost? Could someone explain this to me.:scratch:
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited August 2003
    IDE Bus Mastering has nothing to do with Ghost in the slightest.

    Bus Mastering is when devices are allowed to talk to each other directly without having to be controled or use the processor at all, thus reducing processor occupancy.

    Basically, turn it on unless you want the machines to suck (slow down whenever they read or write, make video recording impossible due to too much overhead etc).

    There were only problems with things such as Windows95 long ago, which is why most boards dont even have the option anymore.

    NS
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited August 2003
    Al, "Ghost" is the disk cloning/system backup software program produced by Symantec Corp. It's a very popular and reliable means of making 100% copies of system software setup.

    NS737 - thanks for the information. It will now remain enabled, definitely.
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited August 2003
    I am sure it is what i stated (might be more than Ghost though) as i have read it on a million places. But i´m emailing Abit to be sure. I´ll let you know.

    Edit**// Not only ghost, but also for Apps that are running in Dos like Partition Magic etc. Go to the Abit forums and read it for yourself if you dont believe me.
  • MJOMJO Denmark New
    edited August 2003
    Now I have an option whether or not to enable bus mastering.
    I am pretty sure it wasn't there before I updated the bios.
    Again it is a NF7-S rev 2.0 bios 18.
    I need to get my specs into my sig.
    It is getting on my nerves that I have to write about my system every time I post. ;)

    EDIT: sig updated, couldn't stand it anymore.
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited August 2003
    Just enable it as it won´t cause any instabilitys as far as i know.
  • MJOMJO Denmark New
    edited August 2003
    I have enabled it.
    But it puzzled me why it did not make an appearance in the earlier bios.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited August 2003
    Just enable it as it won´t cause any instabilitys as far as i know

    I haven't found any instabilities. I haven't run any specific benchmarks to test though.
Sign In or Register to comment.