Power Flyer 4000 Gold

Slayer · 04 September 2006, 01:59

I'm pondering over buying this brand new product (as in new and unopened)

In the promotional text however something kind of bothered me and wondered if someone through use or other means can shine some more light on it... first the text:

----->
A Zorro III only IDE card which has two independant IDE connectors and supports drives up to PIO MODE 4 for a theoretical maxmum transfer rate of 16.6MB/sec. Also has support for drives larger than 4GB by fooling the system into thinking that a drive larger than 4GB is acutally two or more separate drives. This card is usually supplied with Allegro filing system and is currently the only known card capable of reading UDF DVD discs.
<-----

the Q is... can this 4gb fooling implementation be disabled? I don't want heaps of 4 gb partitions!

I have a 120gb and 60gb attached to the a4000 ide and wouldn't mind attaching a few more... namely the dvdrw

and anything else I should be aware of? I doubt I'll buy the card if I can't disable this quirk in the board...

perhaps it only activates outside wb 3.9 bb2 ?

keropi · 04 September 2006, 06:43

no, don't worry about that... on os 3.1 and below you can enable SPLITE MODE, this could be helpfull and seperates a large HD in smaller 4GB ones.
When I had a FastATA on my 1200 (OS3.9) I had the FastATA driver in NO-SPLIT mode, thus having a 20GB HD in this way: 2GB OS patrition , 8GB storage1, 10GB storage2.
so , there are no prbs, the split 4gb mode is for compatiblity with older oses...

alexh · 04 September 2006, 12:49

Just out of curiosity why are all cards PIO only?

Is it because the Amiga cannot sustain the data rate of the lowest UDMA mode? (Even so it would offload some CPU power would it not?)

Is it because the data buffers for DMA would have to be in CHIP RAM? (Ok 2Mbytes isnt very much but still!)

Is it because the fastest Amiga ChipRAM DMA transfer is much slower than pushing the data from FastRAM with the CPU? (I favour this one)

Is it because Amiga hardware developers are lazy gits who dont know how to build hardware or write software?

Slayer · 04 September 2006, 13:12

that sounds reassuring, thanks

I guess the gold suffix doesn't mean there is a silver version?

thanks for the input...

now for the decision

keropi · 04 September 2006, 13:58

try to get the new MKIII version, it has updated firmware/logic and is faster...
if you get an older, there is no way to update it to mk3 logic...

Slayer · 04 September 2006, 14:30

rotfle

this is the kind of information I needed like 5 mins ago...

in the auction someone had asked, what is the revision of the bootroms... the answer simply was, in the manual it states capable with >4 gig hds and/or OS3.5

and then there was 2 more unanswered questions...

I thought bugger it, I'm broke now I might as well be broker... hit the buy now for $100...

how bad can the older model be anyway... still a good option to connect another 4 devices to the a4000d with no case...

thanks for the information... I did visit elbox site to see the different sections on various fast ata solutions...

dunno if this will come with anything to register with so if anyone has this kind of setup and can supply me with the latest drives etc could you please PM me or upload to zone if applicable...

thanks

keropi · 04 September 2006, 15:46

just email elbox with the serial number found on the fastata... u will get a fast reply with the latest drivers...
one their site the claim is that the only difference in more speed. I personally never had a mk3 model, the one I used was a mk2 and I was very happy with it.
just remember you must fill the 1st channel with a master&slave and then go to the 2nd. I mean you cannot have 2 masters lol because then the amiga won't boot (at least on the 1200 fastata)

Slayer · 05 September 2006, 07:25

nodnodnod

okay

as for the master/slave thing that does make sense however surely you can have two masters... but one in each slot set for master with no slave present...

thens theres a potential third in the a4000 original ide

anycase... who would want too!

04 September 2006, 01:59	#1
Slayer Amiga Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: New Zealand Age: 56 Posts: 695	Power Flyer 4000 Gold I'm pondering over buying this brand new product (as in new and unopened) In the promotional text however something kind of bothered me and wondered if someone through use or other means can shine some more light on it... first the text: -----> A Zorro III only IDE card which has two independant IDE connectors and supports drives up to PIO MODE 4 for a theoretical maxmum transfer rate of 16.6MB/sec. Also has support for drives larger than 4GB by fooling the system into thinking that a drive larger than 4GB is acutally two or more separate drives. This card is usually supplied with Allegro filing system and is currently the only known card capable of reading UDF DVD discs. <----- the Q is... can this 4gb fooling implementation be disabled? I don't want heaps of 4 gb partitions! I have a 120gb and 60gb attached to the a4000 ide and wouldn't mind attaching a few more... namely the dvdrw and anything else I should be aware of? I doubt I'll buy the card if I can't disable this quirk in the board... perhaps it only activates outside wb 3.9 bb2 ?

04 September 2006, 12:49	#3
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,342	Just out of curiosity why are all cards PIO only? Is it because the Amiga cannot sustain the data rate of the lowest UDMA mode? (Even so it would offload some CPU power would it not?) Is it because the data buffers for DMA would have to be in CHIP RAM? (Ok 2Mbytes isnt very much but still!) Is it because the fastest Amiga ChipRAM DMA transfer is much slower than pushing the data from FastRAM with the CPU? (I favour this one) Is it because Amiga hardware developers are lazy gits who dont know how to build hardware or write software? Last edited by alexh; 04 September 2006 at 12:55.

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04 September 2006, 06:43	#2
keropi . Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Ioannina/Greece Posts: 5,040	no, don't worry about that... on os 3.1 and below you can enable SPLITE MODE, this could be helpfull and seperates a large HD in smaller 4GB ones. When I had a FastATA on my 1200 (OS3.9) I had the FastATA driver in NO-SPLIT mode, thus having a 20GB HD in this way: 2GB OS patrition , 8GB storage1, 10GB storage2. so , there are no prbs, the split 4gb mode is for compatiblity with older oses...

04 September 2006, 13:12	#4
Slayer Amiga Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: New Zealand Age: 56 Posts: 695	that sounds reassuring, thanks I guess the gold suffix doesn't mean there is a silver version? thanks for the input... now for the decision

04 September 2006, 13:58	#5
keropi . Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Ioannina/Greece Posts: 5,040	try to get the new MKIII version, it has updated firmware/logic and is faster... if you get an older, there is no way to update it to mk3 logic...

04 September 2006, 14:30	#6
Slayer Amiga Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: New Zealand Age: 56 Posts: 695	rotfle this is the kind of information I needed like 5 mins ago... in the auction someone had asked, what is the revision of the bootroms... the answer simply was, in the manual it states capable with >4 gig hds and/or OS3.5 and then there was 2 more unanswered questions... I thought bugger it, I'm broke now I might as well be broker... hit the buy now for $100... how bad can the older model be anyway... still a good option to connect another 4 devices to the a4000d with no case... thanks for the information... I did visit elbox site to see the different sections on various fast ata solutions... dunno if this will come with anything to register with so if anyone has this kind of setup and can supply me with the latest drives etc could you please PM me or upload to zone if applicable... thanks

04 September 2006, 15:46	#7
keropi . Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Ioannina/Greece Posts: 5,040	just email elbox with the serial number found on the fastata... u will get a fast reply with the latest drivers... one their site the claim is that the only difference in more speed. I personally never had a mk3 model, the one I used was a mk2 and I was very happy with it. just remember you must fill the 1st channel with a master&slave and then go to the 2nd. I mean you cannot have 2 masters lol because then the amiga won't boot (at least on the 1200 fastata)

05 September 2006, 07:25	#8
Slayer Amiga Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: New Zealand Age: 56 Posts: 695	nodnodnod okay as for the master/slave thing that does make sense however surely you can have two masters... but one in each slot set for master with no slave present... thens theres a potential third in the a4000 original ide anycase... who would want too!

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