DMA modes

[Big RICHARD]

Used Sisoft Sandra last night to find that my SATA Maxtor drives on my NF7-S v2.0 are only in DMA mode 5, not 6!

Is this false reporting or is it running too slow?

[St3v3]

Are you using the Serial ATA to IDE adaptor?

If you are using it through the actual Serial ATA controller, it makes no difference. Serial ATA controllers don't use a DMA mode, only the speed mode which can only be set to 150mbps at the mo.

[Trickle]

Anything else plugged into that ide port? Using an old cable not capable of 133?

[Big RICHARD]

SATA drives. Is that why all the benchmarks I have done show my drives to be loads faster than ATA 100 and ATA 133?

[Trickle]

Probably not

Your drive is probably a newer model than the out of date ones in Sandra you are benching it against... higher spin speed or more cache, higher density platter, faster access time. Or something.

[acidrainy]

In other words, dont worry about it

[SilentDeath]

might it be that its an early sata drive, or the sata controler itself just reportsit for everything, as there is currently only one speed. the early maxtors iirc were just normal pata drives with sata interface - very similar to using a pata maxtor with a sata converter. if the bences show ur drive as fast s it should be it doesnt matter...

[Trickle]

What does windows itself say the DMA is set to? Not that you would always believe it