Promise Technology FAST TRAK100TM user manual Performance Tips, Re-Configure PCI Latency Setting

FastTrak100 User Manual

Performance Tips

Here are some tips that may optimize performance in a RAID 0 striped array. If you are using an audio/video editing card, we also recommend to review your card’s documentation for additional information.

Use FastTrak100 as D: or other non-bootable drive in a Striped Array

For A/V editing, keep the original system boot drive on the standard IDE controller as C: drive. Partitioning software such as FDISK will see the array as one physical drive, D: drive (or later). This will prevent file fragmentation and provide better accessibility to the array.

Re-Configure PCI Latency Setting

The PCI Latency setting appears in some Mainboard BIOS. The setting governs how much time is allocated to service each PCI slot. Promise recommends a valueof 64. An optimal value is neither too high nor too low and will vary from system to system.

Optimize Array for “Performance”

The Promise FastBuild BIOS Utility auto setup menu allows optimizing the array for A/V Editing . The default Performance setting (Striping) selects a Stripe Block size of 64. This larger block size is recommended for the data streaming requirements of A/V editing. You may select an even larger block size in manual mode (see page 22).

FastBuild (tm) Utility 1.xx (c) 1995-2000 Promise Technology, Inc.
	[ Auto Setup Options Menu ]
Optimize Array for:		Performance
Typical Application usage:		A/V Editing
	[ Auto Setup Configuration ]
Mode		Stripe
Stripe Block Size		64
Drive used in Array		2
Array Disk Capacity	.........................	13044
[ Keys Available ]
[−] Up [↓] Down	[←, →, Space] Change Option [ESC] Exit [Ctrl-Y] Save

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