Playing a bit more with Debian 3.0, I wanted to see how the new motherboard and CPU handled my drives. The EIDE drives I have are a 60GB Maxtor 7200rpm disk, a 4GB Western Digital (WD) 5400rpm drive, and a WD 5400rpm drive. The Maxtor is capable of ATA66 and the big WD is capable of ATA100.

I used the command '/sbin/hdparm -d1 -c3 -m16 /dev/hdX' on each drive, with X representing 'a,' 'b,' or 'c.' This sets up the drives DMA, 16/32bit, and other settings.

I then ran 'hdparm -tT /dev/hdc' and got the below stats:
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debian:/etc/rcS.d# hdparm -tT /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.60 seconds =213.33 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.74 seconds = 36.78 MB/sec
debian:/etc/rcS.d# hdparm -tT /dev/hdb

/dev/hdb:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.60 seconds =213.33 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 6.93 seconds = 9.24 MB/sec
debian:/etc/rcS.d# hdparm -tT /dev/hdc

/dev/hdc:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.60 seconds =213.33 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 2.75 seconds = 23.27 MB/sec
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/dev/hdb, the 120GB 5400rpm ATA100 drive is really moving some data, if you look at the stats, but the Maxtor is even quicker (faster spindle speed, most likely). Strange, as the 120GB also has a 8mb cache. Hrmm...

I got XP to boot. I went into the BIOS and played with some settings, then tried to reboot XP...it booted, but I then had to redo my network settings and configure the onboard soundcard. I'd thought I'd have to reinstall XP but then I realized that my old mainboard was also utilizing the VIA chipset, so XP shrugged and kept going.

I then tried a quick game of Quake3A. OMG! This machine FLYS! My framerates jumped from an average of 60-70fps to 80-90s...and this is without overclocking the vidcard! My vidcard is a Radeon 7500. The system played so much faster that I was having trouble controlling my character on the screen! There is no more slight hesitations or burping...its smooth as glass. I'll try to play UT tomorrow and see how that plays.

I'm gonna take the upgraded box with me to VA when I go to my new job. I'll leave the monitor here and buy a new one in VA. I don't think I can stand leaving this hot box here, which means I'll have to upgrade the lower end box from W98 to XP for my wife. It usually boots Slackware 8.1 but she's NOT going to use that...she'll just whine. I was hoping to be able to leave the Slack box on so I could SSH into it from VA, but I guess not (unless I call my wife and have her boot up Linux for me)....either that or leave her my laptop, which I don't think I'll do either. :o)

So, now I have a P200MMX mobo and CPU AND a 500mhz mobo/Celeron CPU not being utilized. This box, the Slack box, is using a 400mhz Celeron which I'm going to swap with the 500mhz one...not that its going to make a huge difference, but I may as well get as much ooomph as I can from this box.

Well, I'm outta here for now. I think I'll read some FreeBSD or Debian or Slackware docs on my Zaurus (got all three manuals installed on my 128MB SD card). NIGHT!