Hard Drives with NCQ

Danny_abx · 02-19-2005, 10:16 AM

Are hard drives with NCQ really much better than drives without it? Was set on getting a WD SATA drive, but notice both Seagate and Maxtor have drives with NCQ. Also, I have an ASUS P4C800-E Dlx motherboard, does NCQ work with my setup?

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PCBruiser · 02-19-2005, 10:26 AM

NCQ is not supported by the P4C800ED. It is possible that some future bios might be written to provide NCQ support, but I wouldn't depend on that. The drives should work, but not NCQ.

Danny_abx · 02-19-2005, 10:31 AM

So if NCQ is not supported by the Intel 875P chipset, what chipset supports it? The 900 Series from Intel? But more importantly - is there a real-world difference if NCQ is used. Maybe I get a pair of NCQ-ready drives today and will be able to use NCQ down the road - but I want to know if it's really useful and not just marketing hype.

PCBruiser · 02-19-2005, 10:38 AM

Yep, the 9xx (and some AMD CPU supporting chipsets as well) as I understand it, but perhaps not all of the boards that use those chipsets. As to speed utilizing NCQ, there are some benchies here on that somewhere. Try a search using NCQ and you should be able to find them. You should also be able to see what MBs support it, and get a definitive answer to your question. I haven't tested them myself, so ... better to get impressions/recommendations from actual users then from me.

**SubZero** · 02-19-2005, 10:47 AM

I have the feeling that NCQ is to harddrives that AGP x8 was to the videocards... I doubt you will see groundbreaking differences very soon until it is more widely adapted.

LightSpeed · 02-20-2005, 04:22 PM

I set up a rig with a Promise TX4200 Raid controller, which supports NCQ. First of all, the supplied driver does not work to enable the NCQ, and last of all, NCQ made less than 1% difference having it on or off.
All in all, it may have some advantages, but I have yet to see any in the real world.
I noticed more of a difference going from a Barracuda 7200.7 to a 7200.8, which went from a max read speed of ~60 on the 7200.7 to ~70 on the 7200.8, and also average read time went up almost 10mb/s (48mb/s compared to 57)

Riptide · 02-20-2005, 04:49 PM

NCQ is not likely to be a huge benefit in a desktop environment anyway - it's geared more towards servers from my understanding.

Intel_User · 02-21-2005, 01:04 AM

Quote:

NCQ is not likely to be a huge benefit in a desktop environment anyway - it's geared more towards servers from my understanding.

Yep, you are right. Actually it doesn't benefit desktop at all. Its kinda like bringing ECC to PC(note: they haven't), we don't care about the extra stability as long as it runs more than 24 hours at a time.

I have heard NCQ would be useful when more multi-threaded apps come out.

02-19-2005, 10:16 AM	#1
Danny_abx Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Toronto, ON Posts: 90	Hard Drives with NCQ Are hard drives with NCQ really much better than drives without it? Was set on getting a WD SATA drive, but notice both Seagate and Maxtor have drives with NCQ. Also, I have an ASUS P4C800-E Dlx motherboard, does NCQ work with my setup?
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02-19-2005, 10:26 AM	#2
PCBruiser Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 13,497	NCQ is not supported by the P4C800ED. It is possible that some future bios might be written to provide NCQ support, but I wouldn't depend on that. The drives should work, but not NCQ.
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02-19-2005, 10:31 AM	#3
Danny_abx Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Toronto, ON Posts: 90	So if NCQ is not supported by the Intel 875P chipset, what chipset supports it? The 900 Series from Intel? But more importantly - is there a real-world difference if NCQ is used. Maybe I get a pair of NCQ-ready drives today and will be able to use NCQ down the road - but I want to know if it's really useful and not just marketing hype.
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02-19-2005, 10:38 AM	#4
PCBruiser Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 13,497	Yep, the 9xx (and some AMD CPU supporting chipsets as well) as I understand it, but perhaps not all of the boards that use those chipsets. As to speed utilizing NCQ, there are some benchies here on that somewhere. Try a search using NCQ and you should be able to find them. You should also be able to see what MBs support it, and get a definitive answer to your question. I haven't tested them myself, so ... better to get impressions/recommendations from actual users then from me. Last edited by PCBruiser; 02-19-2005 at 10:45 AM..
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02-19-2005, 10:47 AM	#5
SubZero Moderator Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Below sealevel Posts: 9,664	I have the feeling that NCQ is to harddrives that AGP x8 was to the videocards... I doubt you will see groundbreaking differences very soon until it is more widely adapted. __________________ Main Rig: Asus P5K \| Intel Core Quad Q6600 \| Corsair XMS 6400-4gig ATI 3870 x2 2G \| X-Fi ExtremeMusic \| Z-5500D OCZ GameXstream 850W \| ThermalTake Aguila \| Logitech G-15 Logitech MX1000 \| Synology DS-207+ NAS (2x500WD-SATA2-RAID0)
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02-20-2005, 04:22 PM	#6
LightSpeed Got Speed? Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 576	No noticeable benefit to NCQ I set up a rig with a Promise TX4200 Raid controller, which supports NCQ. First of all, the supplied driver does not work to enable the NCQ, and last of all, NCQ made less than 1% difference having it on or off. All in all, it may have some advantages, but I have yet to see any in the real world. I noticed more of a difference going from a Barracuda 7200.7 to a 7200.8, which went from a max read speed of ~60 on the 7200.7 to ~70 on the 7200.8, and also average read time went up almost 10mb/s (48mb/s compared to 57) __________________ Rig #1: DFI LanParty 875P-T, Prescott 3.2F 640 N0 @ 4.35GHz 1 GB Kit OCZ EL Platinum PC4200 @2.5/3/3/8 Swiftech 6002 CPU block, BIX3 + BIX rads ATI All-In-Wonder X800XT, Catalyst 5.4 SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Seagate Barracuda V 160GB SATA, Liteon 1673S, Liteon 5237 OCZ PowerStream 600W PSU WinXP Pro SP2 Rig #2: ASUS P4C800E, BIOS 1021, P4 3.0C @ 3.8GHz, cooled by ThermalTake BigWater 1GB Kit OCZ VX4000, 2.5/2/2/8, 3.6v, Turbo, PAT enabled @1:1 ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro, Catalyst 5.3 WD 160GB SATA, Liteon 48161 OCZ Modstream 520W PSU WinXP Pro SP2 Any input given is a result of first-hand experience, not some *** I read on the internet*
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02-20-2005, 04:49 PM	#7
Riptide Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947 Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Billings, MT Posts: 1,324	NCQ is not likely to be a huge benefit in a desktop environment anyway - it's geared more towards servers from my understanding. __________________ Intel C2D E6850 8GB Corsair DDR2 800 Abit IP35 Pro BFG 8800GTXOC2 Auzentech X-Plosion WD1500ADFD Pioneer DVR-710 PCP&C Silencer 610 TT Tsunami Westinghouse LVM-37W3 Folding for Team# 35216 : Nv News + OSNN + SP
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