me, but many of your readers:
First, are there companies that have
acknowledged working on the
creation of PCI Express x1 cards?
Second, will the short length of the
connector port be a card-stability
liability for large cards such as
video-capture cards? And finally,
how soon will the industry phase
out the PCI slot? Will it be within
two or more years, or sooner?
—TAYLOR SHULLSENIOR EDITOR GORDON MAH
UNG RESPONDS: A number of com-
panies have told us they plan to or
are exploring plans to make x1 PCI
Express cards. Right now, it’s mostly a
chicken-and-egg situation; companies
don’t want to invest in making cards
because there are very few mother-
boards out there to support them, and
thus little demand.
Your question about card stability
is a great one—we’ve been asking
manufacturers the same thing for a fewmonths now, and every vendor tells us
that it won’t be an issue. We’re in your
camp, however; we’ll believe it when
we see it. As for the lifespan of good ol’
PCI, it will likely continue to be used in
PCs for the foreseeable future. It took
many, many years for ISA to go away,
so we expect the same from PCI.DO YOU KNOW YOUR DRIVE
IMAGING?
You guys keep getting this one
wrong, but I guess no harm
has been done, because you
are apparently unaware of the
consequences. I have a machine
with four Adaptec SATA RAID
controllers. I have an eight-drive
RAID 5 array, a four-drive RAID 10
array, several RAID 0 arrays, as well
as a number of simple volumes.
I’m running WinXP.
Norton Ghost offers no support
for SATA as it says on its web site.
They give you the option of tryingit at your own risk. DriveImage
by PowerQuest is at best a loser
and at worst a drive killer. I tried
to Image my RAID 0 boot array
with DriveImage 7 and it failed
miserably. It even trashed my
RAID 0 array!
With all of my data backed
up, I decided to try DriveImage
2002 , per your recommendation
in the May issue (In The Lab, page
68). Upon starting the program,
I got an error message from my
Adaptec storage manager program.
I closed down the system. When
I rebooted, I discovered that
DriveImage had destroyed both
arrays on Controller 0, and was
halfway through destroying the
arrays on Controller 1 when
I stopped it. The data on the
RAID 5 and RAID 10 arrays was
not recoverable, even with the
assistance of Adaptec tech support.
There is good news: Acronis
True Image 7 is SATA and SATA
RAID safe, at least on my system.
I have successfully cloned my
boot drive several times with
it—and the cloned drives work
perfectly. However, I could not
image my boot drive to a RAID 0
array. But at least it didn’t harm
any of my arrays.
—DON PULITZERASSOCIATE EDITOR JOSH NOREM
RESPONDS: Thanks for writing,
Donald, and we appreciate the
heads up about Acronis True Image.
Regarding your comment that we’re
“apparently unaware” of the conse-
quences of recommending bunk disk
imaging software, our reaction is this:
“As if!”
The entire point of the In the Lab
segment you’re referring to was to
steer people away from programs that
could cause problems with their hard
drives. In the article, we related our
experiences in cloning a boot drive to
a Serial ATA hard drive, and only had
success with PowerQuest DriveImage
2002. Your results were obviously
different. As you stated in your letter,
you’re running RAID and using an
Adaptec controller, so it’s likely that
one of those factors was the cause of
the problem. Still, we’ll take a look at
the Acronis package and report our
findings in a future issue.
Finally, we must also take issue
with your statement that “ Norton
Ghost offers no support for SATA as it
says on its web site.” In the support
section of Norton’s web site, it clearly
states under Ghost 2003 that “Ghost is
compatible with the new Serial ATA
(SATA) standard.” ■HOW MUCH FOR LAST YEAR’S DREAM?
I was browsing last year’s Dream Machine issue (September 2003)
when it struck me: How much would last year’s ultimate machine
cost today? I did a little research—here’s what I found:
� Case: $
� Power supply: $
� CPU 3.2GHz P4C: $
� IC7-G mobo: $
� Cooler: approx. $
� Memory CMX512-4000PRO
@$160 each: $
� 5900SE videocard: $
� Audigy 2 ZS Gamer: $
� CD-RW Plextor: $
� DVD-R (A06 discontinued –
A07 used): $
� Media reader: $
� 2x WD360GD drives: $
� 2x WD2500JB drives: $
� CRT (discontinued, so I selected
the GDM-C520K): $1,
� LCD: $1,
� Speakers: $
� Keyboard: $
� Mouse: $
� Cables: $
� WinXP OEM: $
The total cost today for these components is $5,654, which is 48
percent less than it cost last year. If you eliminate the CRT and go
with just the LCD, the price drops to $4,055. That’s not too bad
for one-year depreciation.
—CURTIS SPONSLER10 MA XIMUMPC SEPTEMBER 2004
LETTERS POLICY: MAXIMUM PC invites
your thoughts and comments. Send them to
[email protected]. Please include your full
name, town, and telephone number, and limit your
letter to 300 words. Letters may be edited for space
and clarity. Due to the vast amount of
e-mail we receive, we cannot personally respond to each letter.IN THE
PLATINUM-PRO-ULTRA-EXTREME-TITANIUMOCTOBER ISSUE OF
COMING
NEXT MONTH
MAXIMUMPC
WINDOWS
LONGHORN
BLOWOUT
Currently under top-secret
development, rumors
galore have circulated
regarding Microsoft’s
next-generation version
of Windows—code-name
Longhorn. Maximum PC
separates fact from fiction
in a comprehensive, tell-
all feature.HIGH-END GAMING PC
ROUNDUP
We asked eight of the world’s
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they could build, and we’ll
pit them against each other
in one dramatic, can’t-miss,
winner-take-all shootout.NEVER PRESS F6 AGAIN!
Learn how to build a cus-
tom Windows XP install
disk—complete with the
latest Service Pack and driv-
ers for your RAID or Serial
ATA controller—in a classic
Maximum PC How-To.PLUS
A tense three-printer shoot-
out, tough-love reviews of
LGA775 mobos, hard drives,
speakers, digital cameras,
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