Crossfire question

A question I can't seem to Google an answer for:
I have a MSI R9 280X Gaming 6G GFX card and I'm wondering is it possible to crossfire that with a MSI R9 270X Gaming 4G GFX card and if so what would be the pros and cons of it?
Will be upgrading my motherboard to "A88X-G45 Gaming" to better support GPU cooling with crossfire and upgrading the PSU

the answer is no it will not work at all as AMD have locked down the cards to only identical GPU only (R9-280x+R9-280x or R9-270x+R9-270x not mixing) from the hazy days that used to happen...
sorry...
here is a chart for you..

Similar Messages

  • More 790GX-G65 Crossfire Questions

    I just purchased two used Sapphire ATI HD3850 512MB video cards for a very reasonable price.  I understand crossfire won't work with the motherboard's HD3300 IGP.  I have some questions:
    1. Will I be able to use the video connections through the motherboard or must I use the DVI outputs (there two on each of the 3850's) on one of the 3850's?
    2. Will I have the option to use the sound from the motherboard, or must I only use the sound from the crossfired 3850's?
    3. Must I disable the HD3300 in the bios?
    Thanks.

    You may have to go into device manager to disable the 3850's audio.  I had that issue - 4890, I just bought a new monitor for it using HDMI - and suddenly, my nice monitor's cruddy speakers are the only thing making sound!
    It'll be in your device manager, and should be easy to find and disable if it causes and problems.  Then you can go back to using your Mainboard's integrated sound.
    ATI Function Driver for High Definition Audio - ATI AA01
    That is the description mine shows up under on Device Manager.
    And yes, you will be connecting to the DVI outputs on the 3850.  If you have only one monitor, you only need that one DVI cable going from one of the cards to the monitor.  Standard fare is to use the topmost card's DVI output, I do believe.

  • R6970 Lightning crossfire question

    So i have been having crazy artifacting issues with 2 R6970 Lightnings in crossfire, but the thing is it only lasted for 20 sec upon launching a game (and by that i mean getting pass the main menu where 3d rendering was being done) after those 20 sec and would not experience artifacting until next start up. I bought a new motherboard, new power supply, i even ran a new line to my room cuz i thot it was electricity. I tried each card individually and no artifacting would occur. And then on steam forums someone mentioned if i had my cards overclocked. I then remembered (o yea duh they are factory oc'ed) I then turned down the clock speeds on both from AMD CCC to 880Mhz GPU (to AMD specs), the RAM stayed the same at 1375Mhz, and to my amazement no more artifacts. So my question is: can you have two cards in crossfire if each is Overclocked, or do they have to be at stock settings to work?

    Yes its fine, they will runs at slowest card speed

  • P35 Neo2 FR + HD3870 in crossfire (questions)

    So...
    right now i don't have a second card, but i have a 3870. I'm looking to buy a second card and run crossfire eventually...however, i'm a little confused about Crossfire, and the PCI-E x4 slot...
    I'm sure that's what the second one is, however...will the slower speed result in the card not working in crossfire? or....will the PCI-E x16 slot speed be lowered?
    does anyone else have crossfire running on this motherboard? and how is it? ._.
    sorry if i'm not being clear, but i'm a little confused...
    thank-you in advance for any help  !

    hi, you can refer to this thread: https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=113087.0
    Crossfire will still work even with the PCIe x4 slot

  • Video Card Question. Crossfire 7950s vs One GTX780

    Which is the better option for video editing on Adobe Premiere CC? I have the crossfire 7950's now but only one is installed since i would have to buy a new power supply. With the price drop on the NVIDIA GTX 780 I might pick up one of those and sell my 7950's, to avoid buying the power supply.
    I tried looking up which is more efficient for Adobe CC and could not find anything comparing the two. If anyone knows anything or has recomendations, I would really appreciate it! Thank you in advance.

    If you do decide to go with one GTX 780 be aware that nVidia is announcing a new high end card that is called the GTX 780 Ti and it is supposed to be delivered mid-month.  It will have a base price of $699 and be faster than the current top card the GTX Titan.  That will lead to lower prices on the GTX 780
    As far as supporting two GPU's that is true for Premiere 7 (CC)   So far we have no comparison data on nVidia versus AMD/ATI.

  • K9A2 Crossfire and Ram question

    I have a K9A2 platinum with an AMD phenom 9850BE rig running crossfire.
    The specs are...
    K9A2 Platinum
    Phenom 9850 Black
    Two Asus 3870 Top (these are in the first and 3rd PCIE slots down, the manual said these were the x16)
    4GB G.Skill ddr2 1066 (These are in the 3rd and 4th slot, only running at 800)
    Seagate Barracuda 7200 250GB Sata 3
    Vista 64 with SP1 and DX 10.
    1) Am I running the cards in the correct slots for crossfire? I'm currently populating the the pxe1 and pxe4 slots. (I might be butchering the actual names of those slots.)
    2) Catalyst 8.5 says that crossfire is enabled. 3dmark vantage score was 87xx, is this low?
      - After installing SP1 and DX 10.1 3dmark vantage is all messed up. Displays funky colors.
    3) I tried using the auto ram timings and increasing the voltage to achieve 1066 from 800. When I did this my timings went from 5-5-5-15 to 5-5-7-20, or something along these lines. Is this normal? Is there a way to manually adjust this memory to achieve the correct speed and timings?
    4) 3dmark06 gave a score of 13xxx with crossfire. I disabled crossfire from the catalyst control panel and re-ran the test and hit 10xxx. Both of these scores seem low, can anyone verify.
    Thanks for your help and input.

    Ok, I fixed the ram and did a little research so I was able to perform the manual timings.
    Under the Cell menu I changed the DRAM Timing Mode from auto to both and set the correct timings for my memory, 5-5-5-15.
    I made sure the voltage was upped to 2.1 as per some suggestions on NewEgg but memory speed was still around 850ish. I had to change the FSB/Memory ratio from auto to the last setting, something like 2:2.33? Once I did this I saw the memory speed up to the 1066 that I was looking for.
    If I now increase the FSB the memory overclocks even further, this makes sense because it's a ratio. What am I missing? I want to be able to clock my phenom up to around 2.7-2.8 and have the memory @ 1066. How can I make the memory run at 1066 without utilizing the FSB/Mem ratio.
    Thanks for your help and getting me this far!

  • Pegatron IPMTB-TK motherboard version 1.04 and BIOS question?

    Hi,
    I bought a refurbished HP Pavilion Elite m9650f, Win 7 on 04-21-2010
    and it too has suffered from the crashes, freezes and multiple BSOD
    that many people have been complaining about.  I have the Pegatron
    IPMTB-TK TRUCKEE version 1.04 motherboard.
    HP calls it TRUCKEE-UL8E.
    Am I looking to replace it with version 1.04 E01 or version 1.05E?
    (With much reading on the web about my m9650f problems,
    I finally have it maybe 90% stable after replacing the hard drive,
    upgrading to BIOS ver 5.29 and replacing all the RAM.)
    I know there is a class action suit including the m9650f pending.
    http://www.hpelitedesktopsettlement.com/
    Will I be able to request a repair for my HP computer?
    When will HP let people request a repair?
    Also, I currently have BIOS ver. 5.29 and notice that there is a ver. 6.10
    http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=pv-88852-1&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en
    BIOS ver 6.10 improves system support for Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition processors which is what ver 5.29 says it does.
    BIOS ver 6.10 also installs HP Vision Diagnostic tool which I don't know anything about.
    I don't plan on installing an Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition processor.
    Should I upgrade to BIOS ver 6.10 or just leave well enough alone?
    Thank you for your time.
    This question was solved.
    View Solution.

    Hi Dashby,
    My motherboard is 1.04E01 and it has been very stable.   I have not heard or seen anyone with 1.05.
    You can put PCI cards other than x16 in the PCI-E x16 slot such as x1 or x4 cards.
    Typically what happens if another video were to be install in the second PCI-E x16 is the total 16 lanes of bandwidth would be split between the two slots.  You can't run SLI or CrossFire on the truckee motherboard so in my opinion a second video card is a waste.  Just use a BIG video card if needed.
    You can use PC Wizard and look under Mainboard PCI Express to gain information about the PCI-E slots and the speed that they are running when a card is installed.
    The Asus U3S6 expansion card is an interesting piece of technology. hmmmm   I wonder if the bios would support a SATA 3 boot device?
    HP DV9700, t9300, Nvidia 8600, 4GB, Crucial C300 128GB SSD
    HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart 6520
    HP Touchpad, HP Chromebook 11
    Custom i7-4770k,Z-87, 8GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650,GTX 760
    Custom i7-4790k,Z-97, 16GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Plextor M.2 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650, GTX 660TI
    Windows 7/8 UEFI/Legacy mode, MBR/GPT

  • 790fx-gd70 + crossfire

    I am having trouble getting crossfire to work. The computer is not recognizing that I have a crossfire setup even though catalyst is saying that crossfire is enabled. The second card does not even get warm to the touch.
    here is my computer stats.
    Mainboard : MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD 790FX-GD70(MS-7577)
      > Chipset : AMD 790FX
      > Processor : AMD Phenom II X4 955e @ 3200MHz
      > Physical Memory : 8192MB (4 x 2048 DDR3-SDRAM )
      > Video Card : AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series (2@ 6870 msi twin frozrII)
      > Hard Disk : Western Digital WD1600JB-00GVC0 ATA Device (160GB)
      > Hard Disk : Western Digital WD7502AAEX-00Y9A0 ATA Device (750GB)
      > DVD-Rom Drive : Hewlett-Packard DVD Writer 640c
      > Monitor Type : LG Electronics E2350 - 23 inches
      > Network Card : Realtek Semiconductor RTL8168/8111 PCIe Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
      > Operating System : Windows 7 Professional Professional Media Center 6.01.7601 Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
      > DirectX : Version 11.00
      > PSU: Antec High current 850w pro ( gold certified 80+)
    Now I know that both cards work because I tried both cards in the first pci-e slot to see if that was the problem, it is not. I tried both cards in the third pci-e slot and that slot works fine. When I use both cards, and I try to put the monitor into the second card it does not work. Shouldn't this work? The second card does not even get warm either. I bought this board quite a while ago specifically for the so called good crossfire friendly use. I have been scouring the internet for options but this board just doesnt seem to be supported anymore by most places and I just happened to come across this forum. Am I just dreaming that the configuration isnt working or what?

    Quote
    Is it just the program CPUID that is giving me wrong info or is it right and I just can't figure it out?
    If AMD's own Catalyst software is telling you Crossfire is enabled and working, then the chance is that CPUID is simply wrong.
    Quote
    If MSI wants to keep my business, they should be offering some kind of words of wisdom here and not leaving me in the dark here. I have read on new egg that msi was a little slow on help but I didn't think being ignored was on the list.
    This forum is run by MSI users, on behalf of MSI, for MSI users. It is by its own very title a "User-to-User" forum. Occasionally there comes a time where fellow users cannot answer your question (hence the seeming lack of responses), therefore we then ask you to contact MSI Support directly at http://support.msi.com
    >>Please read and comply with the Forum Rules.<<

  • About to buy a Mac Pro, have quick question please.

    Hi all,
    I am going to more than likely buy a Mac Pro 2.66 tonight or tomorrow, but I was wondering something in regards to graphics cars if any one could assist me.
    I am planning to go with the ATI card and 2gigs of ram since I do some gaming on the side and plan to use bootcamp for that.
    My question is that if I buy the machine in retail store, they do not credit the stock GeForce card and just add the ATI card in, so if I go that rout can both the ATI and Nvidia card both reside in the machine at the same time and be used in SLI mode?
    EG: can I get the power of both cards or will I only be able to use the processing power of one card? If only one card then would I be better off configuring the machine online since they credit you the difference of the Nvidia card which saves roughly $150.00 off the order from doing it in a retail store?
    Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am not worried about the $150.00, it would almost be worth it to spend the extra since the shipping time on the online configuration may end up costing almost the same unless I want to wait a few weeks for the machine.
    Whats your thoughts on this? Is it worth it to buy in the store and use both cards or just buy online from apple and get the credit for the Nvidia card?
    Thanks in advance!

    can both the ATI and Nvidia card both reside in the machine at the same time and be used in SLI mode
    No… SLI requires two Nvidia SLI capable cards. In addition, SLI is not supported under Mac OS X although does work, apparently, under Windows and Boot Camp. ATi's comparable technology is CrossFire.
    would I be better off configuring the machine online since they credit you the difference of the Nvidia card which saves roughly $150.00 off the order from doing it in a retail store?
    Financially yes as the Nvidia card is ultimately useless to you. One consideration though is the CTO conditions of return, or lack there of, in case you receive a DOA. In the US, amongst other countries, CTo unit are not returnable even if they are DOA so you should check the terms of sale in the country store you would buy from.
    Whats your thoughts on this?
    I, like many others, bought CTOs from the Apple Store so I don't think it's such a bad way to go. It also means you won't have any pressing need to open your new Mac Pro right away.
    One thing you might want to consider though is to downgrade the standard 250GB hard drive to a 160GB drive and use the saving on a drive of your choosing. Apple tends to use OEM desktop drives that have unimpressive performance. The 160GB drive in my Mac Pro didn't even get turned on. It was a Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 if you're interested.

  • 2 x ATI HD 2600 XT Advantage/Disadvantage Question

    I Have the Mac Pro Harpertown. Not sure what they mean by early unit but I am sure mine is not the early one. I purchased it on March 25th 2008. It also has the Reset SM something on the motherboard if that helps distinguish it as a later harpertown?
    Ok enough of that now for the question:
    I read on the Mac store site that having two of these cards will put it in another mode ( A better Performance Mode) for Games and 3D applications. Maybe they might have been referring to the 2 ATI Crossfire configuration in a PC equivalent not sure.
    I go back there again and no longer see anything about advantages to having 2 ATI cards in my system.
    SO now I am unsure if having two of them is advantageous or not? I am really not using more than 2 monitors so I don't care about the 4 monitor support.
    I was hoping for performance gain in 3D applications like Maya and programs like APple Shake and Final CUt Studio.
    I have the 8 core 2.8GHZ with 10 Gigs of ram.
    FInal question. Is there a way to buy a off the shelf Nvidia card GT 8800 512 DDR3 as the one that the apple store sells and put that one in my Mac if I somehow had access to updating its firmware?
    I am unsure if the 3D applications and other video software will run more efficiently with the 512 card over 2 x ATI 256 meg cards.
    Thanks

    And that is actually what I thought as well. But after talking to an apple represetative just now they said that the new firmware will allow you to take advantage of two ATI cards and run in a SLI mode combining the power of two cards into 1 for 512 MEg total memory and other features.
    Is this how the Nvidia 8800 GT card works now? Two Nvidia 8800 GT cards will run in SLI as 1024Megs and the power of two processors for 3D applications?
    Has the Nvidia and Open GL performance issue been reolved yet or is this going to be resolved with the latest firmware I spoke of for the ATI will alos be for the Nvidia to solve software OpenGL and make it more DIrect HArdware Open GL once the firmware has been solved.

  • Java vs appforge crossfire(Bluetooth)

    Hi,
    I am new to mobile programming. I want to start developing bluetooth based chat application like bluechat. I have searched on internet and found easy to use tool developed by appforge(www.appfroge.com) called crossfire. They claim to support more than 90% of mobile devices available in market.
    My target is to support maximum mobile phones together in chat application. I have doubt that java is still immature and jave api for bluetooth does not support a great no of devices yet. So i want to know which tool shall i be selecting in my applications.

    I worked on a project like that once, it worked by not looking at the video feed but in stead it used a snapshot function on the webcam to create pictures which could be analyzed. This was made to work through Java somehow, but in the end some native code was used to do the actual image loading and analysis because the performance wasn't good enough using ImageIO.
    On to your question: no you should not use JMF as it is indeed dead as a doornail. A simple google for "java webcam" gives alternatives however, such as this:
    http://lti-civil.org/
    Forum post with example code:
    How to control a webcam in JFX app?

  • Question about Raid set up with (SB600) K9A2 Platinum V 1.0

    I am having trouble setting up my raid.  I am using Windows XP Pro and go through the usual set up procedures using F6 command then installing the drivers etc.  Once I get everything up and running installed on Raid 0 the computer works very well for a few days.  Then later BSOD.  The first was a 0000007b stop error, then I got the system back up again only to have it a few days then another BSOD 00000024 stop error.  This time I was not able to bring it back.  I thought my problem was linked to a RAM issue as I was using OCZ PC2 6400 DDR2 OCZ2G8008GQ (2X2GB).  The reason I thought this was when I went to the motherboard site for approved ram, this ram was not there, then on OCZ site it was also not tested, then I went to newegg and used thier motherboard ram compatability screener and it did not show up either.  So I bought the Giel ram and am now trying to set it back up again though I could not get it back still.  So I finally just reformatted the drives (using another computer and a hard drive enclosure)and am getting ready to reinstall everything.  I want to make sure I am using the right SB600 drivers for my application.  I should be selecting AHCI X86 or x64.  This does pertain to the operating system (I am using Win XP 32 Bit) or the processor (I am using the Kuma Athlon X2 7750 2.7Ghz)
    I believe I should be selecting the x86 drivers when installing windows.  Am I right?  I just want to make sure I do not screw anything up so as to bring on the horrible BSODs again.  I realize this could be some driver issue as well that could have caused this.  I did everything I could to make sure it was not the hard drives.
    The last question I have is:  In order to ensure proper operation of the dual channel ram, (I have read the book, still confused a bit), I must install the ram with one stick in the first slot nearest the CPU and the other in the first slot of the opposite color?  In this case Green/Orange slots.
    Mainboard: MSI K9A2 Platinum 790FX
    CPU: Athlon X2 Kuma 7750 AM2+ 2.7Ghz Processor
    CPU-Cooler: Factory Supplied
    RAM: 4GB (2X2GB) G Skill F2-8500CL5D-4GBPI DDR2-1066 Dual Channel
    GPU: AMD790FX
    VIDEO: PowerColor HD4830 512MB GDDR3
    HDD: 2 Velociraptor 150 10000 rpm drives WD1500HLFS
    DVD: ASUS DRW-22B1LT SATA Drive
    Floppy: YES
    Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready
    OS: Windows XP Pro SP1 (Updated to SP3)

    I was just trying to obtain the fastest load times/install times.  When the machine was first running it was very quick with no cpu temps running beyond 34C, no abnormal performance.  This is my wifes computer though.  Things began to go astray after she updated through windows update to SP3.  I am now using a slipstreamed CD with SP3 already on it.  She said she was clicking on the internet explorer "E" icon and it just shut off.  THen when it rebooted (it was still set that way in windows recovery) it started loading windows then BSOD 0000007b error.  I fixed it by finally getting into windows recovery and running fixboot, then fixmbr, then chkdsk /r /f.  It started working fine again.  Then later maybe two days later it happend again this time wihtout the restarting.  She was working on something else this time and it shutdown again.  This time when it tried ot reload windows I was getting the ntfs.sys issue with a 00000024 stop error.  I could not do the same magic with windows recovery any longer.  When I tried it indicated it repaired the boot, the mbr, but when I tried to run the chkdsk, it gave me disk read errors, such as "this disk has unrecoverable errors".  I used Western Digital test programs on the drives by removing them and installing them into an enclosure and taking them to a good computer.  One drive I could see in windows and it reflected 140G/B, the other would pick up but not in my computer.  It also showed the drive as having the entire quantity as the RAID together had of 298G/B versus the real size of the drive 150G/B.  I just figured that was the drive that was set up as LD 1 in the RAID setup (prior to windows) and possible was the drive with he boot sector on it???  I could get another drive and include it into the array, but then just figure I will have to worry about 3 drives versus 2.  She keeps improtant backup stuff on an external drive.  I will tone down the ram to 800.  Should I set the latency in Bios though to the 5-5-5-15?  or just leave everything at auto like I hade done before?  Though this ram is new and was not in the computer when this happened.  I had replaced the other OCZ Gold stuff and put in the G Skill stuff I have now.  I had previously stated Giel, but it is G Skill, sorry about that.  I may just do what you say, guess sleep on it and decide whether to just install the drives with OS/Programs on one and data on the other. 

  • Question about Mac Pro and Adding GPU's

    I am a recent convert from PC and I had a Dell system that had two Nvidia Cards in it, but I could not use each one to run one monitor because it was SLI and it could only clone my screen and not extend it. So I had to plug both monitors into one card, and I basically paid for one card that I never really used since I wanted two monitors.
    I have two monitors hooked to my new Mac Pro, and my question is if I put in another Nvidia GT120 will each GPU run one monitor, and will they run as one big desktop just they way I have it set up now. Plus is there any benefit to having the dual GPU? I work on documentary videos and I use Adobe Creative Suite a lot. Will having the dual GPU speed up things like After Effects and Premiere. I know snow Leopard will help some, but in the mean time will an extra GPU help any?

    As Hatter said, you can drive 2 monitors from 1 video card on the Mac. SLI/Crossfire doesn't work under OSX, so unless you need to run more than 2 monitors, there's no need to have more than 1 video card...
    And I wouldn't say you got no use out of the 2nd video card in your dell. If you were gaming at all, you were probably getting better performance using the SLI than you would have gotten with just 1 card.
    So, yes, under OSX, you can drive 2 monitors with the 1 card and it will let you either clone the desktop on to both displays (both show the same thing) OR stretch the display so the desktop stretches across both displays...
    I'll be doing this with my mac pro to drive 3 monitors (using a 2nd video card)... Which should give me a HUGE desktop (I can't describe how much nicer it is to have tons of desktop space when programming or doing video editing...)

  • Will my PSU support Crossfire?

    Hello, I apologize for the amateur question but I am new to the dual GPU scene. I currently own a Alienware Aurora R4 with an Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3820 CPU @ 3.60GHz processor, Radeon 7950 GPU, and a DELL W299G 875W PSU. This is the generic power supply that dell sends out with most of its Alienware builds so I am sure some of you are familiar with it. I am curious if my current power supply will support two Radeon 7950's running in Crossfire. It seems my total wattage is sufficient but I am not sure if I have an extra power cable running from the PSU to connect to a second Radeon 7950. Should I purchase the second GPU or upgrade the PSU first? I appreciate any responses, I will link out the PSU and GPU exact specs below.
    Dell W299G 875 PSU
    www.pc-specs.com/.../1405
    Radeon 7950
    www.amd.com/.../7900

    300 Watts is a fairly normal power supply for simple systems with low demand video. You will have only 275 watts left , which could be iffy. I would go for a bigger supply. You are correct thinking the ratings are optimistic. We had had several posters recently that could not get the expected power from their basic OEM supply.
    Do a web search and see what others do with a pair of 7950s. Here's several hits:
    750W (or greater) power supply with four 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connectors recommended for AMD CrossFire technology. 
    For a single card,the total Power Supply Wattage is NOT the crucial factor in power supply selection!!! Sufficient Total Combined Continuous Power (30 amps) available on the +12V Rail(s) rated at 45°C - 50°C ambient temperature, is the most critical factor. Therefore 60 amps for dual cards.

  • Sorry but its another Raptor question..

    Hi all.
    Heres the deal. I currently have about 8GB of audio, about 5GB of pics and about 2GB of documents.
    At the moment I use DVDs to back up the above documents, but since the amount I need to back up is growing so quickly, Its taking longer and longer to orgnise and back up. I usually take between 1 and 2GB of pics when I go on holiday and my MP3/AAC collection is growing quickly.
    My question is this: Should I go for a Raptor 74GB hard disk and use that as my primary drive and the stock drive as a secondrey drive? or opt for an External hard drive like the Smartdisk crossfire?
    If I choose the raptor, is it difficult to transfer everything from the stock disk to the raptor? Will I need any additional software?
    Oh, and I should add. The disk on the IBook mentioned in my sig is full, so cant use that for back ups any more.
    Thanks alot.
    Powermac G5 2.3GHz, 1GB Ram, ATI Radeon 9650, Bluetooth KB and Mous   Mac OS X (10.4.4)   IBook 800MHz, 512MB ram, Mac OS X (10.3)

    It seems from your writing that your needs is for storage space, not speed, so I don't think the Raptor offers you anything particularly useful in real use.
    For less then the cost of a 74 GB Raptor (~$160 when not on sale), you can get a Maxtor MaxLine III 300 GB, with a 16 MB cache (~$130), that will provide over 4 times the amount of storage as the Raptor, and provide very close performance numbers to the Raptor.
    If I were adding an internal I'd go with the MaxLine III for very good performance, and much higher storage capacity.
    As for an external, those too are a good option for backup. I'm not familiar with the one you mentioned, so I'll leave it to others to provide suggestions about it.
    Tom N.

Maybe you are looking for