[Roy Howell]

Brian,
Sorry I couldn't answer earlier. First, JMS40 and Chris know more about most of this than I do. JMS40 has built many, many pc's, so I always listen to his advice (try to anyway).

I can't advise you on RAID, but there's one thing on the IRQ thing I should mention. From what you said in this quote from above, it sounds like you have a PCI Slot# and the actual IRQ# confused...(I did the same thing too)...
You said...
"... If I force the Digi to change it's IRQ, and the best place for it to go is #3, and something is on #3 (which there is), then should the digi go there? Right now it's on #23, all alone... maybe he should move? That's my question. Or maybe I should physically move the card?"

When I said 'I've read that it's best for the Digi Card to be in Slot#3...', I was referring to your PCI slot#3 as being the best for the Digi Card (I've read). I've read that the best IRQ# for Digi is IRQ#9.

Now, once your Digi card is seated in PCI slot#3, then in BIOS, you look to see what IRQ #'s are assigned to IT (PCI slot#3). And that's where you can change your IRQ within BIOS.

In my BIOS, say I'm looking at PCI slot#3, usually there are two or three numbers that I can change using the up and down arrows. If you do this and want to keep it (or try it), then choose Exit and Save once you're done.

NOW...let me say 2 other things about this. One is that it has been said here, that in XP, changing the IRQ doesn't really help PT performance anyway... just so you'll know that's been discussed.
And two is, if I'm wrong on any of this, someone feel free to correct me.
Keep us posted on how it goes... [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ~Roy