Configuration of HD's and CD drives

[Xenius]

Ok question.

My new computer will have a 120 Gig drive as the main drive for Win2k, games, normal stuff. It will also have an 80 gig drive for storage, and part of it will be Linux.

As well as those I will have a 16x DVD drive and a 52x24x52 cd-r drive, or whatever that fastest one is.

How should I set the HD's and cd drives up? I've heard that you should never set an HD as a slave.

I was thinking 120Gig HD and cd-r on one ATA cable and the 80 Gig and dvd drive on the other. That way when I install things to the main 120Gig drive neither the HD or DVD drive is on the same bus. Same goes for the 80Gig and cd-r.

Any thoughts?

--Xenius
-non computer guru

 

[PCcashCow]

keep the dvd and cd-r on the same cable and sperate ide or whatever channels. Some lower end cd drives be it dvd or rw's tend to lower the speed and seek/burst time of hdds. In a sence what you say may work. But the reality of one dma speen of 33 on the same line as a 80gig 133ata or what have you, could affect true speeds and transfer in the long run. Last i remember it it's like ram it will only run at your slowest bus in you banks. I could be worng.

-Tim

It seems that every time I reboot my wallet gets smaller. I append: No longer interested in speed, just the mere idea that everything should perform at its full potential.

 

[tabytha77]

I believe you are correct. I think the HDD will only run at ATA/33 if it is slaved to the optical drive.

You should do you best to give each IDE it's own pipeline.

 

[ChipDeath]

There's no problem with setting a HDD as a slave. Don't do what you are suggesting. put the two optical drives on one channel as slave/master and put the two hdds on the other channel, with the main drive as Master and the other as slave. that'll be the best performing solution, and it will be much easier to route the cables.

an IDE channel will only ever run as fast as the slowest thing on that channel. Most Optical drives are ATA33, so you'd end up with 2 slow ATA channels if you mix 'n' match as you were suggesting.

---
:tongue:

 

[Xenius]

Thanks for the replies all. I had no idea that cd and DVD drives were so mutch slower (ATA 33) than HDD's.

I was trying to avoid putting both cd drives on the same channel incase I want to copy cd's. But I guess I have no problem with copying to HDD first.

--Xenius
-non computer guru

 

[ChipDeath]

Even if they're on the same channel, you should still be able to copy straight from one CD to the other, it'll just be a bit slower is all. most modern Cd burners have buffer underrun prevention technology that stops the problems which people used to have doing this.

---
:tongue: