Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (
More info?)
Hi Bruce,
Well, it sounds like you're stuck with a maximum of 2 x 5.25" internal
drives, unless you decide to buy a new case and install or have someone else
install your Dell components in it. You could get an external USB2/Firewire
Plextor DVD burner and plug it in externally if you want to keep your other
optical drives in your current case. As far as the IDE cable lengths are
concerned, you could always move your hard drive to the spare
externally-accessible 3.5" bay next to your floppy drive, or even move your
floppy drive to the lower of the two 3.5" floppy bays if your case allows,
saving another inch or so in cable length requirements. Of course, you can
also just get a PCI controller card (suggested) and do away with any cable
length issues altogether, also providing you with extra IDE channels or even
new SATA channels if you prefer. I'm not sure, but the supplied Dell IDE
cables might not be standard, and you may be able to pick up a couple of new
cables for a few bucks that will space the master/slave connectors more
reasonably, but please be aware that 18" total cable length is suggested in
order to officially conform to accepted ATA standards, although you can find
cables up to 3 feet in length.
Hope this helps.
--
Russell Sullivan
http://tastycomputers.com
"Bruce" <parcxman@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:Xns95335A7999242parcxmannetscapenet@13.1.103.31...
> Hi,
>
> Last night I popped open the machine's case. (By the way, it's a P4,
> 2.8gHz which I installed 512MB ram to bring it up to 1gb ram. The hard
> drive is 60gb, only 30% used at this time.) I was disappointed at what I
> saw. I had been inside many times before, but never with the idea of
> adding another optical drive.
>
> There were only two bays 5.25" bays, both were used: 1) cd-rw, 2) dvd
> rom. Both were connected to IDE 2. I thought there would be at least
> one more bay inside; I should have noticed there was no pop-out on the
> exterior. Duh. So, nowhere to put a third optical drive, if I want to
> keep the cd-rom, and the dvd-rom, and install a the new Plextor 708a dvd
> burner.
>
> There were two 3.5" bays. One housed the floppy drive.
>
> There were two bays for 1" high IDE hard drives. One had the primary
> hard drive, on IDE 1, of course. The other was empty.
>
> There were two free power connectors.
>
> I got out my owner's manual. Here's what it said:
>
> Externally accessible:
> two 5.25-inch bays
> two 3.5-inch bays
>
> Internally accessible:
> two bays for 1-inch-high IDE hard drives
>
> Available devices:
> ATA-100 Ultra DMA hard drive
> CD-drive
> floppy drive
> Zip drive
> DVD drive
> DVD+R/RW drive, and CD-RW drive
>
> There's a problem with putting the hard drive and an optical drive on the
> IDE 1. The two connectors on the IDE 1 cable are very close together,
> and the hard drive bay is a distance from the closest optical bay. As a
> matter of fact, the floppy drives bay sits in between them. Geez. Is
> there a cable that has two connectors farther apart?
>
> Here's the current physical layout of the bays, looking from inside the
> back. You can see the separation between bays/channels:
>
> CD-Rom (IDE 2)
> DVD-Rom (IDE 2)
>
> Floppy A
> Empty floppy bay
>
> Primary hard drive (IDE 1)
> Empty hard drive bay (IDE 1)
>
> Here's what I'd like:
>
> DVD-Rom (IDE 2)
> DVD Burner (IDE 1)
> (I'd really like to also keep the original CD-Rom, somewhere, but there's
> only two 5.25" bays)
>
> Floppy A
> Empty floppy bay
>
> Primary hard drive (IDE 1)
> Slave hard drive bay (IDE 1)
>
> Looks like I'd have to get a controller card to get a third IDE on
> channel 1.
>
> Of course, the easiest would be to put the DVD burner on IDE 2. This
> would eliminate cable length problem, and save the extra IDE 1 for a
> slave.
>
> Have I summed it up correctly?
>
> Back to building my own, or contacting a custom shop the next time.
>
> Thanks very much for your help.
>
> Sincerely,
> Bruce
>
>
>
> "Russell" <rsullivan@tastycomputersdotcom_replace_dot_with_"."> wrote in
> news:fxaNc.190490$XM6.82110@attbi_s53:
>
> > Hi Bruce,
> >
> > As far as IDE channels go, you don't need to replace the drive.
> > Depending on your intended use, you could either use the fourth
> > remaining IDE channel for your new drive, or you could pick up a PCI
> > controller card from a manufacturer such as Promise or Siig that you
> > can insert in a spare PCI slot, then have 4 additional IDE channels.
> > If you don't get the controller card, I might suggest that you
> > rearrange things a bit with your current drives, placing your DVD-ROM
> > drive as the slave to your hard drive on channel 1, then the CD-RW and
> > new DVD±RW on channel 2. That way, you could make on-the-fly CD or
> > DVD copies from a disc inserted in your DVD-ROM drive to a blank disc
> > in either of your burner drives with no interrupts. On the other
> > hand, the controller card would give each of your 4 drives its own
> > dedicated IDE channel as master with no interrupts in any situation,
> > and you'd still have 4 more IDE slave channels for future upgrades.
> >
> > One thing to keep in mind, Dell jumpers their drives as cable select,
> > not master or slave, so you'd need to be sure that either all drives
> > are jumpered as cable select, or as master/slave, depending upon their
> > individual locations on the ribbon cables. I know Plextor recommends
> > that their burners are jumpered as master and placed as such on the
> > IDE cable.
> >
> > Hope this helps,
> > Russell Sullivan
> >
http://tastycomputers.com
> >
> > "Bruce" <parcxman@netscape.net> wrote in message
> > news:Xns953253B122427parcxmannetscapenet@13.1.103.31...
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I've got a Dell 4550 that has one hard drive, a cd-rw and a dvd
> >> player. I want to install a Plextor 708A dvd +rw/-rw. I've heard
> >> that it's not a good idea to install an optical drive on the same IDE
> >> channel as the hard drive, which would mean I need to replace one of
> >> the existing optical drives. Should I replace the cd-r? Any other
> >> things I should consider?
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Bruce
> >
> >
>
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