Question about controller card...

[Guest]

I'm thinking of getting the Creative Labs 8432 CDRW, and it states you must have an open EIDE slot on your motherboard. Does that mean I HAVE to have it hooked up directly to a motherboards EIDE and not a PCI EIDE controller card?

 

[Guest]

Sorry but I do not of how much experience you have of IDE or the config of your PC but here goes..

IDE SLOT term is a little confusing. If you have like in most mainboards channel (E)IDE support then you may happily have up to four IDE devices these including CDROMS, CDRs, Hard Drives, Internal Zip drives etc but not floppy drives.

You will have 2 connectors on your mainboard if you check in your manual. Each port will support one cable and you may have 2 devices on each in a series.

Normally all you will need to do is recable your cdrom to allow the cdr to run next to it happily. If you've already got four IDE devices you might want to invest in an IDE controller card. These sometimes only support hard drives, and normally only work in Windows.

For compatibility reasons and less hassle make sure you're positive that you don't have a free IDE position available for a cdr.

If you find that the Cdr drive doesn't work with a new controller card then swap it around with another device such as a hard drive that should do.

Hope some of this info is of help