Drive arrangement

[Goi]

Hi,
I've just got a new system. I have 2 optical drives(a 16X DVD-ROM, a 12X DVD writer), 2 IDE drives(a 2+ year old WD1200JB, a 1 year old Hitachi 180GXP 80GB w/2MB buffer), and a brand new Hitachi 7K250 160GB SATA HDD

The SATA HDD isn't a problem since it'll be in it's own SATA channel, but since my motherboard only has 2 IDE channels, I'm wondering how I should arrange the IDE/ATAPI drives, i.e. which one in which channel, which one as master/slave?

A few things that might make a difference:
1) The 180GXP is actually a bit faster than the old WD1200JB
2) I will be doing HDD->DVD burns as well as CD/DVD copies
3) The WD1200JB is used mainly for storing data, so speed isn't crucial. The new Hitachi SATA HDD will be the boot drive.

Any ideas?

 

[BlueWeasel]

Well, will you be doing direct CD/DVD copying? If so, then you probably need to put the 16X DVD-ROM and the DVD burner on a separate channel. This would allow HD to HD and DVD to CD/DVD copying to be as fast as possible, as the devices are on different channels.

The only disadvantage to that is if you are burning a CD/DVD from a HD on the same channel.

Personally, I have my 120gb and 80gb HD as master and slave on my primary IDE channel, and my 16X DVD-ROM as the master with the 8x DVD burner as the slave on the secondary. It's fine since I don't do CD/DVD direct copy anymore...it's always ripped to the HD and then burned.

 

[Goi]

As point #2 states, I will be doing HDD to DVD burns as well as CD/DVD copies.

So, I guess I should put the DVD-ROM and DVD writer on separate channels, and put the HDD that I'm least likely to burn from with the DVD-writer and the other one with the DVD-ROM? Does that make sense?

 

[BlueWeasel]

Yeah, that makes sense. Assuming HD1 is the one you're burning the most from, then I'd do it this way:

Primary IDE:
Master - HD1
Secondary - DVD-ROM

Secondary IDE
Master - HD2
Secondary - DVD Burner

The only problem could be slow copying from the DVD-ROM drive and HD1, like numerous gigabytes of games. Even then, it may not be slow at all.