How good are IDE controller PCI cards for optical drives?

[imported_Davo]

I had another thread in which I was requesting advice on whether or not I needed one of these. I'm not quite sure if I need one still but I think a better question and in essence a deal breaker as well, is if they can work well with optical drives?

I currently use Windows XP Pro SP2. I have a 200 GB hard drive that says it has ATA133 capability. The important device here is an 18X DVD burner. I want to make sure I have enough speed I suppose so that I can burn my disks at 16x without buffer errors. I already have the required 40 pin / 80 conductor cables for such an operation.

I've tried a couple of 16x burns already but it while there's no slowdown/freezing on my computer, the disk is always teetering on the brink of a buffer underrun error. I'm using high quality media so I've ruled that out as a possibility.

 

[Nocturnal]

With most motherboards there are two IDE ports so you can have four devices total (master/slave). If you have your DVDRW drive on one IDE port and your HDD on the other, that would be ideal. If you have them both setup as master/slave on one IDE port you may encounter slowdowns while burning or it may have to buffer in order to keep it from burning a coaster.

 

[imported_Davo]

I have them on separate channels both as the master drive

 

[Auric]

If it works it works... that is, if a pause-burn function is not actually being activated by a buffer underrun condition then no worries. What software are you using? Some, like Nero Burning ROM, augment the drive buffer and indeed make use of substantial system RAM so it's just not an issue as it may have been in ye olde tymey days o' yore. Okay, I over did it that time didn't I?

 

[tcsenter]

You'll have to check the specs thoroughly, preferrably from the manufacturer's website. Some manufacturers removed ATAPI support on certain models, or require a different firmware to support ATAPI drives.

Otherwise, if it supports ATAPI drives, should be good to go.

 

[imported_Davo]

Yes, I use Nero Burning ROM.

So can I get a recommendation to buy or to avoid out of lack of necessity?

 

[mindwreck]

if they're already on separate channels then getting an additional card won't help as thats pretty much the best way to have them.
Theres got to be something else thats going on. I'm thinking its the mode that teh channels are set in. make sure they're set to DMA mode and not PIO. Thats usually the most common cause.

 

[tcsenter]

So can I get a recommendation to buy or to avoid out of lack of necessity?

Unless you have an old Socket 370 or Socket 462 (or similar era), your integrated IDE/ATA ports will provide better performance all-around. PCI card will be stuck on the strained 133MB/sec max PCI bandwidth with higher latencies than contemporary integrated controllers.

 

[Nocturnal]

BTW, you may want to double check and verify that the drives are not stuck in PIO mode. That would definitely make it stop every once in a while as well as take forever to finish a burn.

 

[imported_Davo]

Thanks for the answers guys.

Someone said that Nero is a system RAM hog when burning. It would make sense then that I can't achieve solid burns at 16x (they finish with no errors but like I said, it's always teetering on the brink of becoming an unusable disc). I'm only using a 700 MHz Celeron with 384 MB. I don't exactly have top of the line stuff.

Also thank you for giving me advice about the PCI controller. My computer does have a Socket 370 board but seeing as I don't have enough "power" as it is, I don't think it would give me much of a benefit.

 

[Auric]

You could try manually configuring the Ultra Buffer or try an older version or a completely different burner proggy if you think it is an issue. There are a number of good freebees which you can prolly find in the Software forum sticky threads.