IDE Cable Configuration Options

[EvilRage]

I remember reading somewhere about different ways to configure IDE devices. The 'typical' configuration appears to be: IDE1 Master: Optical Drive 1, IDE1 Slave: Optical Drive 2, IDE2 Master: Hard Drive 1, IDE2 Slave: Hard Drive 2

While this works, I'm thinking it may not be the best for CD to CD burning, and I suggest another option:

IDE1 Master: Optical Drive 1, IDE1 Slave: Hard Drive 1, IDE2 Master: Optical Drive 2, IDE2 Slave: Hard Drive 2

And my particular configuration is as follows:

Optical Drive 1: DVD-ROM (Samsung H352a)
Optical Drive 2: DVD+-RW (NEC 3520a)
Hard Drive 1: Media Drive (WD120GB7200RPM)
Hard Drive 2: Backup Drive (WD160GB7200RPM)
(Also a SATA drive (Raptor 74GB) for Windows/Programs, but not part of IDE channels so not important, right?)

Config 2 appears better to me for these reasons:
Optical drives not sharing an IDE channel, so CD to CD burns are faster/better
Hard drives not sharing an IDE channel, so backups are faster/better
Media drive is not on same channel as RW drive, so media burns are faster/better

Or did i just waste a whole bunch of time/thought in something that I won't even notice a performance difference?

Thoughts, please! 🙂

 

[EvilRage]

Should I have posted this in the Highly Technical forum? No one has a clue?

 

[Zepper]

I'm a partisan of putting each IDE drive on its own channel for optimum performance. So for most folks it would mean buying a PCI controller to get extra channels - luckily that can be done for about $20. (Syba on Newegg et al.) Failing that, I would put one HD and one optical drive per channel. Put your burner on the opposite channel from its most frequent data source. Cross-channel data transfers are the most efficient as only one drive per channel can operate at the same time. Avoid putting a PIO or DMA-2 (16MB/sec or slower) drive on the same channel with a faster drive (UDMA33 and up.)
.bh.