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IDE cable setup...

H

hypeMarked

Senior member
I have an IDE cable running from the motherboard to two DVD burners. Is the furthest connection the master or slave? I always got this mixed up. Thanks
 
It honestly does not *really* matter, but traditionally it's suppose to go on the end.
I've had to switch the devices so that the master is on the first port on the cable, it does not give problems most of the time... but if you can, still try to use the end for the master. I think it's just a rule of thumb now more than anything to be honest.
 
Originally posted by: CraigRT
It honestly does not *really* matter, but traditionally it's suppose to go on the end.
I've had to switch the devices so that the master is on the first port on the cable, it does not give problems most of the time... but if you can, still try to use the end for the master. I think it's just a rule of thumb now more than anything to be honest.
Click to expand...

maybe the op is using the cable select method, which i would only use for a pata raid, other than that i would just jumper them to whatever i wanted.
 
The cable doesn't care - the jumpers determine master and slave, unless it is a cable select setup, which I did run into recently.
 
Cable select for IDE cables has been around for a long time but required a non-standard cable. When 80-wire cables came out cable select was standardized with the end connector for the master and the middle connector for the slave. To take advantage of this you had to set the jumper on the IDE devices to CS or cable select. However when you set the drive jumpers to master or slave then which connector the device is plugged in to should make no difference (in theory anyways).

If two devices are put on the same cable then it should make no difference which one is master and which is slave but I have seen setups where it did. Also, I saw one name brand computer that had problems using master and slave settings on the drives. It worked much better using the CS setting and using the IDE connector position to select master and slave.
 
Hi, If you are setting MASTER and Slave then you have a non-CABLE SELECT (CS) cable and it does not matter which of the three connectors goes where. If you are setting CS, and both drives work, then it does matter. Jim
 
Originally posted by: JimPhelpsMI
Hi, If you are setting MASTER and Slave then you have a non-CABLE SELECT (CS) cable and it does not matter which of the three connectors goes where. If you are setting CS, and both drives work, then it does matter. Jim
Click to expand...

Exactly! And on most newer IDE cables, they are color coded - Blue in the mobo, black to the Master and Gray to the Slave - that is when you use CSEL. And with mulitple drive selectors or mobile racks, CSEL is the only way to go.

 
Thanks for all the replies, but how would I know if an IDE cable is a CS cable? Is there a performance issue with using CS or assigning the drives to Master/Slave?
 
Originally posted by: hypeMarked
Thanks for all the replies, but how would I know if an IDE cable is a CS cable? Is there a performance issue with using CS or assigning the drives to Master/Slave?
Click to expand...

Heh, I don't know why this thread has so many replies in it.

In my original reply I started talking about jumpers and whatnot, but then I decided to change it and just tell you the simple answer.

If you already have a master and slave drive set up with jumpers on them, sticking the master on the end and the slave on the middle will work just fine. You can do it other ways too, but Master on the end and Slave on the middle will work perfectly well.

If you want to go into the inner workings and find out how you could set it up otherwise that's cool, but I don't see what the big issue is here.

I've never bothered with CS because I know Master/Slave works and it's easy enough to set up.
 
Originally posted by: hypeMarked
Thanks for all the replies, but how would I know if an IDE cable is a CS cable? Is there a performance issue with using CS or assigning the drives to Master/Slave?
Click to expand...


Dude, just use CS instead of master/slave. There is no performance issue either way but CS saves you the trouble of pulling drives out and reconfiguring jumpers.
 
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Originally posted by: hypeMarked
Thanks for all the replies, but how would I know if an IDE cable is a CS cable? Is there a performance issue with using CS or assigning the drives to Master/Slave?
Click to expand...

Heh, I don't know why this thread has so many replies in it.

In my original reply I started talking about jumpers and whatnot, but then I decided to change it and just tell you the simple answer.

If you already have a master and slave drive set up with jumpers on them, sticking the master on the end and the slave on the middle will work just fine. You can do it other ways too, but Master on the end and Slave on the middle will work perfectly well.

If you want to go into the inner workings and find out how you could set it up otherwise that's cool, but I don't see what the big issue is here.

I've never bothered with CS because I know Master/Slave works and it's easy enough to set up.
Click to expand...

me too, always use master slave, maybe it is because i am use to scsi and you nave to set the numbers on them, along with other items....
 
Master on the end of the cable has been the convention. But in the old days of 40-wire cables, I played fast and loose with the settings. I sometimes even plugged the middle connector into the mobo...

. As others have said, all 80-wire IDE cables with the color coded connectors are CS (Cable Select) capable. CS can be slightly faster because it is strictly hardware. That's why most IDE RAID controllers will recommend using CS. It does save time and confusion as some HDs (WD in particular) have at least two different settings for Master, while there is only one CS setting per drive. I've almost completely gone to 80-wire cables and CS now except in the rare instances when a drive needs to be in a certain position on the cable for mechanical reasons.

.bh.
 
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