PATA Master/slave

[doan]

I know that it is generally discouraged to use 2 devices on an ide channel (master and slave).

I have a server that I use almost exclusively for serving movies to my HTPC. I need to add more drives, but all the IDE ports are in use (one master device on each). What would be the downside to adding more devices as slaves?

When serving DVD movies the bandwidth used rarely exceeds 10-15mb/sec. I plan to leave the boot drive on a dedicated channel and just share channels with the data drives.

I'm pretty sure this will work OK....Any reason I should go ahead and add an additional PATA controller card?

 

[Bobthelost]

Nah, no real point. You will get slower operation transfering files from the master to the slave on the same cable, but for when it matters (playing movies) it won't make a difference.

 

[Jiggz]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
Nah, no real point. You will get slower operation transfering files from the master to the slave on the same cable, but for when it matters (playing movies) it won't make a difference.

:thumbsup: Go for it and add all the slave drives you can. You won't see a difference.

 

[Cerb]

Preface: the other guys are right. This is history.

You've got, say 100MB/s on the channel (maybe 133MB/s). Two drives. Now, with some overhead in, you've got maybe 40-45MB/s per drive, when transferring to/from both drives at the same time. When only using one, you've got the full 100MB/s.

When dealing with things like optical burners, it can make a difference (they don't use much bandwidth, but I guess they eat up time with tons of little bursts), but then, again, only when accessing both devices at the same time, so is still only a minor concern.

Now, way back when, when you plugged two devices in, you not only got less than half of the total channel bandwidth (which the physical drives could staurate, or get close to, for several years), but also brought both drives down to the speed and capability of the slowest one. This made a real difference. That limitation has been gone for several years.