Performance: HD and CDRW on same channel/cable

BoboKatt

Senior member
Nov 18, 2004
529
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Greetings,
I just wanted some feedback if possible in regards to a build I just recently did. To make a long story short, I had to place the CDRW on the same IDE channel (primary) as the lone HD (obviously HD is master and CDRW is slave). The drive is a Maxtor 7200 RPM/2Meg 40 GIG drive whereas the CDRW is a LG 52X.. that states it is UDMA-2 capable.
The way the board is built and the case I used I cannot get a second IDE cable attached to the board as I would have to dismantle half the case or remove the board. This was a quick fix just to install windows. Anyhow thus, what exactly am I doing... is this going to overall slow down my system? Will it cause issue while burning CDs? Is it really necessary to have the CDRW on the secondary channel?

thanks
Bobo
 

airfoil

Golden Member
Jan 17, 2001
1,643
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Assuming your CDRW runs at UATA33, placing it on the same channel will also slow the HDD interface to UATA33. Since that Maxtor probably runs at UATA133, you are certainly experiencing a slowdown and will be worth your while to make the effort to move the CDRW to its own IDE channel.
 

imported_fatal

Senior member
Feb 6, 2005
348
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Older computers had a problem with it defaulting to the slowest speed, that is no longer true. It is fine to have CD on the same cable as the HD