Recommend an IDE setup for me....

ors

Member
Apr 23, 2002
25
0
0
hey! don't really know where to post this.. but here goes..

i just recently bought a cd-rw drive and i really don't know where to put it to maximize performance... my mobo supports 2 ide channels and i have 3 devices to plug into it: a hard drive, cd-rom, cd-rw drive...

they support the following transfer rates:

hard drive: ATA/133
cd-rom: DMA MW-2
cd-rw: ATA/33

i'm using a D850MD RDRAM P4 board which uses the ICH2

should i:

1. primary master: hd
secondary master: cd-rw
secondary slave: cd-rom

2. primary master: hd
secondary master: cd-rom
secondary slave: cd-rw

3. primary master: hd
primary slave: cd-rom
secondary master: cd-rw


well what do you think? because isn't it that the transfer rate will match the slower drive if i mix a faster one with a slower one??

e.g. if i put the hd and cd-rw on one channel my hd transfer rate will go down to ata/33 because that's the fastest my cd-rw drive supports???

thanks for any help your can provide... i know this might seam trivial but i get really obssesive complusive when it comes to these things...

 

CaptnKirk

Lifer
Jul 25, 2002
10,053
0
71
Your harddrive should be the master on primary IDE channel, and if you add a second harddrive it becomes the slave.
The CD-ROM should be the master on the secondary IDE with the CD-RW as the slave so recording and writing priorities
will be correctly sequenced. Each IDE channel will only function as fast as the slowest component on the channel.
 

CheungMoKee

Member
Jun 22, 2002
44
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0
my gosh .. how many posts have u made in the anandtech forums with this same question? hahaha ... newayz ... each ide device runs at it's own independent and optimum rate since the pentiums 2z came out if i remember correctly .. that is y motherboard bios shows each ide device as running in pio mode, dma mode, and udma mode with it's own # range from 1-4 (5 on udma) ... and I wouldn't stick 2 hd'z together on same ide cuz i believe when u copy files from x drive to z drive on the same controller ... the files would transfer back to the ide controller b4 being sent back up to the other drive "there would be no continuous flow where x drive sends info to ide controller 1 and from controller 1 back to z drive" (pls dun flame me if i'm wrong about this)


 

IntelConvert

Senior member
Jan 6, 2001
485
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0
As Cheung indicates, this subject has been 'beaten to death' many times over. Perhaps that's because there is so much disagreement as to the best solution.

FWIW ors, my advice is to go with your solution #3 and here is why I recommend doing so.

1. First, recognize that only one device can be accessed at a time on any one IDE channel, and IMHO any (relatively modern) chosen slave device will not directly affect the performance of the HDD master.

2. The boot drive must always be on the Primary IDE master (with the possible exception when using a RAID array).

3. From my experience, you will have less problems and better performance while burning CDs, if the CD-RW is on a separate channel from the HDD, so in your situation I would make the CD-RW the Secondary master.

4. When burning CDs, since you will sometimes copy from your HDD and sometimes from your CD-ROM (to your CD-RW), the same rationale given in #3 above applies here as well - so I would install your CD-ROM as the Primary slave.

5. Should you later decide to install a 2nd HDD, you definitely should make it the Secondary master for best HDD performance, as both HDDs could then be accessed concurrently (where you would then relocate the CD-ROM and CD-RW really depends on your use of the second HDD).

I have read contrary opinions to my beliefs - usually based on the proposition that you should never put a slow device (i.e., CD-R/RW) on the same channel as an HDD... IMHO, while that concept may have been true in the '80's, it no longer holds water!