Recommend an IDE setup for me....

[ors]

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...

 

[Fireman]

I believe it will slow down your hard drive if you combine it with an ATA33 device.
I usually use your #2 configuration when building my friends comps, works fine.
I went a step further on my machine and used a Promise IDE controller card for my CD/RW. That way each device has it's own IDE channel. You can find them in For Sale / Trade for $15 or less. Very simple to set up.

 

[TheCorm]

I believe it will slow down your hard drive if you combine it with an ATA33 device.

This is no longer true, it used to be so with boards around the times of the Intel Pentium II on a 66mhz bus (LX based) and the AMD K6-2 equivalent of the time, is no longer so. But I still would not recommend having a hard drive and CD-ROM on the same channel.

I would go for option 2, although it doesn't really matter whether you choose that or option 1 just not option 3. Like Fireman says, Raid Controllers are damn cheap now, double your IDE channels allowing each device to have it's own dedicated bandwith.

Corm

 

[Bglad]

Can't argue with any of the facts given here. But... in real world use, how often are you ever going to be using the CD and the CDR simultaneously. Share them on one channel and forget it. ATA 100 and 133 buses are so much faster than a CD will ever use, you will never notice the difference.

 

[Zepper]

Ever hear of copying (er, backing up <g> ) a pressed CD? I copy from cd to burner often (use CD and CDRW simul.) I too vote for each drive on separate channel--always gives best IDE perf.
.bh.

 

[Amber]

The set up that I like best for copying CD's:
WITH ATA IDE CARD (about $20)
I use a Lite-on DVD/CDRom on #1 IDE as Master
My CDRW on #2 IDE as master
and My HDD's on the ATA IDE Card

If you don't want to add The IDE Card then,
HDD on#1 IDE as Master
CD-Rom #1 IDE as Slave
CDRW #2 IDE as Master

This set up is ok if you only use 1 HDD

 

[geoff2k]

What do you plan to do with the CD-RW? Mostly HD->CDRW burning, or mostly CD->CD-RW burning?