best way to connect dvd burner to system

[freebird1963]

Hello,
Is there any evidence or tests that show that cdrom/dvd rom burners run better if connected to harddrives, not connect to hard drives ? to each other etc ?

On my system I have a maxtor (really a promise technology) pci ide controller. My system wouldn't recognize my 120gig drive. When it boots up it shows it as ultra dma 5. I wonder if I moved my dvd rom burner to that card it might run better/faster if off the the boards controller were 2 other drives are connected.

Thanks
Mark

[bazooka]

I don't know about any tests, but from my personal experience, I have better performance if the dvd burner is the master on it's own cable.

It is your call.

Your results may vary.

[lumis]

on my system i have my dvd burner set as the primary slave, since i burn most of my data from the secondary master or secondary slave.

i havent burned at 16x yet, but i have burned at 12x without the buffers even blinking.

[budz]

I would suggest you use that maxtor pci controller card for the hard drives and connect your dvd burner on your motherboard ide master. DVD-ROM & DVD BURNERS don't work well with the promise pci controller cards. I've tried them and the DVD BURNERS don't work properly.

You may want to download the BIG DRIVE ENABLER exe file from maxtor to get your system to recognize that 120gb hard drive or your motherboard may need the latest bios in order for it see the 120 gb hd.

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.3c67e325e0a6b1f6294198b091346068/?ch...&downloadID=11

[redwudz]

[/b]budz[b] said: "DVD-ROM & DVD BURNERS don't work well with the promise pci controller cards." Promise does make some cheap controllers, but I've never had any problems with them.

I have a Promise TX2 PCI IDE controller. Mine has worked fine with 2 different computers for over 2 years. It runs a DVD-ROM, a DVD burner and a CD-RW, along with a ZIP drive. However, you do need a model that will do 33, 66 and 133Mhz bus speeds. A 133 only PCI controller won't work with DVD or CD optical drives.

If you just need it for 100 or 133Mhz drives, just about any PCI IDE controller will work. The popular opinion is not to mix high and low speed drives on the same channel, though I doubt it makes much difference with newer MBs and controllers.

[glockjs]

they say you want your master and slave hdd's on different channels, same thing with the rom's. i have them on the same chennels though. not much of a noticable dif. plus the dont make the ribbons long enough that come's with everything lol. i would say always keep you hdd's on the motherboard channels. thats the faster connection.

[devinemi83]

I never attach anything but HDs on the main IDE channel. I have 2 HDs on the 1 and my dvd burner as master on the second, with my older TDK 32X cdrw as the slave to it.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

It may depend on the drive itself....
I have an LG GSA-4040B. I have installed this particular drive on 3 different motherboards (though all with XP Home). This drive ABSOLUTELY MUST be installed BY ITSELF on the motherboard's 2ndary IDE slot as the master device. Once you have installed it in Windows, you can add a slave or move it to the slave position (or even a different IDE slot!), but you cannot install it unless it is specifically the master (& ONLY) device on the motherboard's 2ndary IDE slot. Also, this MUST BE it's configuration if/when you wanna upgrade the firmware.
It's freakin' weird....

[budz]

redwuz wrote

A 133 only PCI controller won't work with DVD or CD optical drives.

Yuh, I have (3) ata 133 controller cards but they did work with a plextor cdrw. go figure huh.