What is the best configuration for 3 optical drives?

[BigRedDog]

For those with 3 drives (CD burner, DVD-ROM and DVD burner), what is the best configuration for them, between IDE 2 and ATA card? Thanks?

[808smokey]

If you only have one hard drive then you can connect one of them as Slave to the HDD. But CD/DVD Burners don't usual work setup as slaves. I know mine doesn't. So you might have to get an IDE controller card. Not to mention if you connect you DVD-ROM to the HDD your HDD Transfer speed will go way down. I had a CD burner when I got my DVD burner and just gave CD-R/W to my sister, DVD burners burn CD-R's so I didn't need two, not at 52x though, mine only goes at 16x but I can wait the few extra minutes. They're only $10-20 for a single IDE port. Here's a doouble for $38.00 http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=16-102-007-06.JPG/16-102-007-04.JPG/16-1...102-007-02.JPG[/code]

[BigRedDog]

Oh. Sorry I mispoke. I already have a controller card that came with my 200gb harddrive. I do not want to put an optical drive as slave on my primary IDE for the above mentioned reason (slows down my hd). Given that, should I have CD burner master, DVD Rom slave, and DVD burner on the controller card? Or does it matter?

[808smokey]

Given that, should I have CD burner master, DVD Rom slave, and DVD burner on the controller card? Or does it matter?

Depends on what you burn more DVD's or CD's? Connect the one you burn more often as master to the DVD-ROM slave. You can burn "on the fly" faster with the reader on the same IDE as the Burner vs. the PCI slot. It really doens't matter at all though unless speed is an issue

[galactica]

is it a common thing for a PC to have just a dvd-rom drive??? ive seen this A LOT on pc's. just wondering. seems like a waste to me.

what, if any, is the advantage of having just a dvd-rom drive as opposed to say a combo drive (dvd-rom/cdrom-burner) and then a Superdrive (all of the above)

?!?!? I have yet to see a mac with just a dvd-rom in it so im all confused.

[redwudz]

Usually the advantage of a seperate DVD rom is the ripping speed. A lot of DVD burners are locked at a slow ripping speed. I would also rather wear out a cheap DVD rom than an expensive DVD burner for ripping. I backup a lot of videos to SVCD and so far don't use my DVD burner as much as I do my DVD rom.

[808smokey]

I would also rather wear out a cheap DVD rom than an expensive DVD burner for ripping.

Good point redwudz. A DVD-ROM is only $17.50 http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=LTD-122-DO-R If it breaks no big deal.

A half way decent DVD burner on the other hand is $100.00+. That will put a dent in your pocket if it breaks I never put anything in my burner in except for blank discs that I want to burn.

[galactica]

i think what i was trying to get at is more along the lines of those pc users I know who have 1. a cd burner drive and 2 a dvd rom drive. then they want to get a dvd burner and now they have 3!

sure if you have the space I can see your point, but it just seems odd to have all those drives when a cheap combo (cdrw/dvd-rom) drive will sum up all that hardware and you can still get a dvd-rw and have only 2 drives.


when you say 'locked' on dvd rip what do you mean by that.

i have for example a combodrive that is 16x dvd read, and my dvd-rw is 16x dvd read. are you saying one will rip faster than the other?

[Craig Tucker]

Quite a lot of DVD drives are locked so they can only rip at 2 X speed.