How should I connect my drives on IDE? 1 HD, 1 DVDROM, 1DVDR

[manofsteel]

I have a hard drive, a DVD-ROM (Toshiba 16x with hacked firmware), and my Lite-on 811s dvd burner. How should these be setup on two IDE channels to allow for the best burn times? Thanks!

[Terry L]

Connect the hard drive on IDE 1, then connect the 2 DVD drives as master and slave on IDE 2. I don't think it makes any difference (ROM or burner) you set as master, I have the burner as master, never tried it any other way. Something else you may want to consider is the addition of a second hard drive to reserve for video work only, this would go on IDE 1 as a slave.

[Cobra]

Exactly as Terry L says. This is the way I connect mine and I suffer no problems.

Cobra

[Jayhawk]

I agree except for the addition of a 2nd hard drive. IF you do get a second hard drive for video work, I would put the hard drives on different channels and the burner as a slave on channel-1 with C: and the ROM on channel-2 with D:. The typical scenario would then be rip from the ROM to C:, process video C: to D:, and burn from D: to the burner. No channel contention on any of the above activities.

[wulf109]

Never place a DVD/CD drive on the same channel as a HD,it will slow down the from ATA100/133 to the ATA33 of the DVD/CD. If you install a second HD,it should be slaved to the first HD.

[Terry L]

I agree with Wulf... it would slow down the performance of the computer quite noticeably.

[Capmaster]

I agree with Wulf... it would slow down the performance of the computer quite noticeably.

I'm not sure that's entirely true anymore. Modern optical drives now use UltraDMA transfer mode and shouldn't slow anything down.

[nelson133]

when i had both optical drives on the same IDE channel on my XP machiine, the DVD-ROM drive woud not connect via dma. this means that the drive read discs very slowly. When I put the DVD-ROM drive on the first channel as a slave and the burner on the second channel as a master (with the second hd as a slave) the read speed improved by a factor of 4.
Nyah Levi

[johns0]

I agree with Wulf... it would slow down the performance of the computer quite noticeably.

May of been true a few years ago but newer boards use independent timing on each channel and device so there is no slowdown.

[Sillyname]

I'd place the DVDROM as slave to the HD and place the DVDR on its own channel. If you really want to ensure a stable burn.

As far as DVD/CD drives slowing down HDs on same channel to their speed, that's just wrong. There's a reason why they step up speeds as multiples of one another. So that slower speeds can easily be multiplexed into the faster channel's speed. If anything, 2 HDs on the same channel would cause trouble running simultaneously as they would be fighting for the same maximum speed.

[HillJack]

I agree with Wulf... it would slow down the performance of the computer quite noticeably.

May of been true a few years ago but newer boards use independent timing on each channel and device so there is no slowdown.

I agree with johns0.

I just installed the latest nForce drivers for my mobo, and it gives me the ability to do a speedtest on each drive.

My current setup:

Primary: Both master and slave are WD 7200RPM drives, UDMA Mode 5
Secondary: Master = Pioneer A05 (UDMA 2), slave = WD 7200RMP drive (UDMA 5)

Speedtest on a 120GB on the secondary (where the burner is master):
burst speed: 62.8 MBps
sustained: 49.6 MBps

Speedtest on a 120GB on the primary:
burst speed: 68.4 MBps
sustained: 49.5 MBps

So, as long as you have a relatively new mobo, it doesn't seem to matter where the burner/dvd-rom is, imo.

[Cobra]

Apart from anything else, would the wiring not be a real pain to connect the optical drives on separate channels?

[johns0]

Nope,hdd mounted in the bay with 5.25 adapter.

[Sillyname]

Nope,hdd mounted in the bay with 5.25 adapter.

Maybe it's too many years of drugs but I can't look at your Avitar without getting some heavy Guy Smilie vibes from it. I imagine it talking out your posts with some over-exaggerated flip-top head.

[Cobra]

Nope,hdd mounted in the bay with 5.25 adapter.

Ahhhhh, never thought of that.

[Jayhawk]

A great article on drive configuration:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/conf_Performance.htm