IDE Layout Master , Slave ? HDD,optical ?

scottscott Medina, Ohio Icrontian
edited November 2004 in Hardware
Hi Guys
I have a couple of noob questions.
Two IDE channels two HDD's two optical disks

How would you lay them out ?
1 of each per channel with Hdd as master ?
or
both HDD on IDE 1 ? as master and slave
both opticals on 2 as master and slave ( I doubt that I will need to do any direct disc copying between the opticals )

and I have heard of "Cable Select" referred to as less than good. Should they be jumpered master and slave. And if they are jumpered master and slave does cable postion matter ? As in.... can the middle ide connector be used as master if jumpered as such ?

If it matters it is on an NF7 board


Thanks


Scott

Comments

  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    The best arrangement is the one in which the most transfers use both channels; copying between two hard drives on the same cable is somewhat slower. You should probably split up the hard disks, and the optical drives don't matter much, IMO.

    I don't trust cable select, most people don't... it's not very successful. I just decide where everything should be on the cables and jumper them accordingly (middle-slave, outer-master). I'm not really sure if it works the other way around.
  • floppybootstompfloppybootstomp Greenwich New
    edited November 2004
    I have read so much conflicting advice on this subject.

    Last thing I read was that if you share one IDE channel between an optical drive and a HDD, the HDD will only operate at UDMA 2 speed, being 'dragged' down to the slowest speed on that channel. True?

    On the other hand, prior to that I also read that two optical drives shouldn't be on the same channel as if you're copying a disk, data transfer will be slowed as they're on the same channel, with data from each sharing the same cable. Again, true?

    In real life, I've tried just about every combination and it doesn't seem to make one jot of difference with speed.

    But, FWIW, I now configure both HDD's on one channel, and both optical drives on the other, in each instance setting them to master and slave.

    If anybody has any sound reasoning or proof about this, and not just their opinion, I'd be really interested to hear it.
  • scottscott Medina, Ohio Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    I have read much conflicting advice as well. I have done it both ways and could not really tell any big diff. But then again I have also used Cable Select a lot also no problems.
    My main reason for asking is, I am in the process of "Pimping out" one of my rigs and want to show it off. I am at the cabeling stage right now. I sure would hate to do all that work only to have someone say "You ran the cables wrong"

    I think I may just go for the "neatest" option.

    Unless of course I hear a good argument otherwise.

    The rig may be used for some DVD burning, so I will try to keep the burner and storage drive on different channels.

    Thanks guys

    Scott
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    Scott

    I have gone to setting up all my drives as "Master" on single device IDE cables on their own IDE channel even if it means using one of the channels on n onboarda RAID controller or purchasing a separate controller card for more channels.

    As mentioned, you don't want to put 2 HDD's on the same channel if transfering data between drives or for burning "On the fly" between a CD-ROM (DVD) and a burner as it will be slower and can even cause problems.

    On the other hand, when mixing drives, you often limit the speed of a faster device to the same speed of the slowest device on a channel so mixing is not alwys good either.
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