How 2 connect 2 HDDs, 2CDDs

rejikumarrvrejikumarrv
edited July 2006 in Hardware
I have
Seagate 80 GB HDD : 7200 RPM (Contains OS & Programs)
Samsung 40 GB HDD : 3600 RPM (Swap space + Songs,Movies, Backup)
52X LG CD reader
48-24-48 Samsung CD Writer

Two IDE Channels (parallel)

Which is the best way to connect them

At present my connection is
Primary Master : 80 GB HDD
Primary Slave : CD Reader
Second Master : CD writer
Second Slave : 40 GB HDD
Will any other arrangement give better performance?
I use HDDs more than the Optical drives

Comments

  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2006
    On an IDE Controller, the fastest drive on a channel will default to the speed of the slowest one. How you set them up is going to depend a great deal on what you use the computer for.

    If you copy a lot of CDs, having the CD burners on different channels will help. If you like to keep your Swap File on a separate drive you'll want the two HDs on different channels.

    I prefer to use an add-in card for extra IDE Channels and keep each device on its own. They are not expensive. :)
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    profdlp wrote:
    On an IDE Controller, the fastest drive on a channel will default to the speed of the slowest one. How you set them up is going to depend a great deal on what you use the computer for.

    If you copy a lot of CDs, having the CD burners on different channels will help. If you like to keep your Swap File on a separate drive you'll want the two HDs on different channels.

    I prefer to use an add-in card for extra IDE Channels and keep each device on its own. They are not expensive. :)
    I'm with you prof. They don't call me 'Master' for nothing! ;D

    In all seriousness I must add, that your swap file on that 3600 RPM HD isn't helping your system at all. For it to be truly effective your swap file needs to be on a different physical drive at least as fast as your OS. In your case it wquld actually be better to keep your swap file as Windows installed it.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    profdlp wrote:
    On an IDE Controller, the fastest drive on a channel will default to the speed of the slowest one. How you set them up is going to depend a great deal on what you use the computer for.


    Are you sure that's true? I've had a UDMA 33 drive connected with a UDMA 133 HD before on the same cable and the HD didn't drop down to UDMA 33.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2006
    Results will vary depending on "real world" use and the type of benchmark you run. These days, it's really more of an issue when you have a Hard Drive sharing a channel with an ATAPI device.

    See the sections labeled Independent Master/Slave Device Timing and Hard Disk and ATAPI Device Channel Sharing over at this site. :)
  • rejikumarrvrejikumarrv
    edited July 2006
    I remember reading somewhere that the issue of a pair on same channel slowing down to the slowest of them was there before atleast ten years. Nowadays they run at there own rate. Not very sure about this.
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