Best IDE configuration!

[HelpfromU]

Hi experts,
I have following drives in my dell system.
1. Seagate 80 GB HDD
2. WD 120 GB HDD
3. Sony 8X CDRW
4. LiteOn DVD

What is best IDE configuration. ?

Someone told me put it like this
1 .Seagate 80 GB HDD(primary master)
2. WD 120 GB HDD (Primary slave)
3. Sony 8X CDRW (Secondary Master)
4. LiteOn DVD (Secondary slave )


Is that correct??





4.

[Mattew0]

yea that should be cood, you want to have the hdd's and optical drives on seperate channels, so as long as that is how you want it as master/slave, it should be good.

[DarkNight]

Well it depends. If you copy from dvd to cdr it works better when the source drive is on a separate channel. When you transfer files from the primary HD to your secondary there will be a lag as well since the ide channel will be busy.

[{PMS}fishy]

Your best bet is generally to have 1 Optical Drive and 1 HDD per channel.

That way there is greater speed when copying between HDDs. Or burning CDs of the other drive.

Remember that the max through put for each channel is shared between both of the connected devices.

[hoytron]

I never run more than one device on one IDE channel, and it shows. If you have a few extra bucks and a free PCI slot, I would pick up an IDE controller card. Then I would put one hard drive and one optical on the new card, in case windows won't recognize them w/o drivers.

[N1vek215]

I heard and was told a long time ago, that you should never put 2 cd drives of any sort on the same cable. I never knew EXACTLY why, but I can guess maybe it's for speed, such as from copying from one cd to the other. I would put, one HD and one CD on one IDE and one HD and the other CD on the other cable. But sometimes, due to the motherboard and case size, you won't be able to do that configuration. (Sometimes I have to plan out everything and take the extra effort to make everything fit, because I prefer the 1HD-1CD on each cable configuration)

Can somesome TRUELY clarify the pros and cons on this subject?

[tom10167]

So, everyone has a different answer, my answer is to try both ways, it only takes two seconds, note appropriate data, and report back to us. :)