max performance

i have 2 HDD(40gb ata100 & 4.3gb ata33(for backup)) and 2cd-roms(acer52x cdrom & hp 16x cd-r). on p4, 845e chipset mbd-533mhz fsb, 256mb ddr, geforce3 t2.

which arrangement / combination of the hdds and cdroms are likely to give me maximum performance.
like for eg-
ide1 - 40gb hdd + cd rom
ide2 - 4.3gb hdd + cd-writer.
can anybody give me suggestions.
thankyou.

Yes - keep the two CD drives on one channel, and the hard drives on the other. Don't mix them.

Although your ATA33 drive will slow down the transfer times from your other drive. An IDE transfer goes at the speed of the slowest device on the channel. Best thing to do would be to install the ATA33 drive only when backing up. Leave it disconnected at other times.

Or you could...

a) ditch the 4.3gb
b) install and IDE card to put your CD-ROM and 4.3gb on a third channel. This would increase your CD-Copy performance.

i though all modern mobo had dual FIFO's. that mean all devices work at their correct speed. BUT, the two devices on a channel can still only be accessed one at a time.
ie. say you have a hdd and cd-rom on one cable. you could access either, but not both simaltaniously (sp)

please correct me if im wrong

You said you want Max Performance. Shelf the 3.4 GB HD. Put the cd's on one channel and the 40 GB HD on the other. That will give you max performance.