Re: PATA HDD and only 2 IDE connectors

keith wrote: 
On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 14:44:17 +0200, Grumble wrote:


George Macdonald wrote:


On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 12:07:34 +0200, Grumble <devnull@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



Hello everyone,

I've recently purchased an ASUS A8N-E MB (nForce4 Ultra).
It has 2 IDE connectors and 4 SATA connectors.

I have a spare 120GB PATA HDD that I planned to use. However, I did not
expect to have only 2 IDE connectors: I also wanted a DVD-ROM drive and
a DVD burner. But I can't fit 3 IDE devices with only 2 connectors at my
disposal... :-(



Huh?  Each IDE connector takes a master and a slave... maybe not an optimal
arrangement to have a DVD-ROM or DVD burner sharing with something else but
not uncommon... a choice which many have had to make.  Usually the DVD
burner mfrs recommend having it as a master.


Doh! I feel so silly :-)

I actually *knew* there could be 2 devices per IDE channel, but somehow
my brain ignored that fact as I wrote the original message.

So you suggest:

HDD = IDE0 master
DVD writer = IDE1 master
DVD reader = IDE1 slave


That's what I would do, if only because the cables will fit that way. ;-)
I usually have trouble reaching from the HDD to CD drvice with the 6"
cable between the master and slave connectors. If they fit, I'd likely
put the DVD reader as a slave on IDE0. 


I've heard the HDD should not share the channel for best performance. Is
that important?



In reality, I don't think it matters much these days.  The IDE interfaces
are much faster than they once were, DMA really works, and under-runs on
burners are (almost?) a thing of the past.


Finally, would an IDE-to-SATA adapter improve / degrade / change nothing
as far as the performance of the system is concerned?



D. Cost more money than they're worth.  Unless there are no more homes for
the drives, I wouldn't even thing of going there.  Even so, I'd buy an
add-in card with the appropriate interface before such a kludge.

<snip>

I believe there are a few SATA DVD burners out there, IIRC Plextor has
one and maybe Asus too.

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks.


Also keep in mind that they're 2X-3X the price of pATA burners.

The IDE version of Plextor's 16x dual-layer burner is only about 5% cheaper than the SATA version.

The  Plextor name is some of that though.


If you burn enough DVDs it is worth it. I have also tried BenQ and Sony IDE DVD burners that cost less than half as much and were nominally also 16x dual-layer drives. However, they both took about 20% longer than the Plextor to fill up a dual-layer DVD.

As well, when I use Drive Image to burn drive images directly to DVD with no intermediate storage on a hard drive, the Plextor works every time while the BenQ and the Sony made coasters every time. This, not the faster burn times, is why I don't regret the extra cost of the Plextor drive.

I also love not having any ribbon cables in my system. In addition to making it much easier to tinker inside the case, it became noticeably quieter and motherboard temps dropped 3'C when I replaced my two IDE hard drives with larger SATA drives and was able to get rid of the last ribbon cable.
.

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