Kenny said:
Can't agree with you, all the PC's I've built have the 2 HDD on Primary
IDE and optical drives on Secondary.
Don't want to go into a long explanation but it also makes CD/DVD writing
less problematic.
Kevin:
As you have discovered, you're going to get a number of conflicting
responses recommending this or that configuration of your IDE/ATAPI devices.
Based upon my own experience and tests the computer facility I was
associated with conducted a few years ago on this very issue -- in virtually
every case, aside from connecting one's working HD as Primary Master, it
really didn't matter performance-wise how the remaining drives (hard drives
& optical drives) were connected on the IDE channels.
Note I said "virtually every case". There were some rather rare situations
where it did matter with respect to HD connections/configurations. This
usually involved the encoding/decoding of extremely large video files
(gigabytes in size).
Similarly, we did run into situations (rare as they might be) where we
encountered a performance issue (read "speed of data transfer") involving
the IDE channel placement of two optical drives (Kenny's observation).
Strangely enough, we found *no* "common denominator" in this situation. In
some cases it was more desirable to connect both devices on the same IDE
channel (as Kenny has apparently found), while in other cases we found it
was better to connect them on separate IDE channels. But generally speaking
it simply didn't matter.
But do this. Experiment for yourself. In this instance don't rely on my
advice or anyone else's. Try different configurations of your devices and
run speed tests based on your normal day-to-day activities with the
computer, i.e., accessing programs, moving/copying files, burning CDs, etc.
See if there's any performance difference depending upon how this or that
device is connected and thus determine the best setup for your particular
needs.
It *is* true that all things considered, it's always (or nearly always) best
to connect the booting HD to the Primary Master position. But this is only
because some motherboards (a very few) do have a problem when the bootable
drive is located on a position other than PM. But it's probably a moot
point, since you would be hard-pressed to find a booting HD that a user has
connected to a position *other* than the PM one.
The ULTRA-5 mode is available on *both* IDE channels. Other than the booting
HD being normally connected to the Primary Master position as noted above
and notwithstanding the rather rare exceptions noted above, there are *no*
compelling reasons to connect hard drives on the primary IDE channel and
optical drives on the secondary IDE channel. In nearly every case there will
not be any performance degradation should a HD be connected on the secondary
IDE channel and an optical drive on the primary IDE channel.
Let me repeat that it's easy enough to conduct your own tests on the
particular machine you're using to determine if there’s any appreciable
difference in connecting your IDE/ATAPI devices. Connect your devices in
every conceivable configuration and while performing your day-to-day
computer operations, e.g., CD disk copying, moving/copying large amounts of
data between drives, photo/video editing processes, etc., determine if you
experience any performance issues depending upon the devices' connections.
And if so, connect your devices accordingly.
Anna
