Primary/secondary IDE master

[cowdude]

I don't think I've seen anything on here about this question, I'm sorry if I missed it and started a new one.
Question: With a SATA DVD burner and 2 IDE drives, can I run primary/secondary masters?
if so would it be more efficient than primary master/slave that I run now.
setup: SAmsung SATA burner, WD Cavier 120gb 7200rpm (OS) Seagate Barracuda 7200(storage)
Abit NF-95 MB

I know that running a sata HD would be the best idea, but funds haven't been made available for it yet.
And Yeah I know the NF-95 is anceint as well. I was just wondering if using both IDE ports would
speed up read write just a bit or not.

Thanks in advance.

 

[jsc]

"can I run primary/secondary masters? " Sure.

"if so would it be more efficient than primary master/slave that I run now. " Maybe.

"Would it be noticeably faster?" Maybe.

It will not cost you much (the price of another IDE cable) to find out.

 

[4745454b]

For the most part it won't make a difference. The only time it would matter is if you are doing disk to disk copy. Reading a game file off a disk won't have any differences same as saving a file. But IDE can only read/write to one drive at a time. So if you copy from one disk to another it will be faster if each drive was a master on a different channel.

 

[hitechgowthaman]

in ide cable connection for 2 drives, (0)ide Mobo connector»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» (2)secondary connector»»»»»»»»»(1)primary connector.u can also set in hdd using a small connector at back.
if using 1 drive u can fit hdd in (1,2) mobo detect it is primary,

 

[hitechgowthaman]

Ur segate 95mb hdd can slow down ur system so dont use that .if u remove that u see the performance is increasing

 

[4745454b]

hitechgowthaman, he doesn't have a "95mb" hdd. Removing a hdd wont' speed anything up.

 

[Paperdoc]

jsc and 4745454b said it right

 

[maxinexus]

I always kept OS HDD on separate channel, and had storage HDD with CD/DVD ROM.
Worked great for me.

 

[cowdude]

I forgot to add that both drives are 120gb, the only difference is the WD is 8mb buffer and the seagate is 2mb. I'm gonna give it a try this weekend and report my findings.

Thanks to all for the speedy replies.

 

[cowdude]

Report: SOLVED
I set my OS drive to IDE 1 and Storage drive to IDE 2. I've noticed some boot up improvement and drive to drive copying has vastly improved. It seems like my games and apps load a smidgen faster as well.
Over all it has had a slight but acceptable improvement so I'll leave it like it is until I can get a SATA drive.

Thanks for the help.

 

[4745454b]

drive to drive copying has vastly improved.

The only time it would matter is if you are doing disk to disk copy.

Nice to know I was partially right at least. As I said each IDE channel can only access one disk at a time. So reading from one drive needs to stop if its going to write to another drive on the same channel. I'm not surprised at all that this has "vastly improved". A bit surprised that you've seen noticeable/measurable increases in game loading as this shouldn't have mattered. Any clue by how much its better?

edited for spelling.

 

[cowdude]

It may be wishful thinking, but it seems like my games load about 25% faster not having the second drive on that channel. I just notice that it doesn't take them as long to start now. I would have to revert and time them to get a more accurate time.

 

[4745454b]

Just having a second drive sitting on the same channel shouldn't matter. It would have a long time ago but we finally developed Independent Drive Timing. This stopped harddrives from moving as fast as a CDrom simply because the rom was on the same channel.

 

[cowdude]

You are correct, I guess it just seems faster to me. I know I'll see a difference when I get a SATA drive.

 

[cowdude]

Best answer selected by cowdude.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey