Optimal Connection

[Guest]

I have my hard drive connected to the primary master of the UDMA100 input of my Asus A7V, and the CD ROM drive connected to the primary master UDMA66 input, with another cable (obviously). I'm thinking this will give me better performance, but I just thought I'd ask to see if I'm right. If so then everyone else can go out and get another cable, and do the same, if they have similar ATA's on their mobo. Of course I may be mistaken...or it makes no difference at all. Anyone know for sure?

THANX BRO'S. PEACE.

 

[mpjesse]

That's a good question. I have no idea- anyone? I don't think it would matter though.

-MP Jesse

 

[Guest]

Does your CROM support ATA-66?

If not, make sure you use a regular cable so it detects it at ATA-33.

Learning has begun.

 

[Arrow]

Sorry, I don't exactly understand the question, but having separate IDE channels for separate devices is better because the data transfer throughput is shared on an IDE channel. (That sentence might be worded choppy and incorrectly, thus, giving the wrong meaning; however, I don't know how to put it into words.) And I can't remember hearing about ATA66 CD-ROMs yet.

Rob
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[Guest]

I'll try to clarify, without using all the technical terms which can confuse people, especially me!
Normally the hard drive connects to the motherboard with the same cable as to the CD ROM. However, my mobo has two connectors, one for ATA100, one for ATA66 (these are for different data transfer rates of the hard disk). Both these connectors have master and slave sockets. I do not use the slave sockets, which I presume are for setting up a second, slave hard drive. My udma100 hard disk connects to the udma100 master on the hard drive, and using another old cable I have connected my CD drive to the master udma66. I'm thinkind data transfer rates will be better, as each device has its own cable, going into separate inputs on the motherboard. But I'm not sure. The system works perfectly, only startup is a little slow...possibly nothing to do with this. Hope this helps everyone to understand. A further point is, I believe, that you should not connect the CD ROM to the slave connector, if you have only one pair of master/slave inputs. I think then the motherboard will not be able to process information from both sources at the same time.
Sooo...anyone know how this stuff works for sure?

SEASONS GREATINGS!
DESIGN TEAM

 

[Guest]

You're right. The design of ide only allows one or another device to be accessed when 2 are connected on one cable as a master and slave.

If you are only connecting one device to an ide channel, it should be set as a master or standalone device. The exeption is some older cd roms that only work when set as a slave.

As for cd roms being ata66 compatible, this will probably happen soon, especially for cd burners with large amounts of cache memory. The speed of the actual drive doesn't matter much because a 7200rpm hard drive won't even fill the data bandwidth of an ata66 or ata100 channel, let alone a cd or dvd rom being able to do it. The important part is the cache memory of the drive, which is able to communicate with the drive contoller at an ata66 or ata100 speed in a compatible drive. This is not important in cd or dvd roms which only have an average of 128kb or 256kb of cache. A cd burner, on the other hand, usually has at least 2mb of cache, and it's especially important that the drive controller running it can keep it's cache full when burning a disc to prevent 'buffer underruns' and the creation of a shiny coaster.

Glad to hear your setup works perfectly.

 

[Guest]

So basically if you can, put the CD drive as master on a separate cable to the second IDE master where possible, for example on the ASUS A7V, HD to ATA100, CD to ATA66. Thanks Blaine, you confirmed what I had thought, now everyone should take advantage of the trick. Cable suppliers will have a good Christmas!

ON THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME...

AN ASUS A 7 VEEE!

DESIGN TEAM

 

[Flyboy]

Would the performance really be that much better? The system I set up for my fiancee has the harddrive as master and Cd-rom as slave on one IDE channel. I understand that only one device can transmit/receive at a time (due to one cable), but isn't this true for the BUS anyway? Only one device can use the bus as a time so why should two cables make any difference?

NOTE: On my Athlon system I set up the hardrive and CD-ROM seperately as MASTERs...

Just curious. Help anyone?

 

[Guest]

Basically if you have two masters and an old cable lying around, you may as well set it up like you have on your system. If you girl has two masters and you have another spare cable, it seems like you may as well set it up for her too.
I expect any difference is minimal, but what the hey...

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see the lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee to-night.

DESIGN TEAM

 

[Guest]

I was reading the ABIT KT7 manual online in anticipation of buying one and it confirms that the CDROM should be on a separate IDE channel from the HD for best performance.

 

[Raistlin]

Just a couple errors basically you are right
however on the a7v you actually have 2 controllers with 2 channels each WHICH can support 2 devices each for a total of 8.
their is no slave socket, the slave socket it the second connector on the cable.
So as long as you connect 1 device per cable that is best
not one device per controller
you may even want to set them up as
primary master secondary master on the ata-66 controller
and just turn off the other controller unless you have more than 2 devices or have an ata-100 hdd
(you turn it off in bios)

any questions or if i'm not clear let me know

Bored,Certified Tech