IDE channels questions

[Joxx]

hello,

today I've bought a new HDD and a CDRW. I have a abit BE6 2.0 board which comes with the BX chipset internal ATA33 controller and an external ATA66 controller. So I have 4 IDE channels. I would like you to please help me with the configuration of these drives.

According to CDRW manual the CDRW drive should be alone on one channel for stability and performance.

Do I get better performance if I give my two HD drives one channel each or can I aswell connect them as master and slave on the same channel?

Is ATA33/ATA66 full or half duplex?

PS. I use the drives for video editing, so I need maximum performance.

[The PIT]

Yup ideally the cdrw should be on it's own channel. I heard some rumours on the grape vine the ata66 ide channel on the abit has some probs with Cd drives.
You can put the hard drives on the same channel as master and slave of course. You may find a slight performance hit if ones a ata66 and anothers ata33 but I don't if you'd notice it.

[Joxx]

The Pit,

would it be the best configuration to put the HDD:s as masters on IDE3 and IDE4 (ata66) and the cd:s as masters on IDE1 and 2 (ata33)? Or do I lose performance on having many IDE channels active?

In the windows properties of the disk drive there are a settings option: sync data transfer, what is that?

/Joxx

[Dr Mordrid]

Here's my 2 cents worth:

ATA33 IDE1: boot drive (master)
ATA33 IDE2: CDRW (master)

ATA66 IDE1: video drive (master)
ATA66 IDE2: open? (master)

Save the slave connections for devices like ZIP or tape drives.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 16 June 2000).]

[Jorden]

First off a question: Are your HDD's ATA/33 or ATA/66 or a mixed bunch?

If ATA/33 skip Dr. Morbid's suggestion and go along with TP's !

You don't need the synch data transfer option as that is for SCSI drives only. (If you press the question mark in the upper right corner of the box, then point it to the option, and press the mousebutton again, Windows will tell you this)

Check if your drives are ATA/66, and if not, using up the ATA/66 connectors is useless, as ATA/33 drives won't go any faster through ATA/66 controllers than at ATA/33 speed !!

Jord.