New system build using CDRW and DVD-RW drives...

Question...

I'm going to be building a new system, my first in about 4 years, using
the following components;

Asus P4C800-E motherboard
3.2C P4
1GB Corsair TwinX Ram
160MB WD PATA HD
Plextor PX-708A DVD-RW
Plextor Premium CDRW 52/32/52
Audigy 2

In the past, I've run the HD on the primary IDE channel, a CDRW drive on
the secondary IDE channel, and a SCSI CDROM drive attached to an add in
controller card. There was no need to set jumpers on any drives as other
than "master." For this system build, I am not going to use the SCSI
CDROM drive, both Plextors in this case are ATAPI drives. The Western
Digital will be the only hard drive in my system, and will be the master
on the primary IDE channel.

My question is, what is the best setup to use regarding the two Plextor
drives, as far as which channel they are on, and which should be master
and which should be slave? At times, there will be a chance that both
Plextor drives are being accessed at the same time.

Would it hurt my HD performance to set up one of the optical drives as
the slave on the primary IDE channel with the HD? There is a "cable
select" jumper option on all the drives, should I utilize this, even
though I've heard that "cable select" can be unreliable.

And last, but not least, is it possible to run one of the optical drives
off one of the SATA channels on the mobo using a PATA to SATA adapter?

Thanks in advance for any help on this!

Paul

Yes - why?

I've read that trying to read/write information between two devices on
the same channel will either not be possible, or degrade performance.

It shouldn't make any difference on recent systems.

--

Graham Mayor





Paul wrote:
I've read that trying to read/write information between two devices on
the same channel will either not be possible, or degrade performance.