Question about Hard Drive speeds 1

[xjlkx]

I have two hard drives -

A Maxtor 40GB 7200 RPM ATA/133
and
A Quantum 12GB 5400 RPM ATA/66

My question is:
If I have these drives on the same IDE channel (Maxtor as Master, Quantum as slave) what am I sacrificing as far as performance?

Will the Maxtor be forced to run at ATA/66?
Will the Maxtor be forced to run at 5400 RPM?

Thanks in advance.

 

[cdogg]

It depends on the motherboard and IDE controller. All motherboards I've seen in the past 3 years have something called Independent Device Timing. It allows 2 devices sharing the same IDE channel to run at their own specified interface.

In your case for example, each device won't affect the other in terms of ATA settings. However, you still have the problem of condensed IDE bus traffic when both drives are being accessed at the same time.

You should be fine nevertheless. If you want to guarantee the best performance from both drives, consider buying a PCI IDE controller (usually under $30). With the add-in card, you'll effectively have 4 IDE channels instead of the 2 you have now. That way, you can have the hard drives and CDROM drive(s) on their own channel.


~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein