Quick ? - Master/Slave on cable effects performance 1

[Monkeygumbo]

In terms of performance, does it matter which connector the master or slave device is connected to on the ribbon cable?

On my primary IDE i have a HD on the end connector and a CDRW on the middle connector. The HD sets up as Master and the CDRW as Slave. I'm not losing on performance here, am I?

Thanks,

MG

 

[Kofy]

No, it isnt the best way... if you wish you CAN get a 2nd cable and connect the CD-RW to it as the secondary master.. makes for faster IO... Hope this helps out.

 

[pmonett]

If you only have one cable, then it doesn't matter. It is generally the HDD you put as Master, but I do not know if there is a technical issue there.
But, as Kofy stated, if you only have 2 IDE units, it is best to put them on seperate cables.
The logic there is that with one unit on one cable, each unit uses 100% of the cable bandwidth, whereas two units on one cable will have to share.

 

[Monkeygumbo]

Actually, I have four IDE devices. Two HDs and two CDRWs.

Here's the current setup...
Primary IDE-
Master...120GB HD (on middle connector of cable)(jumpered as master)
Slave...8x8x24 CDRW (on end of cable)(no jumper)

Secondary IDE-
Master...52x24x52 CDRW (on end of cable)(no jumper)
Slave...40GB HD (on middle connector) (Jumpered as slave)

The secondary IDE devices weren't being recognized by the BIOS when I tried to jumper the 52x24x52 CDRW as Slave. I don't need very fast access to the 40GB HD, but I would like to tweak the situation as best as possible.

I deliberately connected the HDs to different IDE cables to avoid problems with copying between the units (this is a tip a buddy gave me...can you confirm or deny?). The reason the devices are connected to the ribbon cable (middle or end of the connector) the way they are, is because it was the only physical possibility.

Can this situation be tweaked for better performance?

Thanks a lot!

MG

 

[Kofy]

it does sound as though you have your drives set as optimum. bout the only thing you can do to possibly increase data throughput is use 80 wire cables instead of 40, if you arent already.. but short of that. I know of nothing else....

 

[Monkeygumbo]

80 wire cables? I'm not sure what you mean. A different ribbon cable? How much better is performance after this upgrade?

 

[Kofy]

80 wire cables reduce SOME electrical interference between the wires transmitting the data.. do a search for HD cables and you'll get hits for tons of them.. some are sheilded some are just plastic coated.. I use the sheilded ones in my system.. they are smaller and round so as to increase airflow in your computer also..