max. no of devices..harmful??

[karthik316_1999]

just wanted to know if connecting the max no. of IDE devices(4) in my case would slow down the overall access speed and performance of my system....?

got a SATA HDD
a cd-rom,combo drive,dvd-writer and an IDE HDD>..

any ideas for the best combination for master and slave??

[homer]

it should not slow down your computer at all by adding more IDE devices. as for master and slave combinations, it really doesnt matter, whatever floats your boat.

[karthik316_1999]

thanks homer...but in my pc i got now,i have my HDD and cd-rom put on the primary master and slave...and the combo drive on a individual cable as the secondary master..

whenever i copy data from a cd to the HDD,the time taken by the cd-rom drive is much much more when compared to the time taken when i copy the same data from the combo drive...both are 52x drives..why is this then??

[GX1_Man]

I'm assuming the power supply is up to all of this.  

Try the Primary hard drive on IDE 1 Master and the most used ROM device (the combo drive?) on IDE2 master. Your transfer rate should be better. do you have DMA mode on/

[karthik316_1999]

u mean the power supply affetcs the data tranfer speed??? i gotta 300w power supply...

[GX1_Man]

I mean the power supply can affect the proper functioning of the computer. Is 300w enough for 6 hard drives and the other components? Here's an estimator:

http://journeysystems.com/power_supply_calculator.php

[pcdoc4christ]

Karthic:

GX1's advice is sound, as the CD-ROM drive will slow down the hard drive connected to it as a slave.  You might consider using the hard drive connected to the same controller as the optical drive for backups or storing files you will not use often.  

Doc

[karthik316_1999]

cool