[mythtv-users] Question about SATA/IDE controller cards...

[Kevin J. Cummings]

Brian Phillips wrote:
> This might be an issue I'll need to resolve by experimentation, but I
> thought I'd see if someone else had already figured this out before I invest
> any time.
> 
> I have an older machine.  I bought a large SATA drive with a PCI controller
> to add the drive to my system.  The PCI card has an ATA133 slot on it as
> well.  I was going to put system drive on the motherboards primary IDE, the
> optical drive on the secondary IDE, and the SATA storage drive on the PCI
> card.
> 
> I got to thinking about the route this data will take.  I was wondering if I
> could get better performance if I put the optical drive on the IDE
> controller on the PCI card.  If the IDE controller and the SATA controller
> were on the same card and the read and write took place on the PCI card, it
> would be a noticeably better than putting the optical drive on one of the
> IDE channels of the motherboard.
> 
> What is the consensus, am I crazy?  Will the datapath stay on (or close to)
> the PCI card, or will it make no difference which IDE port I use
> (motherboard/PCI card) for my optical drive?

I don't think it will make a difference so long as your optical drive is
on a separate controller from your primary IDE drive.

I seem to remember that when you put more than 1 device on the same
40/80 pin IDE cable, it runs at the speed of the slower device when both
are in use at the same time.  So, as long as one is on the primary
controller and the other on the secondary controller, you should be OK.
   You might want to make sure you put it on the bus that runs the
fastest (you didn't mention how fast your motherboard IDE controllers
were) or at least one as fast or faster than your optical drive can go.

-- 
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome at rcn.com
cummings at kjchome.homeip.net
cummings at kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)