[mythtv-users] Asus Pundit vs. Shuttle XPC SK41G

[Chris Petersen]

> This is incorrect. In the past this may have been true, but for any modern
> PC (including the Pundit) this is not the case.  Your HD may slow down
> while you are *simultaneously* using the optical drive on the same IDE
> channel, but when it's not in use the HD will support speeds up to its
> specifications.

I just checked this with our main technical guy and he assures me that
this is still the case.  I trust his opinion, since he often spends his
days debugging hard drive issues, and mentioned that we deal with this
particular issue in many of the servers that we build because the low
profile CD drives we use are only ATA-33, and often need to share the
channel with one of the server's main drives - forcing it down to the
slower speed.

The problem basically comes down to the fact that the master and slave
drives need to communicate with each other (so they know which info is
meant for which drive, presumably), as well as with the controller, so
they all have to speak the same language.  Thus, if your optical drive
doesn't support UDMA, or doesn't support DMA, the controller can't speak
UDMA or DMA or whatever, and it reverts to a slower protocol. 

Anyway, I'm sure there is technical documentation for this online
somewhere, but as I said, I've seen this first-hand in my own pundit. 
The hard drive (and thus the machine itself) runs noticeably slower with
an ATA-33 cdrw plugged into it.

-Chris