Hard disk/ optical drive arrangement question

[Rave]

Right. I have an Epox 8RGA+ which, like most motherboards has two IDE channels. I just have the one hard disk, which is a 200GB Diamondmax 10. I previously had my NEC 3500 DVD burner as secondary master and a Yamaha CRW-F1 CD burner as secondary slave. Neither of those can do error scans though, so I recently yanked out the CRW-F1 and replaced it with a Lite-On SOHW-167 DVD-Rom drive (which can).

My problem is that I don't want to ditch the CRW-F1, because for some reason the 3500 does sucktacular CD burns (at least on the batch of discs I'm currently using), and also just because the F1 is the absolute daddy of all CD burners. Is there any good reason why I shouldn't go back to having the two burners on the secondary channel and put the DVD-Rom as primary slave? Since it's main job is doing quality scans, it should be fine on the same channel as the hard disk since they're not going to be used (much) at the same time, and that way I should be able to copy discs on the fly without getting buffer underruns as one channel will be reading and the other writing. I know that you can run different speed discs on the same IDE channel without slowing the faster one down....so is there any real-world reason why this would be a bad idea?

TIA,

Rich :¬)

[starbuck]

shouldn't be any problem at all. I have run ones like this before and haven't noticed any prob with performance at all.

[Steve]

Arrange it so devices that communicate with each other the least are on the same channel (or on the flipside, so devices that communicate with each other a lot are on separate channels.)

How you arrange it is up to you, but that's the best advice to give.

[StormPC]

I'll just add that you may need to play with the ATA controller cache settings and such in Windows if you experience any problems. Some HD's don't like being on the same channel as some opticals with certain options enabled. Should be fine though. What Kez said (seperate channels) is a great idea as well.

[arthurleung]

Buy a IDE to USB adapter and stick your CD burner to USB (Still internal)
Thinner cable and better performance for your HDDs.
I have my internal DVDRW hooked up this way and no buffer underrun occur at all.

[Rave]

Thanks for the help guys, I'll give it a shot. I'll think about your option Arthur if I do get noticeable hard disk slowdown, good idea.