HD speed

[Rubber Duck]

Hi,
I've heared a rumor that if your computer has two hard drives then the access time for both drives will be the access time of the slower drive, is that true?:confused:

[mikeL]

Rubber Duck,

Welcome to PC Mechanic,

If the the two drives are sharing the same IDE channel, (one drive slaved to the other) Then I would say Yes.

[avx]

You mean if you have a 7200rpm HD, and a 5400rpmHD even the 7200rpm drive will only perform at 5400rpm?

The answer is no, there will be no speed change...Its explain in this thread:
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64573&highlight=7200

[Rubber Duck]

Thanks AVX, helped a lot.

[mike breck]

The only a problem is if you are trying to <i>use</i> both devices on the same IDE Channel at the same time. With IDE only one device can be accessed at the one time. So that's the holdup - access time.

However, that doesn't mean a ATA33 device on the same Channel as an ATA66/100/133 HD will reduce the performance of the HD to ATA33.

Independent Device Timing on modern mobos will ensure that both devices will work at their rated specs.

HTH

[Nuclear Krusader]

Does that mean that I can slave a CD-ROM (that we all know is still ATA33) to a HD without performance hits, Mike?

[reboot]

You can, provided you use the CS jumper settings, on an 80 wire cable.