optical drive

[Eriol]

Ok now Im up to installing the optical drives,
I already set the jumpers one master the other slave.
On my Mobo i have two IDE slots(pri and sec), however my ribbon looks like I can connect both drives to one of the IDE slots(in series), is this correct?

[rspassey]

Yep, you should be able to connect two drives (hdd or optical or combo) per IDE cable.

[Cricket]

Do you know what kind of IDE cable you have? Is it a 40 wire or 80 wire?

If it's a 40 wire then you use the master/slave jumper settings.

But if it's a 80 wire then you use the CS (cable select) jumper setting.

Each IDE channel can handle 2 drives.

Most IDE cables will have 3 connectors on it. If they're all the same color then it might be a 40 wire IDE cable. But if you have 3 different colors (blue, grey and black) then it's a 80 wire IDE cable. Blue to motherboard, grey is the slave connector and black is the master connector.

Cricket

[Eriol]

thanks, I think I got it connected,
also on the drives it looks like it has an audio out slot, is this important. I thought all it needed as the IDE cable and the 4 pin power connector

[Cricket]

The audio cable is not necessary. Audio signal is handled by the IDE cable with WinXP.

Cricket

[Eriol]

thanks cricket