EIDE Controller and multiple devices

[macphgw]

I am shopping for a new computer to use with Digidesign AMIII for audio recording. I intend using EIDE hard drives, one for system and one for audio.

I am unclear about how to go about setting up these drives together with other IDE devices, for the following reason:

EIDE controllers have a primary and a secondary channel.

For best performance, Digidesign (and others) recommend having separate system and audio drives. The system drive has to be the master on the primary channel.

They also recommend having the audio drive set up as master, so that would require the audio drive being master on the secondary channel.

They also recommend no other devices IDE devices be used on the same channel as the audio drive; i.e no slave devices.

So what does one do with other devices such as CD-ROM drive as CD-RW burner?

Is the only acceptable option to have an additional controller card in the computer for these additional devices?

Thanks for any feedback.

[Xman]

If you read what you've been writing yourself -you'll see that there's nothing against having the CD-unit as Primary slave however I doubt that it matters anyway...

[Zarabeth]

1 - Your PC can only support 4 IDE devices.

Solution - Buy a SCSI card (2940U2W) and use SCSI CD drives or Hard drives or both(Ultra2 or Ultra 160), you could have up to 45 drives with a three channel SCSI card. They are definitely faster. And better yet add
a RAID card and run a Striped set with Parity. Now that's cooking.

That's my two cents for what it's worth.

[Folkcafe]

I have always tried to keep the faster devices apart from the slower. Many of the MB manuals have suggested this for max performance. I would suggest (since you indicate that you are shopping for a new computer) that you pick a board that offers 2 controllers. Like the Asus CUBX-E. It has a ATA33 and a ATA100 controller. This would give you up to 8 devices. I have a ATA100 for audio drives and a the boot drive on the primary master. This leaves open the secondary ATA33 for both CD & CDR drives. So if in the future you need more storage for audio you can have up to 4 ATA100 drives connected. It is a sweet forward thinking set-up. At least it works for me. Your milage may vary. Void where prohibited and all that.

Good luck

Don
Folk Cafe Productions