bus/master/slave ?s for Mac gurus

[372cat]

I presently have my two internal IDE drives (apps on one, files/samples on the other) on different busses based on the notion that using separate busses creates a more efficient "2-way street" scenario than trying to push data back and forth at the same time on the same bus. Am I right or wrong?

Secondly, the files/samples IDE drive, now in what used to be the Zip bay, is presently in slave mode to the original cd / DVD ram drive. Would I get better performance by making the IDE drive the master on this bus?

I'm good at a lot of things but as a tech-head I'm a knuckle-dragging wanna-be, so please...talk down to me!

Thanks,

[M.Brane]

I presently have my two internal IDE drives (apps on one, files/samples on the other) on different busses based on the notion that using separate busses creates a more efficient "2-way street" scenario than trying to push data back and forth at the same time on the same bus. Am I right or wrong?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">You're mostly right. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

An IDE bus is incapable of accessing two drives simultaniously, so the best performance is with the drives as singles, each on it's own bus.

Secondly, the files/samples IDE drive, now in what used to be the Zip bay, is presently in slave mode to the original cd / DVD ram drive. Would I get better performance by making the IDE drive the master on this bus?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">This I'm not sure about, but it seems to me that the HDD would be better as the master.

BTW here's the direct link to MacGurus. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[372cat]

Thanks, M. Anybody else?

[372cat]

bump

[dans]

Cat, you must tell us which (exactly) Mac you have. As for Master vs. Slave, there is no difference whatsoever interms of performance. Master is sometimes thought of as better because in some situations on PCs you can not boot from a slave, only a master drive. Other than that, the pejorative nature of the word 'slave' has given it a bad reputation.

the files/samples IDE drive, now in what used to be the Zip bay, is presently in slave mode to the original cd / DVD ram drive.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">This may be less than ideal, depending on your Mac. Some Macs had slower CD/Zip busses compared to the HD bus. You need to find out the specifics of your machine. You may indeed be better off with both drives on the same bus. Practically speaking, when will you ever access both drives at the same time? Not 99% of the time when using PTLE unless you have same-session audio files on both drives.

Honestly though, I would bet that no matter how you connect these drives, you will not notice the difference assuming they are correctly jumpered and hooked up.

[372cat]

Hey dans,
My mac came into this world as a G4 500 AGP sawtooth in 2000. I recently installed a GigaDesigns 1.25MHz cpu upgrade.

[dans]

Cat, I looked around and couldn't find the specs on that CD/Zip ATA port. The specs on Apple's site claim ATA/66 support for the machine in genereal, but it is not clear if that is true for both IDE channels or just the HD channel. Maybe someone else on here knows? Try doing some google groups searches, you'll find the answer. But adding on what I said before, do your own tests and see what the read-world difference is. I have a feeling you'll be fine no matter what you do so long as everything is jumpered correctly, etc. One thing is for sure, the master/slave issue...isn't one.