chump

Does a CDROM in a PC use an ATA-100 IDE cable? I thought it was just any IDE cable until I went on E-Buyer and saw ones that were ATA-100 and ATA-133. Which one does a CDROM use?

Cheers
Chump

Hanslow

I thought CD-ROMS ran at ATA-33. Will work on a 100/133 cable, but will reduce throughput to ATA-33 speeds (I believe) which is why you don't want it master/slave to a hard disk, keep it on a separate IDE channel or with anothre CD/DVD device.

NWMark

Either will work so whichever is the cheapest

Like Hanslow said also if you have room on your IDE channels / cables you should really have the CDROM on a different cable than you hard drives.

Mark

chump

Cheers guys. Very helpful

Chump

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

CDs are always ATA33, unless ATA is turned off. Yes, an ATA100 cable won't hurt (there's no such thing as an ATA133 cable no matter what the packet says - ATA133 is just Maxtor marketing hype) but you will be fine with ATA33 - as long as there is no HDD on the same cable. HDDs require an ATA100 cable if they are ATA100 - and most are. Note that it is the act of sharing with a slower ATA device that slows the HDD down: even if you use an ATA100 cable, if you put a CD and an HDD on the same cable, both will run at ATA33. If you put an ATA66 and an ATA100 HDD together, both will work at ATA66 etc.


M