Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : Does a slower HDD affect the faster one?
Raoul_Duke
03-02-2003, 07:24 AM
Couldn't really find this out.
I've got two hard drives, a master and slave. The master is a new fast drive and the secondry is an old slow one.
I'm sure i heard once that in this kind of set-up the faster drive is limited to the speed of the slower one.
Anyone confirm or deny this :confused:
scinerd
03-02-2003, 03:01 PM
Yes the slower one is going to affect the faster one. I would put the slower one on the sec ide with the cdrom. That way the fast drive has the bus to it's self.
4_legged_duck
03-02-2003, 03:15 PM
now that sucks... does scsi work the same way?
Raoul_Duke
03-02-2003, 04:48 PM
Originally posted by scinerd
Yes the slower one is going to affect the faster one. I would put the slower one on the sec ide with the cdrom. That way the fast drive has the bus to it's self.
So if i just took it out alltogether, i would get slightly increased performance :confused:
Originally posted by Raoul_Duke
So if i just took it out alltogether, i would get slightly increased performance :confused: Technically yes, although whether the improvement will really be noticeable will depend on the type of IDE bus (ATA-33, ATA-66, ATA-100, etc.) and the speed difference between the two drives.
Raoul_Duke
03-02-2003, 06:26 PM
I don't have the specs to hand ATM but the old drive is VERY old and the new drive is VERY new :D
Ah what the heck.......i'll take it out anyway, it's only 9gb ;)
Originally posted by 4_legged_duck
does scsi work the same way? As with all things SCSI the answer is a resounding- sometimes.
SCSI is much more complex than IDE/ATA, so without getting too technical:
In general, you'll get performance degradation when you put an older "narrow" (50-pin) scsi device on a newer wide/ultra-wide/LVD (68-pin) bus. On the other hand, newer controllers, when used soley with "wide" devices, can negotiate on a per-device basis, thereby utilizing the full performance of each device on the bus.
As with IDE, your top bus speed is limited to that of the host controller, so if you've got an Ultra160 drive connected to an older ultra wide controller you'll be limited to the 40 MB/s throughput of the controller.
Of course, this is very short and simple answer; there are so many different "flavors" of SCSI and so many issues that affect performance (termination, cable length, positioning of mixed devices on the bus, etc.) that your mileage will definitely vary.
Originally posted by Raoul_Duke
I don't have the specs to hand ATM but the old drive is VERY old and the new drive is VERY new :D
Ah what the heck.......i'll take it out anyway, it's only 9gb ;) Actually, another solution would be to put the slower drive on your other IDE channel if possible; the two standard IDE channels on your mobo operate independently, so having a slower drive on one channel won't degrade the throughput of the other channel.