Possible to have more than two devices on IDE channel ?

[juicced]

I've got two HD's on IDE 1 and a CD-ROM and CD-RW on IED 2, is ther a way i can add a DVD-Player on either of these IDE's ?
Maybe not...

[AuraEdge]

I doubt it...I always thought this was much more of a limitation than anything else. The new ATA/66 MB's (BE6, BP6) might let you hook up one of your HD's to a ATA66 Port, and put the DVD where the HD was..assuming one of the HD's support ATA66, but You probably knew that already so im justbein stupid.
I dont know if this would work, but if you had a IDE controller PCI card, It might work..I bet theres some conflict with too many IDE cables tho

[juicced]

so you think I could get a PCI IDE card ?
That's a thought !

[Ziz]

I don't think the controller card will make any difference. All the ones I know of (PCI or ISA) only handle 4 IDE/2 Floppy and usually at least one serial and parallel. Once you plug in a card, it bypasses the onboard IDE of your motherboard. You may gain a performance increase depending on your motherboard, but you're still stuck with the same number of devices. If anyone has working proof otherwise, let me know!

[LJE2]

Take out the CD ROM drive, the DVD ROM drive is also a CD ROM drive and in most of the new 3rd generation 5x and 6x DVD ROM drives the CD ROM drive is anywhere between a 24x and 32x.

[juicced]

hum...
Guess that's the only way to go. Pity I got a ASUScd400 two months ago !!

[Nathan]

By putting a CD-rom on the primary IDE that the hard drive is on is asking for trouble on certain motherboards, BIOS, and CD-roms. And you can take a performance hit too in certain situations.

Another option is to go SCSI. But now your talking alot more money.

Personally I think in some cases we put too many devices in our systems. But to each his/her own.

Good Luck!!

[Sterling_Aug]

juicced: Your only option is to add a SCSI card for any new drives, and then you may have trouble configuring them. A mixed IDE/SCSI system is not easy to get correct.

Nathan: I have a Creative Labs PC-DVDxr2 on the same IDE channel as my primary hard drive. No problems at all with an ABIT BX6 rev 2.

[jmatrix]

Yes you can have more than 4 ide devices enabled at the same time...you are only limited to four (4) from the on-board ide controller. You can add either an isa or a pci controller card from a company such as SIIG and gain another primary and secondary ide controller. I did this on one of my friends computers few weeks ago. He's running six (6) ide devices. You even have the choice of buying an add-on ide card that is bootable!
Good Luck,
Paul

[This message has been edited by jmatrix (edited 06-27-99).]

[juicced]

what was the name/brand of this card ?

[Nathan]

If you noticed that I used the word "certain". There can be so many variables to getting these devices to work properly, it's not even funny. But in "certain" cases, there isn't a problem. I'm glad yours worked fine.

Thanks for the info. It's always nice to hear someone got it to work.

[Ed_S]

Another way is though sound card's IDE port. Must be card which allows the port to be configured as tertiary. Sound Blaster AWE 32 and AWE 64 ISA cards are only ones I'm sure will work. Currently running 3 HDs, CD-R, 4 disc CD changer, plus regular CD drive.
Tertiary port is not usable with HDs, since no bios setup, but works very well with CD or CD-R.

I find this far preferable to separate controller card since it saves a precious slot!