What is the best config. for my HD and CD

[Millerman]

I have a new 16.8Gb Ibm deskstar 16GP hard drive, a old Creative lab 8X CD, a old 4.3 GB Quantum HD and a new HP 7570i 2x2x24 CDRW drive. What would be the best configuration for the IDE1 and IDE2 to get the best performance from the CDRW and as I have yet to put it all together. Also my 5 1/2" drive bays will be full with the 2 CD's and old Quantum HD. Since they seem to be packed together quite tightly, will I suffer overheating problems?

[Carl Uman]

Put the New IBM HD as master and the old 8X as slave on IDE1 then put your other HD and the CDRW on IDE2. This way you can use the CDRW to copy CDs or backup data from your main drive. Ditto with the old hard drive. If you are interested in the "why"... you can only access one device per IDE channel so putting the devices that you will use together most often on separate IDE channels will give you the best performance.

Carl

[Glytzhkof]

What Carl Uman writes is true, only one IDE can be used at a time and thus it makes sense to put units used together on separate IDEs.
The problem, however, is that it is usually hard to make the IDE cables reach from the 5 1/2 slots to the hard drives.