new motherboard with 2 ATA connectors?

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 1:50 pm

I\m looking to upgrade my system with an Intel Core 2 Duo. Now I've checked out some of the boards recommended here but it seems that all the new mobo's come with only a single (P)ATA port. I've still got an ATA harddrive that I'd like to keep using but I don't think it's a good idea to put this on the same channel as the optical drive so I'd need a second ATA port. (this drive is just used for backup, my main drive is SATA).

Or am I forced to upgrade either the optical drive or the 2nd harddrive to a SATA model?

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 5:25 pm

a modern optical drive will most likely not slow down the ATA port, as they usually (afaik) have udma capable controllers, too
btw - a 2nd channel doesn't help at all.
If the drive's controller slows down the bus, it will slow down both channels anyway.
yes, indeed - you have to see it yourself to believe it

cheers, Tom

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 3:50 am

hmm it was my understanding that the ATA channels would always run at the speed of the slowest device connected to it, which is why you'd always have your HD's and your optical drives on a seperate channel.
The optical drive is ATA33 (UDMA2), the HD is ATA133 (UDMA6). I wouldn't want my HD to run at ATA33 speed. Are you saying this is actually not the case?
Maybe I'm misinformed then

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 3:53 am

ok I did a bit of reading and it seems you are indeed correct. The "don't mix optical drives and hd's on the same channel" thing seems to stem from the days when optical drives were PIO and HD's were DMA but apparently it's not an issue when both devices are UDMA.

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