Im currently fixing up a pc i got my dad (someone sold a half complete one as they needed cash badly) and im struggling to remember how things are set up (2 hard drives and 3 cd roms in what order again ).

Is there any sites that can help me with this. Something that could help teach me the basics as its all now been forgotten. This will also come in handy when i get my next PC as i intend to build it myself to save money so i can build beast.


Whilst im here, the cases that have in built displays stating temp, hdd usage etc (the lcd ones), do they connect to the motherboard or the back of the hard drives etc?


Cheers all for heping with my long winded post

Some of the monitors used an internal USB header (little 5*2 pin think which connects to the mobo)... Some have seperate thermistors which you mount on to components directly, but generally their USB...

As for the drives, are the SATA (little connectors) or ide (huge connectors on a ribbon cable)
You will need to have 2 drives on each IDE channel if that is the case. Your primary drive should be Master on the first IDE channel. then add a CDROM as a slave on the same cable. There are jumpers on the rear of the drives to select master or slave.
Same with the second one. Using the two hardrives as masters on seperate channels means transfers and HDD access will be optimum. The final drive will have to be on an external IDE interface as most mobos only have 2 IDE channels. If your mobo has 3 or 4 - your sorted - just stick it on there.
Boot up and go into the BIOS and set all drives to Auto-detect. BTW the above only applies if the drives are IDE, although if there SATA, its a similar story anyway

Cheers Xen, they are IDE drives, so your info will help a lt.

There only 2 IDE ports and as i dont really want to spen any more on it, ill probably just take the 3rd CD rom out (wasnt bothered about it staying in, it just came with it).

The LCD display has load of sepereate small conectors, si i think they will need to go to the mobo. Ill jus need to find out what mobo it is then find a manual to go with it i think.

Fast Finger said:

Ill jus need to find out what mobo it is then find a manual to go with it i think.

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Yup, thats your best bet i think

No need for anymore than 2 optical drives since you can emulate loads of opticals if required.

What you need is your mobo diagram or instructions, this will tell you what goes where.

Re 2 ide channels you'll likely have one channel for HDD's and one for opticals, ide cables have 2 connectors on them which support two devices into the one channel.

Liam

Liam said:

Re 2 ide channels you'll likely have one channel for HDD's and one for opticals, ide cables have 2 connectors on them which support two devices into the one channel.

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Its faster to split the CDROMS over 2 IDE channels. CDROM drives transfer at 7.8mbps max. So two drives on one channel uses a max of 15.6mbps (although technically lower as both drives on a single channel cant send data simultaneously.) Having 2 HDDs on a single channel means the channel would be clogged with 2 high speed drives trying to transfer at 133mbps each. So the optimum way is to use one CDROM and one HDD on each channel.

Xen said:

So the optimum way is to use one CDROM and one HDD on each channel.

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Well for some reason that is the only way i got them to work anyway, and its running great.

Now just need to install XP, what feels like 7 million other drivers , and find that manual for my board

I'm not certain but placing a cd-rom on an ide channel brings the speed of that channel down. Best to have 2 ata-133 devices on same channel.

If you couldn't get them working any other way it sounds like you have jumper issues.

Hellcat said:

I'm not certain but placing a cd-rom on an ide channel brings the speed of that channel down. Best to have 2 ata-133 devices on same channel.

If you couldn't get them working any other way it sounds like you have jumper issues.

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IIRC that is right, an IDE channel will only operate as fast as the slowest device on it.

The best and fastest way is to have the two fastest devices on the same channel.

IDE 0 = Hard Disk MASTER + Hard Disk SLAVE
IDE 1 = Optical Drive MASTER + Optical Drive SLAVE

I don't know what formulation you learned ZEN but your theory behind optimising performance intrigues me but you'll have to do a little more explaining to conivince me and others.

If you mix up the drives you limit the fast device to the maximum speed of the slowest device which means you bottleneck the fast device.

putting the 2 fast devices on the same channel will not confuse the mobo as it has been designed to not confuse itself.

Both drives will rarely operate and the same time and when they do they will both be able to at maximum speed.

Trancendental said:

The best and fastest way is to have the two fastest devices on the same channel.

IDE 0 = Hard Disk MASTER + Hard Disk SLAVE
IDE 1 = Optical Drive MASTER + Optical Drive SLAVE

I don't know what formulation you learned ZEN but your theory behind optimising performance intrigues me but you'll have to do a little more explaining to conivince me and others.

If you mix up the drives you limit the fast device to the maximum speed of the slowest device which means you bottleneck the fast device.

putting the 2 fast devices on the same channel will not confuse the mobo as it has been designed to not confuse itself.

Both drives will rarely operate and the same time and when they do they will both be able to at maximum speed.

Click to expand...

Exactly the way i see it, good man

Liam