Setting up HD/CD/DVD

[preAARP]

I am a NOOB (OK that's over with!) assembling my first rig and wondered what the best way would be to set up my Hard Drives/CD/DVD.

These are my components:

MSI K8N Neo Platinum mobo
Escalade 8006-2LP ATA RAID Controller
(2) WD 74 GB HD (want to go RAID 0 with these)
Hitachi 250 GB HD (for backup)
Plexwriter Premium 52x-32x-52x CD-RW
Plextor 712A DVD-RW
Mitsumi 7-in-1 Floppy/Reader


Right now I was going to use the Controller Card for the 2 Raptors. I was planning on setting the Hitachi HD to Primary Master, DVD to Primary slave, and CD burner to Secondary Master. I heard setting the burner the the same cable as te HD's could give a performance hit. Both my CD and DVD are RW, so I had to pick one. Does this configuration seem OK, or am I screwing something up here in planning?

I also wondered how to use the RAID for gaming and the Hitachi for backup of my system. Will the default be the Raptors(C, with the Hitachi HD on another drive (D?

 

[bluewall21]

The default will probably be the Hitachi drive, but you can install woth the Raptors, and add the Hitachi later. I would put the optical drives on the same channel, and give the HDD a dedicated one.

 

[preAARP]

Thanks for the input. Would the SATA Raptors still be considered as Primary Master then...adding the Hitachi later as a slave and putting the jumpers for the CD and DVD on a Secondary Master/Slave setting?

 

[Tostada]

Why would you use the Escalade when the nForce3 250 Gb has on-board SATA RAID? The on-board controller is better than the Escalade. It supports 4X SATA and 4X IDE drives simultaneously with and without multiple RAIDs, and it is my understanding that it is connected via HyperTransport so it can actually use the full bandwidth of SATA unlike a PCI card.

If it was me, I would probably still test it both ways to see what's faster, but I think using the Escalade is just an unnecessary hassle.

So, just plug both Raptors into the mobo SATA. The Hitachi is ATA/100 (UDMA Mode 5). The Plextor Premium and 712A both only support PIO and ATA/33 (UDMA Mode 2). I would stick the Hitachi on the primary IDE and both the Plextors on the secondary IDE.

 

[Tostada]

Originally posted by: preAARP
Thanks for the input. Would the SATA Raptors still be considered as Primary Master then...adding the Hitachi later as a slave and putting the jumpers for the CD and DVD on a Secondary Master/Slave setting?

The Hitachi should be the Primary Master on the IDE, and the Raptors should be on SATA. You should be able to set the device order in the BIOS.

 

[preAARP]

holy smokes...that escalade card cost a bit too...thanks for the suggestions tostada...i'll try it (sata) from onboard then.

primary master (sata) - raptors
primary slave (ide) - hitachi

secondary master - cd-rw
secondary slave - dvd