[plug] DVD ROM

[Ben Jensz]

Richard Meyer wrote:

>My view is that since the IDE bus runs at the speed of the slowest device on
>the controller, it is better to separate the optical drives from the hard
>drives, which are lots faster.
>
>Anybody have pressing reasons for a different configuration?
>
>Regards
>RichardM
>  
>
I agree with that.  Thats how I have my home system configured (two hard 
disks on the primary and DVD and burner on the secondary).

But it does depend on what the system was going to be used for.  If 
you're doing a lot of transferring of data between your two hard disks, 
it is better to have them on separate channels, its also good to have 
your burner and reading drive separated if you're doing "on-the-fly" 
copying of CDs (i.e. not caching to hard disk first - I personally 
always do cache).

I've got onboard RAID (Highpoint) on my motherboard (Abit BE7-RAID) that 
I might plug one of my hard disks into to separate them, but it doesn't 
make that much difference to me at the moment.

Back onto the original topic, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT buy a Sony 
DVD-ROM.  They are rebadged Liteons, so you might as well save yourself 
a couple of bucks and get the drive that is really badged to what it 
is.  I've had problems with the one in my work computer playing back 
even CD audio music constantly, with it occasionally stuttering reading 
the audio (as if the disc is scratched), whereas the same CD plays 
flawlessly in the Ricoh CD burner in the same computer.

Personally myself, I've got a Pioneer slot-load DVD-ROM.  I've heard 
heaps of people say not to get them because of dust getting into them 
blah blah.  But I've had mine for 2 years now and its still fine.


/ Ben