3 optical drives?

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msychk

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I currently have a DVD-ROM (D:\) and CD-RW (E:\) on my computer, as well as one hard drive (C:\). I just bought a DVD burner and was wondering if I will have to take out the DVD player, drive D, in order to allow the computer to recognize all three optical drives. I have an empty slot available on the case, as well as plenty of power/IDE cables. Do computers (I run XP Pro) support 3 optical drives and/or will I have enough internal cables to do so, especially concerning the audio inputs? If so, how do I set the master/slave jumer configuration with respect to my hard drive and 3 opticals? Thanks for the help!

Heres the full specs on my compiter, if that helps...
CUSTOM BUILD INTEL PENTIUM 4 SYSTEM
CAS: CYBERTEC 12-BAY 420WATT PROFESSIONAL ALUMINUM CASE W/ 6 FANS
CASUPGRADE: "See Through Side Panel Window" & Sound Activated Neon Light Installed
CD: (BLUE)16X DVD-ROM
CDRW: [BLUE] PLEXTOR 48x24x48x CD-RW EIDE
CPU: INTEL 3.0GHZ 800FSB CPU [+469] [REQUIRE 875/865PE MB]
FAN: INTEL CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK + 2 EXTRA 3-COLOR LED CASE FANS
FLOPPY: [BLUE]1.44 MB FLOPPY DRIVE
HDD: Western Digital 120GB 7200RPM ATA 100 8MB Special Editon
KEYBOARD: [BLUE] PS2 MULTIMEDIA INTERNET CONTROL KEYBOARD
MEMORY: 1024 MB PC3200 DDR 400 MEMORY [REQUIRES DDR 400 MB] [+196]
MEMORYUPGRADE: From Standard Memory to CORSAIR High Performance Memory W/ Heat Spreader
MODEM: PCI 56K V.90 FAX MODEM W/ VOICE
MOTHERBOARD: *[DDR400-800MHz FSB]ASUS P4C800 I875PE 800MHZ FSB DUAL DDR 8X AGP [+215]
MOUSE: [BLUE] Microsoft USB Intellimouse Explorer
NETWORK: 3 COM 905 BTX NM 10/100 NIC
OS: WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL EDITION
VIDEO: ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB DDR AGP 8X W/ TV-OUT & DVI [+499]
SOUND: Creative Labs SB Audigy-2 PLATINUM 6.1 [+179]
SPEAKERS: (BLACK)Klipsch Promedia THX 5.1 Subwoofer Speaker System [+399]
 
ive heard that if i configure my computer as such (IDE0 master = HD, IDE0 slave = CDRW, IDE1 master = DVD, IDE1 slave = DVD burner) will result in slower accessing of the HD as it has another drive attached to it. IS this true, and if so, would it make any noticeable difference?
 
The way that I heard it was that it would only slow it down if you were accessing both pieces of hardware on the same IDE cable. for example, burning a backup from the hard drive to the CDRW would be slower than burning from the hard drive to the DVD burner (assuming they burn at the same speed, which probably isn't true).
 
hilowe is right if you butterfly the drives it can slow the hdd access however I doubt that you will have 3 optical drives and one hdd on one ide so you should be fine. it actually can speed up performance having 2 optical drives on the same ide cable (when copying on the fly)

you will be fine as long as you dont put them all one one ide cable ...which I dont think could happen the way most computer cables come.
good luck
 
ok one more Q:
assuming that i can now feasibly install all 3, would you even recommend it? shoudl i just go IDE0 only HD, IDE1 master DVDRW and IDE1 slave CDRW? i probably wont be using all three at the same time, and you cant copy dvds from one disc to another on the fly (at least, not to my knowledge yet). would all 3 be worth it or should i just scrap the dvd player?
 
depending on 2 thing

is the dvd rom drive a faster read speed than the dvd rw

and is the cd rw speed faster than the dvd rw can write to cd's

becasue your dvd burner can burn cd's too so if the cd rw is the slow one than you should get rid of that

if the dvd rom is faster at reading dvd's (ie if it is a 16x read instead of 8x that will make ripping dvd's allot faster so keep it arround )

do you see what I am saying a cd rw may not be the most usefull as it cannot read all formats where as the others can

what are the speeds of all of your drives ?
 
lets see
dvd player 16x read, no write (obviously)
cd rw 48x24x32
dvd burner - burns at 8x for dvds, 24x for cds, reads at 12x dvds
 
thats a tough one becasue the dvd burner is not even in the same ball park as the cd rw as far as cd's go however the dvd is faster at reading by a considerable ammount to justify keeping it

I myself would keep all 3 ...but I do a lot of dvd ripping and burning so like the extra speed of the reader

I would keep all three but if you only wanted to go with 2 I would go with the dvd rom and dvd rw since they are the most versitile and will save you the most time. Becasue the difference between that extra x4 read of a 8 gig dvd will make up the extra 2 mins of burning time for cds.... plus you can always put the cd rw it in a another computer
 
My question is, I thought DVD drives were power hogs. I know that msychk has a 420 Watt psu, but is that big enough for 2 DVD drives, a CD burner, P4, ATI card, 6 fans, and a neon light tube? That's a lot of power draw.

I've got the P4, 2 DVD drives, and ATI card with only 2 fans, and I still needed like a 380 W psu.

I know that there is a website out there that people are referred to quite a bit that calculates about how much power you'll need, but I don't remember it, and can't find it in my favorites.
 
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