Coolermaster Cavalier Case installation question

[RedCoat999]

So I was up late last night putting my ol' dog of a computer into a new Coolermaster Cavalier 4 (CAV-T04) case (link to company site here) . The layout is kinda funky in that the hard drives are placed a good 8-10 inches apart. The computer manual for my board says the hard drives should both be on the primary ide, but my cable is waaaay too short to reach from one to the other. I can reach the slave drive if i use the secondary ide and just attached the drive in the slave position. Would this be OK? Is it a speed thing? Does it matter that there would be nothing in the master position on the secondary ide cable?

Thanks

[silkshadow]

No problem at all. There will be no speed difference. However, if the HD is the only device on the secondary IDE, then it must be jumpered as master or cable select not slave. Alternatively you could get a longer cable. Check out xoxide.com or newegg for that. That case is nice. I got my first Coolermaster case a week ago (Stacker) and I had no idea Coolermaster made quality cases. I don't think I'm buying Lian Li ever again . Good luck!

[RedCoat999]

Originally Posted by silkshadow

No problem at all. There will be no speed difference. However, if the HD is the only device on the secondary IDE, then it must be jumpered as master or cable select not slave. Alternatively you could get a longer cable. Check out xoxide.com or newegg for that. That case is nice. I got my first Coolermaster case a week ago (Stacker) and I had no idea Coolermaster made quality cases. I don't think I'm buying Lian Li ever again . Good luck!

Thanks for the response.
Could I connect the CDrom as the master on the secondary IDE, and the hard-drive as the slave? Would this slow the hard drive down?

[salsbst]

They're trying, in their not so clear way, to advise against combining an optical drive and a hard drive on the same channel (because the optical drive can slow down access to the hard drive). You can certainly combine them that way, and nobody will be maimed or killed, but you should get cable that can keep the hard drives isolated from the optical drive at some point if speed is a concern.

[salsbst]

Could I connect the CDrom as the master on the secondary IDE, and the hard-drive as the slave? Would this slow the hard drive down?

This would be the least optimal solution.

[RedCoat999]

Thanks for the advice

[Surtr]

Oh, that might actually be the problem on my system -- I've noticed that sometimes, but not always, when I'm recording something and watching something else (either from imported library or recorded TV) I get short pauses in playback every few seconds. I'm pretty sure it's when I'm recording to a specific drive -- I bet I have an optical drive on that same channel.

Originally Posted by salsbst

They're trying, in their not so clear way, to advise against combining an optical drive and a hard drive on the same channel (because the optical drive can slow down access to the hard drive). You can certainly combine them that way, and nobody will be maimed or killed, but you should get cable that can keep the hard drives isolated from the optical drive at some point if speed is a concern.