how do i install 2 hard drives and 2 cd burners on p5gd2 premium mobo??

[zark]

i am a newbie with computers, so the following discourse might seem a
bit redundant and i know just enough to get into trouble
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i have 2 western digital 40 gig hard drives and 2 cd burners. in my
old mother board they connected to the primary and secondary IDE
sockets in pairs. yet, in the p5gd2 premium
(see http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket775/p5gd2-p/overview.HTM
) motherboard there is only one IDE socket (a blue 40 pin socket
located on the bottom edge of the mobo).

i can connect the two hard drives to the IDE socket, but then how do i
connect the 2 cd burners to the mother board?

i have heard that the hard drives might be able to connect to the mobo
through the pci sockets with a special card which would free up the
IDE for the burners, but would the computer be able to boot up in this
configuration?

the mobo package came with a hdd cable and a cdrom cable- why supply
both if there is but the one IDE socket? or can the red sec raid_1
sockets be used for the hard drives ?

the specification
( see http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=P5GD2 Premium&langs=09 )
describes the storage as having an intel southbridge supporting 1 x
ultra dma and a ITE 8212fIDE raid controller supporting 2 x ultra
dma. my interpretation of this is that the intel southbridge works
with the blue IDE connector "PRI_IDE1" and raid controller
communicates with the two red sockets PRI_RAID1 and SEC_RAID1 (see
lowermost of the figure . my reasoning is that while the two red
sockets are for RAID, they nevertheless could support the cd burners .
would then the total of 3 dma sockets support a total of 6 devices on
three cables (both hard drives or cd burners)? can the computer only
boot up via the primary IDE cable with the hard drive on the master?

to reiterate (please be patient) how do i get 2 hard drives and 2 cd
burners to connect to this mobo when there is only one primary ide
socket.

please correct me and discuss.

 

[dino]

on a rough guess looking at the PDF manual...hook one drive each to the 40
pin RAID connectors..the red ones...then you will have to configure the
setup...just because they are connected there does not mean you have to run
RAID..at least that is how my A7N is...page 2-25 of the PDF my corresponde
with your manual

 

[zark]

on a rough guess looking at the PDF manual...hook one drive each to the 40
pin RAID connectors..the red ones...then you will have to configure the
setup...just because they are connected there does not mean you have to run
RAID..at least that is how my A7N is...page 2-25 of the PDF my corresponde
with your manual

please excuse my ignorance, is there any reason why both hard drives
cannot go on just one RAID connector as master and slave?

also, the manual makes a big deal about using ATA cables for the hard
drives on the RAID port-why? the mother board package came with two
cables: one labled "hard dive which has a blue connector at one end
and black/grey (master/slave) at the other, the other cable is
labelled "cdrom" and has only black colored connectors. aside from the
different colors, the cables look practically identical with respect
to length, number of pin sockets----what is the difference?

if i must connect each hard drive to a seperate raid socket, i suppose
i must get another ATA cable, but are they specifically identified by
their colors?

thanks

on the steep part of the learning curve :\

 

[Rob Stow]

please excuse my ignorance, is there any reason why both hard drives
cannot go on just one RAID connector as master and slave?

Performance. You can attach two devices to each
IDE controller, but the controller can only read
from or write to one of them at a time. Transfers
between IDE devices go hence go faster if they are
on separate controllers.

Obviously, if you have four devices and only two
controllers, some of the transfers are going to have
to take place between devices on the same controller
and you will have to simply put up with the penalties
inherent in that process. All you can do is try to
optimize things - which in your case would be to make
the faster devices - the hard drives - the masters
and the slower devices the slaves.

also, the manual makes a big deal about using ATA cables for the hard
drives on the RAID port-why? the mother board package came with two
cables: one labled "hard dive which has a blue connector at one end
and black/grey (master/slave) at the other, the other cable is
labelled "cdrom" and has only black colored connectors. aside from the
different colors, the cables look practically identical with respect
to length, number of pin sockets----what is the difference?

Your cables *might* in fact be identical save for
the superficial differences in colouring and labelling.

However, there is a good chance that one is an 80
conductor cable for faster ATA100 or ATA133 hard
drives and one is a 40 conductor cable for slower
things like optical drives and older hard drives.

You can use the 40 conductor cables with modern IDE
hard drives, but sometimes you might take a bit of
a performance hit. Most people never notice the
difference.

if i must connect each hard drive to a seperate raid socket, i suppose
i must get another ATA cable, but are they specifically identified by
their colors?

Just make sure you get an 80 conductor cable.

 

[zark]

Performance. You can attach two devices to each
IDE controller, but the controller can only read
from or write to one of them at a time. Transfers
between IDE devices go hence go faster if they are
on separate controllers.

Obviously, if you have four devices and only two
controllers, some of the transfers are going to have
to take place between devices on the same controller
and you will have to simply put up with the penalties
inherent in that process. All you can do is try to
optimize things - which in your case would be to make
the faster devices - the hard drives - the masters
and the slower devices the slaves.


Your cables *might* in fact be identical save for
the superficial differences in colouring and labelling.

However, there is a good chance that one is an 80
conductor cable for faster ATA100 or ATA133 hard
drives and one is a 40 conductor cable for slower
things like optical drives and older hard drives.

You can use the 40 conductor cables with modern IDE
hard drives, but sometimes you might take a bit of
a performance hit. Most people never notice the
difference.


Just make sure you get an 80 conductor cable.

thanks, i took a closer look at the cables and the hdd cable does have
80 wires, whereas the cdrom cable only 40.

 

[someone]

The cable with the blue connector is for the ATA133 standard. Plug
the blue end into your motherboard, and the other ends into your
devices. The blue end has to go into the motherboard.

The other cable is the 40 conductor... sounds like they tried to save
a little money, like a nickel or so. You can use the ATA133 cables
just fine for your CD drive as well. With today's CDR speeds, it just
might be able to take advantage of the newer cables, but I doubt it.