need help with ATA100/IDE

Now that I have my plan sorted out (sort of) I am looking at the hardware setup for my new, second hard drive.

I have an Asus A7V motherboard, which has a total of 4 IDE connectors:
1) Primary IDE
2) Secondary IDE
3) Primary Ultra ATA100 IDE
4) Secondary Ultra ATA100 IDE

My current setup is:
1) CD-ROM
2) CD-RW
3) Current HD
4) nothing

My question is: is there any performance bonus to have each device on its own IDE connector configured as a master? Or should I use master/slave configurations on the primary channels?

I am thinking of taking (3) and putting it on (4) and installing the new drive on (3).

If you can configure the system where each device has its own channel, then by all means do it. You may not see spectacular Star Wars effects, but it will eliminate potential bottlenecks in data transfer. You will also see an improvement when doing CD to CD burning.

As bistro says...I've used the A7V boards up to and including 266-E with the ATA/100 options.

ATA primary= main HHD as master 40/80 cable

ATA secondary= second HHD as master 40/80 cable

IDE primary= CD-RW as master 40/40 cable

IDE secondary= DVD-ROM as master 40/40 cable

Works like a charm,but use rounded cables or fold and cable tie your flat ones for better air flow...:)

A7V , A7V266-E and A7V-266 E/AA mobos
Mine is set up with the cdrom master primary ide, Master
cdrw is master on the secondary ide, Master
On the ATA
C: in on the Primary ATA master
D: in on the secondary ATA master


Biggest advantage, Take about 6 minutes to clone [copy] C: drive to D: Now if I did the same to a partition on the C hdd it takes about 30 minutes. The amount being transfered is about 6GB.

Thanks guys, I figured it was the best way, but I wanted to make sure. :)