DVDWriter and Hard Disk on same IDE controller?

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

A friend wants me to install a surplus of hard drives into his PC. This means that the secondary IDE controller will have to share both a DVD writer and a hard disk. I know this is not recommended, and the hard drive will drop down to match the DMA mode of the optical drive. Does anyone have any opinions on which one should be the master and which should be slave and why?

Normally I'd always make the DVD writer the master if it was a couple of optical drives, but then normally I'd never put a hard drive on the same controller.

 

[Moloch]

A friend wants me to install a surplus of hard drives into his PC. This means that the secondary IDE controller will have to share both a DVD writer and a hard disk. I know this is not recommended, and the hard drive will drop down to match the DMA mode of the optical drive. Does anyone have any opinions on which one should be the master and which should be slave and why?

Normally I'd always make the DVD writer the master if it was a couple of optical drives, but then normally I'd never put a hard drive on the same controller.

Actaully newer chipsets support independent timing for master and slave so you HDD can run at ata133 and dvd-writer at ata33 or whatever it's at, but of course things will be slower for tranfers between them since you still only can have 1 transfer at a time.
I'd make the HDD the master just cuz it seems natural.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Actaully newer chipsets support independent timing for master and slave so you HDD can run at ata133 and dvd-writer at ata33 or whatever it's at, but of course things will be slower for tranfers between them since you still only can have 1 transfer at a time.
I'd make the HDD the master just cuz it seems natural.

Ahh, new info - excellent, I'll just bung them in for the best cable fit then!