Master drive VS slave drive

I just installed an 80gb maxtor HD 8mb cache which is faster than my old drive but I only wanted to use this to capture video. My question is if I use the 80g has a slave will it only run as fast as the master. Is it true that all your drives will only run as fast as the master and if its true should I switch them?
The 80gb hd 7200rpm 8mb cache ultra ata/ 133 dma support 0,1,2,3,4,5,6 says it runs 20% faster. I do not think I am getting 20%. If I made it the master wolud it run faster or do I have to disconnect the old drive and partition the new????????

My old drive (master) is a samsung about 4 years old. dma support 0,1,2,3,4

 

The way I understand it is......

The new 7200rpm hard drive as a slave, will only run as fast as the slower 5400rpm master.

Advice has been given here on this forum saying that it is better to run the slower drive as the master. Presumably, I would think, because when the slow drive is accessing the faster slave drive, the faster drive never spins up to full speed. It spins up to the speed of the slower one, & stays there for the duration of the data transfer. That's the way I understand it anyway. If I'm wrong, it wouldn't be the first time.

Accordingly, when you run the faster drive as the Master, and have to access data on the slower slave, then the master has to slow down to accomadate the speed of the slower drive. Then it spins back up again once you've closed the computer out from accessing the slower drive. Kind of like the engine in a car when you do a lot of driving in town.

I ran two drives like that for some time, but I ran my slower (10GB) one as the slave, because I didn't access it that much to begin with. It was there mainly for storage purposes, & I wanted the convenience of the faster 30GB drive as the master.

You will definitely notice a difference in performance with the faster drive as the Master, but will not have any improved performance with the slower one as the Master.

I recently had reason for obtaining more space, & went & bought another new hard drive (80GB) the same speed as my 30 GB master. Now my master does not have to spin down slower to access data from the slave. If it does, it isn't decernable to the ear.

Now this is just my take on what I have seen advised on this, & other boards. It's really up to you, & for what purposes you are going to use the two drives. I would partition the 80Gb into several sections, regardless of whether I used it as Master, or Slave.

 

master vs slave

Thanks I used the 80g hd just for video captue and storage. I guess what I really need is a faster computer. 700 amd was fast in its day not like those of today 2.4gh?

 

A faster computer is nice, but if you will notice I only have 600MHz myself.

A faster CPU will access the information on the drives at a faster rate, yes, but it won't make the hard drives spin any faster than 5400, & 7200rpm's. The 80GB as a slave will still spin only as fast as the slower master.