By connected, I assume you mean on the same IDE cable, and the same
controller channel, as a master and a slave.
No there is no performance loss. On motherboards that were built prior to
1995, there may have been issues with the type of drive interface you were
using, such as Ultra 33 or above, and a plain IDE, but modern controllers
can sort out individual drive differences without any performance hit.

However, the drive will only run as fast as the controller allows it to
run. For example a Ultra 100 drive, on a controller that supports up to
Ultra 33, will default to the lower speed...Ultra 33. Personally, I have
noticed little, if any changes, when going from Ultra 33 all the way to
Ultra 133. These interfaces mostly effect benchmark burst speeds.

On the other hand, I have noticed big differences in performance when going
from a 5400 RPM drive to a 7200 RPM drive, as well as drives that offer
suburb platter density. One such drive is the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus
series  7200RPM. I think good platter density is at least as important as
RPMs.

Rode
The NOSPIN Group
http://freepctech.com



>When a 7200rpm hard disk is connected to a 5400rpm hard disk, can the
>7200rpm disk be slower?
>Andre Chiasson

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