Usually if I have CD/DVD drives, and I want a good throughput, I would want them on different IDE channels than my hard drives...
To put it in simpler terms, Primary hard drive-Primary Master, Secondary hard drive-Primary Slave, DVD-RW Drive-Secondary Master, CD-RW Drive-Secondary Slave.
Or switch the DVD and CD burners, depending on which you'd use more...
By placing the Hard drive and burner(s) on different channels, it allows the processor to tunnel the data from one channel to the next, without needing to cache the data. When they are on the same channel, the hard drive needs to cache the data, then the processor takes the cached data and sends it to the burner. All-in-all a two-step process verses a one-step.
You also may want to note the differences between a DVD burner and a CD burner... kind of like comparing a walnut to a watermelon.. One's gonna require a bit more muscle to handle than the other.
BE SURE DMA IS ENABLED ON ALL YOUR DRIVES!! PIO Mode transfers tend to lag a system severly!
Also.. try out some other burning software... Vertias tends to be a bit more bloat-ware than most. I'd say give Nero a try... http://www.nero.com
When you mean different IDE channels, you are talking about different IDE Cables correct? If not, then what ARE you talking about?
I have my harddrive connected to my Primary Master.
I have my CD-RW connected to my Secondary Master and my DVD-RW connected to my Secondary Slave.
I double checked and both are DMA enabled. When burning from my CD-RW there is no lag but when I'm burnind from my DVD-RW there's a terrible lag. Bad enough that I can't even surf the web!
Yes.. the different IDE channels (Primary and secondary) are indicated by the two different cables running from your motherboard to your drives...
It sounds like you might have too many processes running in the background, if not what are you trying to do while burning?!?!?!
Just keep in mind... your system needs buffer space (space in your RAM to store data to be burned). When burning a CD, you only need a little bit of buffer, but a DVD, being nearly 7.25X bigger, it's only logical it would need about 7.25X more memory to use as a buffer.
Most high-speed CD-burning software will utilize 80MB for buffer (i got this from Nero)... 7.25*80MB = 580MB... Also note that you've only got 512MB of RAM.
So.. Logic tells me, Your software is trying to manage with what memory it has.
I don't really suggest upgrading your RAM, because it's more complicated than that. I suggest, refrain from using your PC while burning DVDs.
It's similar to the time when CD-burners were first introduced to the public. Most systems were 233 pentium class at the time with 64MB ram at most. This is very similar to that situation. DVD-burners are new, and the systems are not really geared to multi-task when a heavy resource-eater like a DVD burner is in use.
