My Asus P5LD2 Deluxe motherboard includes the 2 following ports: a red PRI_EIDE and a red SEC_EIDE. I am getting conflicting stories as to what these are used for. Can anyone tell me what they are and what I can connect to them? (When I Google this topic, I am told that the term EIDE was originated by Western Digital, and it's meaning is not only ill-defined, but it changes with time. I suspect that Asus has slapped on this term to these two ports to give the appearance of being cutting edge, when in fact, calling the ports by this designation only confuses the issue.)
My motherboard also has 1 blue port: PRI_IDE. I use this to connect a DVD/RW and a CD/RW.
Thanks for any insight into this.
Full Version: Asus Mobo P5ld2 Deluxe: What Are Eide Ports For?
Safest thing to do is to consult your manual for your mobo. It should tel you what will get plugged into where, why and what it's called.
IDE=Integrated (or Intelligent) Drive Electronics. Yes, it's confusing about how it sometimes refers to ATA
EIDE=Enhanced IDE. It's supports a faster data transfer rate for the drive.
Sourced from WEBOPEDIA:
I'm sure you knew that already though from your research you've done on the web!
The red slots should be for your hard drives, and the blue ones for your CD/DVD drives. You have 2 each because with IDE/EIDE you can "daisy chain" or have up to 4 drives hooked up in one machine. Great for mass storage. Warning: Will probably cause headaches in multiples of 4
I hope this answers your question(s)! If not, then post back, and hopefully someone else will help you out, as I'm tapped out as far as my knowledge with IDE/EIDE stuff goes
IDE=Integrated (or Intelligent) Drive Electronics. Yes, it's confusing about how it sometimes refers to ATA
EIDE=Enhanced IDE. It's supports a faster data transfer rate for the drive.
Sourced from WEBOPEDIA:
QUOTE
Short for Enhanced IDE, a newer version of the IDE mass storage device interface standard developed by Western Digital Corporation. It supports data rates of between 4 and 16.6 MBps, about three to four times faster than the old IDE standard. In addition, it can support mass storage devices of up to 8.4 gigabytes, whereas the old standard was limited to 528 MB. Because of its lower cost, enhanced EIDE has replaced SCSI in many areas.
EIDE is sometimes referred to as Fast ATA or Fast IDE, which is essentially the same standard, developed and promoted by Seagate Technologies. It is also sometimes called ATA-2.
There are four EIDE modes defined. The most common is Mode 4, which supports transfer rates of 16.6 MBps. There is also a new mode, called ATA-3 or Ultra ATA, that supports transfer rates of 33 MBps.
EIDE is sometimes referred to as Fast ATA or Fast IDE, which is essentially the same standard, developed and promoted by Seagate Technologies. It is also sometimes called ATA-2.
There are four EIDE modes defined. The most common is Mode 4, which supports transfer rates of 16.6 MBps. There is also a new mode, called ATA-3 or Ultra ATA, that supports transfer rates of 33 MBps.
I'm sure you knew that already though from your research you've done on the web!
The red slots should be for your hard drives, and the blue ones for your CD/DVD drives. You have 2 each because with IDE/EIDE you can "daisy chain" or have up to 4 drives hooked up in one machine. Great for mass storage. Warning: Will probably cause headaches in multiples of 4
I hope this answers your question(s)! If not, then post back, and hopefully someone else will help you out, as I'm tapped out as far as my knowledge with IDE/EIDE stuff goes
My 3 hard drives (one for boot, two for data) are plugged into SATA2 ports. (The mobo has 4 SATA2 ports.) Which leaves me wondering what the two EIDE ports can be used for.
I believe you can plug CD/DVD drives into them, seeing how you already have hdd's plugged in elsewhere.
From what I found (in that definition I posted) ATA2 is the same thing as EIDE, just different between manufacturers.
From what I found (in that definition I posted) ATA2 is the same thing as EIDE, just different between manufacturers.
Regarding the two EIDE ports on my mbob, you said:
The mobo manual says that the two EIDE ports do not support ATAPI devices. My understanding is that CD/DVD drives are ATAPI devices.
QUOTE
I believe you can plug CD/DVD drives into them, seeing how you already have hdd's plugged in elsewhere.
I wish that would be the case, but I am not sure.The mobo manual says that the two EIDE ports do not support ATAPI devices. My understanding is that CD/DVD drives are ATAPI devices.
Well, that's news to me Believe what your manual is saying....I don't think it would lie to you 
Perhaps it's so you can plug in either kinda of hdd...(E)IDE or SATA(2).
TBH, I'm far from a guru when it comes to hardware. Perhaps one of the true guru's can jump in here and explain to us both about this......
Wish I could be of more help!
Believe what your manual is saying....I don't think it would lie to you Perhaps it's so you can plug in either kinda of hdd...(E)IDE or SATA(2).
TBH, I'm far from a guru when it comes to hardware. Perhaps one of the true guru's can jump in here and explain to us both about this......
Wish I could be of more help!
That's ridiculous that the manual says that the IDE ports can not support ATAPI devices. Optical drives are ATAPI devices and there is no other way to connect them other than the IDE ports. Also, motherboards that support SATA do not have to have an SATA drive to boot from. They can have an ATAPI IDE hard drive to boot from when it is attached to the primary IDE channel.
Well, the manual does not exactly say this:
It says that the two EIDE ports can not support ATAPI devices.
QUOTE
That's ridiculous that the manual says that the IDE ports can not support ATAPI devices.
It says that the two EIDE ports can not support ATAPI devices.
The two red IDE connectors (ITE) are for use with a RAID setup if you so wish.
You don't connect cd\dvd drives to them.
You don't connect cd\dvd drives to them.
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