Ok, thanks for the tips you've provided. To be more specific I'll describe the exact set-up;

Before:

Win2K
Celeron 533
512 MB RAM
1st IDE Cable: Maxtor 20 GB 7200 RPM ATA 33 (master) and 30 GB Quantam Fireball 7200 RPM ATA 66 (slave)
2nd IDE Cable: Plexwriter 8/4/32 only (master)


After:

Win2K
Celeron 533
512 MB RAM
1st IDE Cable: Maxtor 20 GB 7200 RPM ATA 33 (master) and 30 GB Quantam Fireball 7200 RPM ATA 66 (slave)
2nd IDE Cable: Western Digital 80 GB 7200 RPM Ultra 100 (master) and Plexwriter 8/4/32 (slave)



And even though all my drives are different ATA speeds, I think they are all running at 33, since I'm not using any controller cards and am using an old ABit BH6 mobo.

With the first set-up, I was ripping a cd in about 25 minutes or 2.5X. With the second set-up, I am ripping a cd in about 8 minutes or 9.8X. Doesn't that seem weird? The only difference is that it's now a slave instead of a master.

Why would that make it so much faster? Again, I'm not complaining, but I'm wondering if the increased speed is comprimising the audio quality.


Should I be worried?