Your IDE chipset will work without these options, but it'll probably be quite a lot faster if you do use them.

Thanks go to J. Waalboer jwaalboer@convolution.nl for finding this out and mentioning it. You'll most likely also want some hdparm-stuff to be done; according to Mr. Waalboer, you'll have optimal harddisk performance with

hdparm -X70 -k1 -c1 -d1 /dev/hda

You can use hdparm to test performance aswell:

root@peregrine:~# hdparm -Tt /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  1.05 seconds =121.90 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.88 seconds = 22.22 MB/sec

however, if you do not trust me or him, and/or if you do not know what you are doing, don't play with hdparm too much. Please do remember that misuse of hdparm might fry your harddisk.