Just bought a 24" rounded ATA-133 cable--a mistake? Two mistakes?

F

Flor

The parts for my new PC are coming in. I already have the Lian Li
PC-75 server case and the Abit IC7-G motherboard. I ordered a 24"
ATA-133 Rounded UV Reactive cable for my DVD-ROM from frozenpcu.com
without really thinking about it. Only later did I realize that 18" is
the longest recommended length for ATA. On top of that, a rounded
ribbon can't really help things as far as signal integrity.

If anyone here has any experience with these kinds of non-standard
cables I'd like to hear about it. In my large case, an 18" cable would
be, well, a stretch.

Thanks!
 
M

mcheu

The parts for my new PC are coming in. I already have the Lian Li
PC-75 server case and the Abit IC7-G motherboard. I ordered a 24"
ATA-133 Rounded UV Reactive cable for my DVD-ROM from frozenpcu.com
without really thinking about it. Only later did I realize that 18" is
the longest recommended length for ATA. On top of that, a rounded
ribbon can't really help things as far as signal integrity.

If anyone here has any experience with these kinds of non-standard
cables I'd like to hear about it. In my large case, an 18" cable would
be, well, a stretch.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

For the most part, it shouldn't cause too much of a problem.
Basically, if the signal does degrade, the controller will figure it
out and throttle down the transfer rate to a slower ATA spec until it
can get a reliable data rate. If an 18" won't reach, I don't see that
you have much choice.
 
S

Strontium

I use the 24" rounded ATA-133 cables, without issue, for all of my drives.

-
Flor stood up at show-n-tell, in
(e-mail address removed), and said:
 
D

Dogbert

I don't know about a max length for IDE cables but, I would assume they
wouldn't sell a cable that wouldn't work. As far as signal integrity goes,
the purpose of a round cable is to help air flow in your case and, with a
cable like yours, if you use a black light inside the case they glow and are
REALLY cool.
 
R

R. Anton Rave

I ordered a 24" ATA-133 Rounded UV Reactive cable for my
DVD-ROM from frozenpcu.com without really thinking about
it. Only later did I realize that 18" is the longest
recommended length for ATA. On top of that, a rounded
ribbon can't really help things as far as signal integrity.
Click to expand...

You'll probably be OK, but don't waste any more money on cables.

A flat 80-wire cable rolled up round is probably at least as good as
the typical 80-wire cable made from loose conductors simply bundled
together because each signal wire is more likely going to be adjacent
to ground wires than signal wires. But flat is still better since it
virtually guarantees that no 2 signal wires are adjacent, but best of
all is twisted-pair, which can easily be 36" long for ATA133, and some
people have found that it meets specs even when almost twice as long.
I don't know if DVD drives use anything faster than ATA33 anyway.

Companies that make bland-looking cable sell their products primarily
to the industrial or OEM market, to customers who are technically
qualified to evaluate those cables. In contrast, companies that make
round cables sell primarily to retail customers or dealers who care
only about sales. Worse, most of those manufacturers don't have much
technical profiency themselves and have never run proper tests or even
looked at such test results. And if you ask them for a reliability
report, expect nothing better than the usual "we've never had any
problems" response of ignorance.
 
T

Timothy Daniels

R. Anton Rave said:
A flat 80-wire cable rolled up round is probably at least
as good as the typical 80-wire cable made from loose
conductors simply bundled together because each signal
wire is more likely going to be adjacent to ground wires
than signal wires. But flat is still better since it virtually
guarantees that no 2 signal wires are adjacent, but best of
all is twisted-pair, which can easily be 36" long for ATA133...
Click to expand...

All the "round" IDE/ATA cables that I've seen are 80-
conductor cables with each signal wire paired with and
twisted with a ground wire. They are not simply "bunched
together".


*TimDaniels*
 
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