round ide cables

[neener]

I am cleaning up an old computer and am going to replace the ide cables.
I am debating with myself whether to use round ide or flat ribbon cable...

I can get a good price on 24" round IDE, but as the 24" is longer than
the 18" spec.

Assuming good quality cables, will there be a problem witht he 24"
round, are round IDE a good or bad idea in general


thanks

 

[Arno Wagner]

I am cleaning up an old computer and am going to replace the ide cables.
I am debating with myself whether to use round ide or flat ribbon cable...

I can get a good price on 24" round IDE, but as the 24" is longer than
the 18" spec.

And round allready violates the spec, even if it is 45cm long.

Assuming good quality cables, will there be a problem witht he 24"
round, are round IDE a good or bad idea in general

I have had mixed experiences. Most HDDs worked fine with
rounded cables up to 60cm, of varous quality. With 90cm
rounded cables I got so many CRC errors that teh cables
were unusable. With several CD and DVD drives I had
problems with all rouned cables, even 45cm long ones
of supposedly high quality.

The explanation is that HDDs use ATA66 or faster,
which has checksums (CRC) on the cable. CD/DVD uses
ATA33 and usually the old ATA33 without checksums, in contrast
to what some people here instist on claiming even with evidence
to the contrary. I had to put my CD/DVD drives on flat ATA
cables.

Arno

 

[Eric Gisin]

The explanation is that HDDs use ATA66 or faster,
which has checksums (CRC) on the cable. CD/DVD uses
ATA33 and usually the old ATA33 without checksums, in contrast
to what some people here instist on claiming even with evidence
to the contrary. I had to put my CD/DVD drives on flat ATA
cables.

Idiot. There is no such thing as ATA33/66.

DVD drives use UDMA 33 or 66. All UDMA uses CRC-16.
RTFM: ATA-4, section 6.3.1.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I am cleaning up an old computer and am going to replace the ide cables. I am
debating with myself whether to use round ide or flat ribbon cable...

I can get a good price on 24" round IDE, but as the 24" is longer than the 18"
spec.

Assuming good quality cables, will there be a problem witht he 24" round, are
round IDE a good or bad idea in general

I've been using "round" IDE cables for 4 or 5 years, and I've not had
any problems (that I know of) with them. I use a mix of 24", 18",
and 12" dual- and single-device round cables which I bought from
Silicon Valley Compucycle -
http://www.svc.com/ide-floppy-cable.html . The devices include
three ATA/100 hard drives, one being in a removeable drive tray,
all connected to a PCI IDE controller card, plus an optical drive
connected to the motherboard, plus Zip and floppy drives. With
the number of cables needed in my PC case, I wouldn't have been
able to hook everything up with the standard 18" ribbon cables,
and if I had, some components would have been in a a serious
ventillation "shadow". I use the ones with the aluminum ("silver")
braid, because they look cool and the braid *might* provide some
shielding as the cable runs past various electrical components.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Pecos]

I am cleaning up an old computer and am going to replace the ide
cables. I am debating with myself whether to use round ide or flat
ribbon cable...

I can get a good price on 24" round IDE, but as the 24" is longer than
the 18" spec.

Assuming good quality cables, will there be a problem witht he 24"
round, are round IDE a good or bad idea in general


thanks

Use the shortest cable you can. Account for a little extra if measuring
- the connectors don't bend. 18 inches *is* the 'spec' limit for IDE.
You may be lucky with longer cables, but is risking the loss of your data
really worth saving a few bucks on a cable that *may* or *may not* work?

The better round cables are braided to reduce data errors. Pay a little
extra and get one of those if you want to go with round cables.

Round cables besides a cleaner look allow a little better airflow.

One other thing about cables that I have witnessed, some people like to
fold up their ribbon cables with zip ties or rubber bands for a cleaner
case. That can be a bad idea. It can cause data errors that are
difficult to track down.

 

[Rod Speed]

I am cleaning up an old computer and am going to replace the ide cables. I am debating with myself
whether to use round ide or flat ribbon cable...

The round ones flout the standard.

I can get a good price on 24" round IDE, but as the 24" is longer than the 18" spec.

Yep, more standard flouting.

Assuming good quality cables, will there be a problem witht he 24" round,

Yes, they flout the standard and arent guaranteed to work.

are round IDE a good or bad idea in general

Bad, because they flout the standard and its the luck of the draw.

 

[Rod Speed]

I've been using "round" IDE cables for 4 or 5 years, and I've not had any problems (that I know
of) with them.

You have however reported a number of situations
where things dont work as they should.

And you use those stupid standards flouting removable drive bays too.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

You have however reported a number of situations
where things dont work as they should.

Situations in which WHAT didn't work?

And you use those stupid standards flouting removable
drive bays too.

Correction: "Mobile drive racks". I love 'em.
Here are Kingwin's contributions to the art:
http://www.kingwin.com/mobileracks.asp


*TimDaniels*