Round IDE cables

I've been thinking recently of changing to round IDE cables to improve airflow in my machine. But I read somewhere a while ago that they can cause data loss and corruption. Has anyone here had experience with round cables, good or bad? I'd like to hear about it. TIA.

 

I have them in my computer and they work fine. However, my cousin has them and had problems. It was after he unplugged them a few times. The connector in the middle came loose after a few plugs and unplugs.

 

I had that problem with my current IDE cables. You really gotta push em in or they don't stay.

 

I have round cables on my home computer. Its ~ 3 years old and I haven't had any problems. I haven't heard of anyone else having problems either....

 

I've got them too. It's only been about 6 months but I haven't had any problems yet.

 

I don't know if they really provide better air flow. But they are certainly easier to manipulate and look very nice with my clear side pannel case!

Keep the lengths as short as possible. I don't use more than 24 ". People who use 36" have reported problems. I like to use different colored cables to readily identify connections, especially if I'm building for someone else!

 

Round cables in this machine, no problems, look nice, color coded helps identify which drives connected where, less clutter. All have provided easy pull tabs to disconnect w/o pulling on wires.

Have Two 36 ", needed to reach from top drives in server type case to PCI Controller card on MOBO, no problems.(yet) Wait, one problem, cost $15.00 US each for 36 ", although I got two of the 24" cables free with 100% rebate from Cables Unlimited through Tiger Direct, don't know if promotion still good.

With now 9 drives this machine, ribbon cables, what a mess that would be, probably would completely block airflow.

Round cables get an A+ from me.

Martin

 

8 drives in my case and no problems with any of my round cables, all of which are 36" except for the floppy drive cable. I did opt for the 2 silver for the on board channels, copper for the adaptor's channels and blue for the floppy drive.

Also as a note, the ATA100 performance is as good as it was with the flat cables, some 1 1-1/2 years ago.

alan

 

Hi Shadowhawk,

I've been using round cables for about two years and have only had one problem. One or two wires broke at the middle connector on two cables due to mishandling on my part and the fact that I removed the 'pull tabs' in the interest of neatness. "Dumb ".

Have had no signal or speed degradation that I can see using 24" cables and am going to go to 30" ones for my CDRW and DVD drives. My tower is 'really' tall.

I understand the cable design engineers say that 18" is the max for IDE cables without signal degradation. This is for flat or round cables. This may be something to consider for ATA100 or 133 type drives as far as length goes. Don't think it's a problem for any of the ATA 66 HDDs or CD/DVD drives. Not an expert in this area, though.

Cable quality seems to be highly varied between manufacturers, so I'd suggest that you don't shop for price alone. If you need to use the very low cost ones, be careful in your handling of them.

 

Glad to hear all the positive reports here about round cables I have been thinking about them, but like shadowhawk I had read the same.
One thing I would like to ask here from the members that use the roundet cables; do you have the Shieldet Type or just the normal.
The negatives from what I had heard was I think they called it was Crosstalk and the shieldet cables have some sort of insulation between the strans of wires that will prevent this from ocuring.
curious to know
hawk22

 

'morning Hawk: Shielded of course.

Martin

 

Thanks, I was hoping you would say that.
Would you use non Shieldet at all??
hawk22

 

Nope

 

Thanks,
How much do you pay for one in your Country??
just curious,
hawk22

 

Hey Hawk: I got a couple free with a rebate offer from Cable Direct, otherwise, for the additional ones if I remember correctly, they cost between $9.00 and $15.00 US each, depending on the length. I needed a couple of 36" for this server case. @$15.00 US each, ouch. I have 9 drives in this machine, so I got a lot of $$ invested in cables.

I'm building another machine for my daughter (age 9) with ribbon cables, 5 drives, what clutter compared to round cables can hardly even see the MOBO, I'll probably switch her machine to round.

 

Hi Martin,
Looks they are cheaper in the US than here in Aus. I am having lots of problems here most Computer shops here don't have shieldet ones, you only get them on the Net.
I have a full Tower Case and 2 Optical 2 HDD and Internal Zip and a Floppy and that is exactly the reason why I would like to go round. To many cables to be able to see anything else. Let alone unplugging just one drive without having to unplug the lot to get to it.
cheers
hawk22