80 pin ide cable

[rustynails]

Is there any advantage of using 80 pin over 40 pin on ata 33 (dvdRW, cdrom).
Or is it just a waste of an 80 pin cable?

~n

 

[Varun]

I guess it is a waste but it's not like they are super expensive.

The only thing the other 40 wires do is ground noise to allow higher parallel speeds. You don't need it but most people only have 80 pin cables anymore.

 

[Continuity27]

For ATA 33 speeds, 40 pin cables are just as good. I don't think the price difference is much if anything though.

 

[ProviaFan]

Is there any reason not to use an 80 pin cable on ATA/33 devices? I've collected too many of the freakin things over the years, that I have to dig to find a 40 conductor IDE cable in my "computer junk" box.

 

[Green Man]

The ATA33 specification recomends 80 wire cables, but don't require them.

 

[bacillus]

I use 80 wire cables regardless of what specification the optical drive is!

 

[imported_rod]

A standard 40-wire cable is fine for ATA33. But an 80-wire cable will provide slightly better shielding from interference, so it may slightly improve performance. If the cost difference isn't much, go for an 80-pin, but if it's twice the price, know that the 40-pin will do the job just fine.

RoD

 

[Zepper]

Yup, I use 80-wire all the time for all types of drives. On some integrated controllers it was recommended to use the same type of cable on both channels as it could get unstable without balanced cables. I've not used anything else since I read that.

.bh.