Rounded IDE cables are bad?

[SparkyJJO]

I had a rounded cable go bad on me, the computer knew my HD was there but would tell me "NTLDR is missing." I'd just bump the cable, reboot and it would work fine. Once it was booted I could wiggle and shove the cable all I wanted, as long as I didn't unplug it I was fine. But I could reboot and "NTLDR is missing" might come up again. Replaced the cable and problem solved.

I have SATA now for my HD so that isn't a problem, and now that I've been organizing my wires in my case more I've found it is easier to fold and hide a flat cable than a rounded one. My asus mobo came with flat cables BTW which was fine with me.

 

[chimpy]

*uses rounded IDE cables for both HDD and ODD*

Should I panic wildly?

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
The problem is with the lack of shield wire in between each wire as there is in the case of a typical 80-conductor, 40-pin IDE cable.

Although I have heard some round cables are ATA133 complaint, I'm not sure how they do that. Better shielding on the wires themselves?

No don't panic I use them and all is OK. Just buy ATA 100/133 complaint as stated above.


...Galvanized

 

[aka1nas]

The cheaper round cables do tend to have issues with crosstalk, though if you buy cheap enough ribbon cables this is probably true too. I've always had so many spare ribbon ATA cables lying around that I have never had to actually buy them seperately.

 

[Fallengod]

I dunno but round cables are all I use now. I use some vantec copper round I bought from FRYS over a year ago(They had a sale and were like $2.99 each). Seem to be good. I also use a nice small 10" round for floppy drive. Man it works great in my p180. Helps my airflow alot. I dont know what my p180 would look like if I had PATA hard drives instead of Sata and used IDE ribbon cables instead of round. It would be a mess. I would have no airflow and my temps im sure would rise.

I have to say, for anyone who doesnt have SATA drives yet, you should. Those small SATA cables help airflow so much as well.

 

[skooma]

I use the ones that came with my dfi boards.

 

[pkme2]

Never gave it any thought until seeing this thread. Used them for a while on my rigs and never had any problems. Neater hookup in my cases.

 

[eplebnista]

I have had no problems with the rounded cables I purchased from sidewindercomputers or svc, but the directron branded ones I got from directron were horrible. I received slowed performance plus data corruption when trying to transfer large amounts(+4gb) of data around between two drives with the directron rounded cables, and I even received a BSOD in XP Home a couple of times due to them(ended up replacing them with standard flat IDE cables and all problems went away).

 

[tylerdustin2008]

Well i know that the one i am using in my comp works just fine....... if that says anything

 

[Pens1566]

Originally posted by: skooma
I use the ones that came with my dfi boards.

The NF4 DFI boards come with what look like round cables. They're really just ribbon cables rolled and then sleeved. They're easier to bend/twist IMO.

 

[eastvillager]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: JM Aggie08
you can't expect something bundled up to work properly.

Like, perhaps, twisted-pair CAT5 cable?

While you're trying to be funny, and make an exception to what he said, CAT5 is actually a very poor choice.

Just like the data/ground pairs in an 80 ATA cable, CAT5 has twisted pairs, where there is significance to the pair of cables in each twist, and to the number of twists per inch.

The key to making rounded cables is to start with a a flat cable and then make the splits such that you don't split any of the ground/data pairs. Then you just stack the splitted segments---which is ok, or every time you folded a ribbon cable you'd have an issue.

 

[wwswimming]

the signals in the cables are running in the ballpark of 50-100 MHz, low frequency RF. in the
"olden days" we would have used coaxial cable or some sort of transmission line for a signal
like that. even at 75 MHz, transmission line geometry does affect performance.

i like the Shuttles because they route the flat cables short & straight, which is better transmission
line wise. i also keep an old eMachines T2200 around because it has the cleanest IDE cabling
i've ever seen in a tower case, again, short & straight.

on the other hand ... i have a rounded IDE on my Asus P4C and ... it works great.

 

[dealseaker]

I use round cables from SVC and have had no problems, now I need longer cables to get to the top of my Lian Li case, thinking I need 24" cables, maybe 36" ones, thinking about pulling the trigger and buying if I can't find them in the FS/T section, these would be just for my DVD burners, anyone use any round 24" or 36" cables from SVC? Glad I found this thread, I was about to start my own.

 

[0roo0roo]

what about folding?

 

[dealseaker]

?