Round IDE Cables?

[TimZ]

Is anyone using the round IDE ATA100 cables? Because of the configuration of my mobo and my case, I have no choice but to place my CD Burner and Drive Bay in the top two slots in my tower (they hit the mobo in the two lower slots). This means that I have to use really long IDE cables (32+") in order for the master / slave connections to reach. I was thinking that the round cables would be a lot neater/cleaner in my case than the typical flat cables. Are the round cables as good/recommended?

I have one 80 gig as my main drive with my operating systems and general PC data files. I have the CD Burner slaved to this main drive on the Primary IDE channel. I then have a 120 gig as my main recording drive and another 80 gig in a drive bay (audio backups) that I slave to this 120 gig in the Secondary IDE channel. I was told to keep the Main o/s drive and the main recording drive on separate IDE channels. Is this still the case? If I could slave my 120 gig recording drive to my main 80 gig o/s drive and slave my CD Burner to my Drive Bay, I could then use shorter more normal length cables. Is there any reason for me to still have my o/s and recording drive drives on separate IDE channels?

Thanks

Tim

[This message has been edited by TimZ (edited 01-06-2004).]

[wogg]

Ther are good round cables, and ther are bad round cables.

The IDE standard for ATA66 and above requires the 80 conductor cables to shield the data paths from each other.

Crappy round cables simply smash the conductors into a round jacket, thus eliminating the intended shield. This causes data errors and will slow throughput.

I purchased Antec Cobra cables because they actually split the cable and run the data lines in a twisted pair with ground lines, thus maintaining the shielding and keeping your data clean. There may be other manufactures that do something similar.

The Cobra cables only come in 26" variety but have a healthy 10" between the master and slave connectors, which was why I needed them. The 6" usually found in standard IDE cables will not reach from most HDD cages to the 5 1/4" bays to slave a optical drive to a hard drive.

Previously I had 36" flat cables (the only size with greater than 6" between drive connectors). After swapping in the Cobra cables there was no difference as far as the quick disk benchmark I had on hand was concerned.

Another option is a custom built cable. A Googling should find a couple companies that do that, but the price is a premium.

[+Erik.+]

can't answer for the cables but I can tell you about your master/slave issue.

for max performance i would never use slave my recording disc to the OS disc out of principle as read/write actions can't take place on both discs at once, one has to wait for the other.

What I can say is that if you actually slave your audio drive to your OS drive and are happy that you are not losing performance from actual TESTING rather then listening to us technical geeks then what the hell are you waiting for?

WIth all this **** you can ask until your hearts content and everyone will give you their technical opinion about what is and what isn't optimum but what I do see little evidence of is people actually just doing it and seeing.

If you've got a spare afternoon to try it out and do some music then just give it ago.

[TimZ]

Originally posted by +Erik.+:

What I can say is that if you actually slave your audio drive to your OS drive and are happy that you are not losing performance from actual TESTING rather then listening to us technical geeks then what the hell are you waiting for?
But +Erik.+ you are turning me into a technical geek. Can't turn down a chance for another TZ Experience though; you know what happens when ever I try something different http://www.audioforums.com/forums/wink.gif



[This message has been edited by TimZ (edited 01-06-2004).]

[+Erik.+]

yeah i am looking forward to your biography. it will be a classic.

I am sure the TZ experience doesn't just cover computers http://www.audioforums.com/forums/biggrin.gif

[fetaost]

More tech-talk: ATA100 supports 100Mbit/s transfer and no drive I know of goes beyond 50Mbit/s so two drives on the same channel should not be a problem in any way. But as stated before, try it out yourself (if you have any cable at all to test with.) :-)