ide cables?

[dtadpole]

I have always used just the generic ide cables on my cd-rom drives. If I used a(n) ata 100/133 cable on my cdroms writers ect.. ,would I have any performance difference, and or can I even do this? I have really never thought of this before, and I feel dumb asking it but here it is!:)

[Ben721]

I don't think you'd notice it.

[LiGhTBoY]

It all depends on the cd wr. If it supports 133 ata then you will notice a slight difference. If it only supports 100 then you won't see any diff (if you are using ata100 cables now-count the wires and if they are 40 then you are not using 100).

[BaldHeadedDork]

You wouldn't notice a difference. Optical drives don't come close to stressing an old ATA/66 bus. A faster bus or higher rated cables only mean more potential bandwidth isn't being used.

But if you're planning to put an optical and hard drive on the same cable, check to make sure the optical drive has a DMA option and that it is turned on. (Go To My Computer/Properties/Devise Manager/CD-ROM and then check Properties/Settings for each optical drive.) If you don't do this, or if your optical drive doesn't have DMA support, it will slow the data transfer rates of every drive on that line to the speed of the optical drive.



BHD

[Ben721]

w00t, I was right.

Let us know how it goes.

[dtadpole]

Welp! thxs for the insight guys I have decided to stay with the same standard cables. I have been getting some new parts to build my next monster and I will be purchasing some new round regular ide cables.

Thanks again!!:)

[Stedeman]

ATA 33 = 40 wires / 40 pins
ATA 66-133 = 80 wires / 40 pins
The extra 40 wires are only there as a shield, you can even run an ATA 133 drive on a 40 wire cable but you will risk data corruption

[FTC]

you can even run an ATA 133 drive on a 40 wire cable but you will risk data corruption

...Not at all. You can run an ATA133 drive on a 40 wire cable, and normally the cable will be recognized when negotiating hd speed and your drive will then be run in ATA33 mode... perfectly (no risk at all, just less performance).

...But if you run an ATA133 drive on a low-quality 80 wire cable (i.e not properly shielded rounded cable), then is when you are really risking data corruption... although in most cases the interface can detect corruption as CRC errors and then force the communicating speed to a lower one.

Hope this helps
Regards
FTC