Extra long IDE Cable??

I want to use a PCIe RAID controller to run two older IDE Hard-drives in raid 0 (For NON-data critical applications. Plus I hate to see old but still very useable hardware just sit and collect dust when it could be useful) Unfortunately due to the unique design of my case I am in need of a extra long IDE cable. Ideally I would use a 2½ft cable with the two drive plugs about 2½ inches apart at the end of the cable.

Now I found this 80 pin, 36" cable, , but the plug spacing would not work. Would it be possible to move one of the drive pugs? OR does anyone know of or even have a cable that might work for me.

Also if my understanding is correct when ever using a IDE cable over 18" the possibility of data errors skyrockets - and for RAID I assume that would be extra problematic.

My other option is to use a SATA to PATA converter (I have 2 of these) But I;m concerned that the RAID controller might not like that.

ANY and ALL advice would be helpful.

Thanks in advance OCF family.

Maybe check out these guys:

Cable Depot

Robert17 said:

Maybe check out these guys:

Cable Depot

Click to expand...

OK, but they don't seem to give any info on plug spacing...

They have a phone number listed on their site.

Its very rare when they give actual spacing dimensions on a listing. robert17's suggestion might be the best bet, but phone guys aren't likely to know that either. Don't know if you noticed, but you can check http://www.connectworld.net/cdepot/services.html. You could most likely order what you need. I will tell you also that I have used 36" cables often in full tower cases, and with the use of filters have never had a problem.

On Tuesday I'll call the cable depot people.....

None-the-less, trying to save money, does any one know the feasibility of moving the connectors on a ribbon cable. I ask since I actualy have a 36 inch cable, but - in its current state - it wont work due to connector spacing.

I don't have any cables here that I want to destroy, but from working with them forever-ago, the back should pop off the connector and the front should pull out with a little bit of force. All the ones I've seen/used "punched through" the cable with pins, then had a cap on the back. As long as you don't bend the pins and line it up right, you should be able to move it.

What kind of RAID controller is this? If it is a single PATA channel, RAID may end up performing worse than a single drive. You'll be doubling the normal bandwidth on that one cable, since master+slave PATA works by sending all commands to both drives.

Regarding cable length, 18" was the standard for 40-conductor cables. Some people did tests and found 80-conductor cables can go up to 27" before they start to see corruption, and it was proposed to be added to the standard for 80-conductor cables, but never happened.

I remember back in the day I got my IDE ribbon cables from SVC . The longest ones still available are 36". Maybe those will do?

I also remember using them with a Highpoint RocketRaid PCI card with my IDE harddrives in Raid-0. Never had any issues.