Which cable for EIDE hard drive?

Phisherman

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I plan to use a Seagate Barracuda (ST3200822A) hard drive hooked up to
a Giga-Byte GA-K8NS motherboard. Most likely I will buy a "bare
drive" without a cable so I need to know if an 80 pin or 40 pin cable
should be used. I have a boxful of new 40-pin ribbon cables, but no
80-pin cables. Will an 80-pin cable provide any advantage with an
EIDE ATA-100 drive?
 

dos

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check seagates website....

"Phisherman" <nobody@noone.com> wrote in message
news:6pr191pflnrcbig8fbsjen35pvnpiltdrh@4ax.com...
> I plan to use a Seagate Barracuda (ST3200822A) hard drive hooked up to
> a Giga-Byte GA-K8NS motherboard. Most likely I will buy a "bare
> drive" without a cable so I need to know if an 80 pin or 40 pin cable
> should be used. I have a boxful of new 40-pin ribbon cables, but no
> 80-pin cables. Will an 80-pin cable provide any advantage with an
> EIDE ATA-100 drive?
 
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Phisherman wrote:
> Will an 80-pin cable provide any advantage with an
> EIDE ATA-100 drive?

An 80-conductor (40-pin) cable is required for ATA-66 speeds and above.
With a 40-conductor cable, the drive will revert to ATA-33 speeds.

--
-WD
 
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On Sun, 22 May 2005 20:56:18 GMT, Phisherman <nobody@noone.com> wrote:

>I plan to use a Seagate Barracuda (ST3200822A) hard drive hooked up to
>a Giga-Byte GA-K8NS motherboard. Most likely I will buy a "bare
>drive" without a cable so I need to know if an 80 pin or 40 pin cable
>should be used. I have a boxful of new 40-pin ribbon cables, but no
>80-pin cables. Will an 80-pin cable provide any advantage with an
>EIDE ATA-100 drive?

There are no 80 *pin* IDE cables. Both EIDE and IDE cables have 40
pin connectors. The EIDE cables are 80 conductor (wires). The extra
40 wires are connected to ground, and provide shielding to reduce
interference from neighboring wires in the course of normal operation
to decrease the error rate.

You *CAN* use a 40 wire cable with an EIDE hard drive. However, if
the drive controller detects a higher than acceptable error rate (as
it would with 40 wire conductors), it will throttle the speed back to
ATA 33 speeds to compensate. This can happen even with 80 wire
cables, but it's just more likely to happen with the 40 wire cables.
---------------------------------------------

MCheu
 
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You need to use an 80 pin cable with that drive to get full speed transfer
rates.

--
DaveW



"Phisherman" <nobody@noone.com> wrote in message
news:6pr191pflnrcbig8fbsjen35pvnpiltdrh@4ax.com...
>I plan to use a Seagate Barracuda (ST3200822A) hard drive hooked up to
> a Giga-Byte GA-K8NS motherboard. Most likely I will buy a "bare
> drive" without a cable so I need to know if an 80 pin or 40 pin cable
> should be used. I have a boxful of new 40-pin ribbon cables, but no
> 80-pin cables. Will an 80-pin cable provide any advantage with an
> EIDE ATA-100 drive?
 
G

Guest

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MCheu wrote:

> On Sun, 22 May 2005 20:56:18 GMT, Phisherman <nobody@noone.com> wrote:
>
>
>>I plan to use a Seagate Barracuda (ST3200822A) hard drive hooked up to
>>a Giga-Byte GA-K8NS motherboard. Most likely I will buy a "bare
>>drive" without a cable so I need to know if an 80 pin or 40 pin cable
>>should be used. I have a boxful of new 40-pin ribbon cables, but no
>>80-pin cables. Will an 80-pin cable provide any advantage with an
>>EIDE ATA-100 drive?
>
>
> There are no 80 *pin* IDE cables. Both EIDE and IDE cables have 40
> pin connectors. The EIDE cables are 80 conductor (wires). The extra
> 40 wires are connected to ground, and provide shielding to reduce
> interference from neighboring wires in the course of normal operation
> to decrease the error rate.
>
> You *CAN* use a 40 wire cable with an EIDE hard drive. However, if
> the drive controller detects a higher than acceptable error rate (as
> it would with 40 wire conductors), it will throttle the speed back to
> ATA 33 speeds to compensate.

The higher speed controllers can detect whether it's an 80 conductor cable,
or not, and will limit to UDMA33 if it isn't.

> This can happen even with 80 wire
> cables, but it's just more likely to happen with the 40 wire cables.
> ---------------------------------------------
>
> MCheu
 
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On Sun, 22 May 2005 20:56:18 GMT, Phisherman
<nobody@noone.com> wrote:

>I plan to use a Seagate Barracuda (ST3200822A) hard drive hooked up to
>a Giga-Byte GA-K8NS motherboard. Most likely I will buy a "bare
>drive" without a cable so I need to know if an 80 pin or 40 pin cable
>should be used. I have a boxful of new 40-pin ribbon cables, but no
>80-pin cables. Will an 80-pin cable provide any advantage with an
>EIDE ATA-100 drive?

Yes, it is manditory to use 80-conductor cable to run in
ATA66,100, or 133 modes which are necessary to get the full
performance out of the drive. It WILL work properly at
ATA33 mode forced by the 40 conductor cable, but the
performance loss may be well over 40%, even more in many
applications of the drive.

So you could use the 40 conductor cable temporarily then
switch later when you have a chance to get an 80 conductor.
Your bios will likely warn (notify) you that you're using
the 40 conductor cable each time you boot the system.
 
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"DaveW" <none@zero.org> wrote in message
news:TvSdnXkRleDziAzfRVn-uQ@comcast.com...
> You need to use an 80 pin cable with that drive to get full speed transfer
> rates.
>
> --
> DaveW
>
>
>
> "Phisherman" <nobody@noone.com> wrote in message
> news:6pr191pflnrcbig8fbsjen35pvnpiltdrh@4ax.com...
>>I plan to use a Seagate Barracuda (ST3200822A) hard drive hooked up to
>> a Giga-Byte GA-K8NS motherboard. Most likely I will buy a "bare
>> drive" without a cable so I need to know if an 80 pin or 40 pin cable
>> should be used. I have a boxful of new 40-pin ribbon cables, but no
>> 80-pin cables. Will an 80-pin cable provide any advantage with an
>> EIDE ATA-100 drive?
>
>

make sure the cable is runs flat from board to drive ie no twists, as the
signal speeds will be reduced............
 
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On Mon, 23 May 2005 05:58:16 +0000 (UTC), "Ted Eboy"
<Ted@Eboybtinternet.com> wrote:

>
>"DaveW" <none@zero.org> wrote in message
>news:TvSdnXkRleDziAzfRVn-uQ@comcast.com...
>> You need to use an 80 pin cable with that drive to get full speed transfer
>> rates.
>>
>> --
>> DaveW
>>
>>
>>
>> "Phisherman" <nobody@noone.com> wrote in message
>> news:6pr191pflnrcbig8fbsjen35pvnpiltdrh@4ax.com...
>>>I plan to use a Seagate Barracuda (ST3200822A) hard drive hooked up to
>>> a Giga-Byte GA-K8NS motherboard. Most likely I will buy a "bare
>>> drive" without a cable so I need to know if an 80 pin or 40 pin cable
>>> should be used. I have a boxful of new 40-pin ribbon cables, but no
>>> 80-pin cables. Will an 80-pin cable provide any advantage with an
>>> EIDE ATA-100 drive?
>>
>>
>
>make sure the cable is runs flat from board to drive ie no twists, as the
>signal speeds will be reduced............
>

Data transfer is at constant rates based on clock signals.
If the disruption in wire integrity caused a near-break (or
poor connector contact) with high resistance or the overlap
of the signal wires caused resends of data, that would be
slower but is a more severe condition than merely twisting
the wire. In normal, moderate twisting there is no
reduction in speed.
 

Phisherman

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On Sun, 22 May 2005 20:56:18 GMT, Phisherman <nobody@noone.com> wrote:

>I plan to use a Seagate Barracuda (ST3200822A) hard drive hooked up to
>a Giga-Byte GA-K8NS motherboard. Most likely I will buy a "bare
>drive" without a cable so I need to know if an 80 pin or 40 pin cable
>should be used. I have a boxful of new 40-pin ribbon cables, but no
>80-pin cables. Will an 80-pin cable provide any advantage with an
>EIDE ATA-100 drive?

Thank you for the responses. Now that I understand that I need a 80
wire EIDE cable to maximize data transfer rates I have three more
questions.

How much slower will a 24" cable be than an 18" cable? (ie, a 25%
drop in transfer rate? 100*6/24=25%)

The round-molded ribbon cables allow for better airflow, but are these
just as effective (in transferring data) as the plain ribbon cables?

Any specific good-value brand recommendations? I'm looking for value,
not appearance. I can't believe folks spend $20 for a fancy cable!
 
G

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Phisherman wrote:

> On Sun, 22 May 2005 20:56:18 GMT, Phisherman <nobody@noone.com> wrote:
>
>
>>I plan to use a Seagate Barracuda (ST3200822A) hard drive hooked up to
>>a Giga-Byte GA-K8NS motherboard. Most likely I will buy a "bare
>>drive" without a cable so I need to know if an 80 pin or 40 pin cable
>>should be used. I have a boxful of new 40-pin ribbon cables, but no
>>80-pin cables. Will an 80-pin cable provide any advantage with an
>>EIDE ATA-100 drive?
>
>
> Thank you for the responses. Now that I understand that I need a 80
> wire EIDE cable to maximize data transfer rates I have three more
> questions.
>
> How much slower will a 24" cable be than an 18" cable? (ie, a 25%
> drop in transfer rate? 100*6/24=25%)

'Speed' is not linear. It either works or it's getting data errors and if
it's getting errors there's no simply way to predict what the impact is.

The official cable limit is 18 inches.


> The round-molded ribbon cables allow for better airflow,

Only if one just willy nilly dangles the cable just any old place.

Flat ribbon cables have the least air resistance when properly mounted
because 1. they should be neatly folded and mounted out of the way, and 2.
the edge of a flat cable is smaller than the diameter of a round one.


> but are these
> just as effective (in transferring data) as the plain ribbon cables?

Depends on how they're made. If the cable is sliced lengthwise to make the
bundle then it's defeating half the purpose of the alternating ground wires.

>
> Any specific good-value brand recommendations? I'm looking for value,
> not appearance. I can't believe folks spend $20 for a fancy cable!

Any properly assembled 80 conductor flat ribbon cable should be fine.
 
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On Mon, 23 May 2005 11:13:57 GMT, Phisherman
<nobody@noone.com> wrote:

>On Sun, 22 May 2005 20:56:18 GMT, Phisherman <nobody@noone.com> wrote:
>
>>I plan to use a Seagate Barracuda (ST3200822A) hard drive hooked up to
>>a Giga-Byte GA-K8NS motherboard. Most likely I will buy a "bare
>>drive" without a cable so I need to know if an 80 pin or 40 pin cable
>>should be used. I have a boxful of new 40-pin ribbon cables, but no
>>80-pin cables. Will an 80-pin cable provide any advantage with an
>>EIDE ATA-100 drive?
>
>Thank you for the responses. Now that I understand that I need a 80
>wire EIDE cable to maximize data transfer rates I have three more
>questions.
>
>How much slower will a 24" cable be than an 18" cable? (ie, a 25%
>drop in transfer rate? 100*6/24=25%)

0% if it's a good cable. As D. Maynard mentioned, it either
gets full transfer rate or is resent, and the resends can't
be calculated (and wouldn't typically occur at only 24", but
it can be borderline for ATA133). Ideally you would only
use a cable long enough to get the job done, no excess.


>
>The round-molded ribbon cables allow for better airflow, but are these
>just as effective (in transferring data) as the plain ribbon cables?

usually yes. Some rounded cables don't have a (clear or
colored) lamination on the wire portion cinched in the
connectors and so are subject to more stress when repeatedly
unplugging the cables. Then again, _any_ IDC (insulation
displacement connector) is not really suited for frequent
insertion, should be handled with care.


>
>Any specific good-value brand recommendations? I'm looking for value,
>not appearance. I can't believe folks spend $20 for a fancy cable!

You can pick up a cheap ribbon or round cable at several
places, shipping cost would tend to be the larger expense so
if you already had some plans to purchase some other product
from a vendor that also sells cables, that could end up
being the best value.

If you just want the cheapest shipped cable this place is
among the lowest priced, providing you choose USPS ground
delivery. Even their cheapest cables seem to work fine
though those with the copper or aluminum braiding in the
sleeve are less flexible, harder to keep routed out of the
way without wire-ties if you get an over-length cable.

http://www.svcompucycle.com/cables.html