5614 Posted December 31, 2004 Posted December 31, 2004 I have an old IDE cable at home (approx 13 years old), so you can tell this is an old computer component! what i wanna know is will this 13 year old IDE cable be as fast and reliable as modern IDE cables? old = faster: in the older days they would have produced more quality stuff, where as now they just want the cheapest new = faster: new technology = faster the same: IDE is a fixed speed and therefore it wont have changed. please state in your posts whethere this is something you 'think', have 'heard' (if so where from, how reliable?) or something you 'know' (and is therefore 100% certainly true)
JaKiri Posted December 31, 2004 Posted December 31, 2004 It will be ATA33 AT FASTEST, whereas today we're running up to 133 (more usually 100, mind). It will be MUCH slower.
5614 Posted December 31, 2004 Author Posted December 31, 2004 is there any way to test what speed an IDE cable is? would there be a noticeable adantage of upgrading a 5 year old IDE cable to a new modern IDE cable on a computer which is still used?
Sayonara Posted December 31, 2004 Posted December 31, 2004 Which attributes of the cable would determine the speed? (I mean in terms of hardware, not properties of metal etc).
5614 Posted December 31, 2004 Author Posted December 31, 2004 im not sure... i would have assumed it was the physical properties of the metal, or maybe the connection (which is metal anyway) i mean, this is JUST a cable... its just a bit of insulated metal. in answer to sayo... i just cant see anything else in a cable other than the metal, so what can it be?
Sayonara Posted December 31, 2004 Posted December 31, 2004 I was thinking more like pin configuration.
JaKiri Posted December 31, 2004 Posted December 31, 2004 Of course, the speed of the cable is irrelevent if it's equal to or greater than the speed of both the motherboard and the IDE components it will be linking.
5614 Posted December 31, 2004 Author Posted December 31, 2004 pin config is the same for all IDE cables. does this: " It will be ATA33 AT FASTEST, whereas today we're running up to 133 (more usually 100, mind). It will be MUCH slower." still apply for the cables??? if so what effects the speed of the cable?
JaKiri Posted December 31, 2004 Posted December 31, 2004 Try to work out how many cables it has. If it's only 40, then it will be pre ATA66 (I think the lower standard was 33, but I'm not sure). If it's 80 or more, then it'll be at least ATA66. (Note that the connectors are the same; the additional 40 wires are just grounds for all the existing cables).
Kedas Posted January 1, 2005 Posted January 1, 2005 yes, the ground wires make the difference for speed. (cleaner signals)
5614 Posted January 2, 2005 Author Posted January 2, 2005 "Everyone switch to channel #2" whats channel #2? JaKiri: it looks like it's got 40 wires and 41 pin hole connectors at each end of the cable.... however how can you tell it's age because all IDE cables i've ever seen (ranging from 13 year old (this one), about 5 years old (my family computer) & about 1 year old (my own computer)), all the IDE cables are the same size.
5614 Posted January 2, 2005 Author Posted January 2, 2005 well my friend was doing a proper in depth comparison between serial ATA, raid and new IDE methods... i think that serial ATA (SATA) was the fastest, although i could check. the reason i started this thread was coz i have this 13 year old IDE cable and i wondered if it was worth keeping in case i ever get another HDD. (jakiri/sayo: read post #12)
Kedas Posted January 2, 2005 Posted January 2, 2005 You usualy get a cable with your HDD there isn't really a point in keeping it unless for changing a broken one.
5614 Posted January 2, 2005 Author Posted January 2, 2005 You usualy get a cable with your HDD there isn't really a point in keeping it unless for changing a broken one. i didnt get a new one when i bought my new HDD a few months ago, i think it depends on which HDD you buy and whether it comes with one!!!
Kedas Posted January 2, 2005 Posted January 2, 2005 i didnt get a new one when i bought my new HDD a few months ago[/u'], i think it depends on which HDD you buy and whether it comes with one!!! ah, you like to buy cheap ones
5614 Posted January 2, 2005 Author Posted January 2, 2005 what a comeback, what a comback!!!!! yeah, i just bought a cheap but quality one, it was a branded one but didnt come with any packaging, any instructions, any IDE cable, only 2 jumpers (and some settings you need 3)... it was literally only a HDD, at the same time it was £63 (UK pounds) for 160GB, which a few months ago was pretty good, i believe the same company is offering 200GB for £70 (UK pounds) now... although both those prices are special offer price only.
Kedas Posted January 2, 2005 Posted January 2, 2005 what a comeback' date=' what a comback!!!!! yeah, i just bought a cheap but quality one, it was a branded one but didnt come with any packaging, any instructions, any IDE cable, only 2 jumpers (and some settings you need 3)... it was literally only a HDD, at the same time it was £63 (UK pounds) for 160GB, which a few months ago was pretty good, i believe the same company is offering 200GB for £70 (UK pounds) now... although both those prices are special offer price only.[/quote'] Cable or not is one of the differences between bulk or retail.
5614 Posted January 2, 2005 Author Posted January 2, 2005 yeah but i have cables, i know how to do it, im not gonna drop it on the way home and id rather pay £63 than £75, so yes its bulk and yes its cheaper! but why go more expensive when ya dont need to?
JaKiri Posted January 2, 2005 Posted January 2, 2005 ah, you like to buy cheap ones Yes, it makes perfect sense to pay a premium for a product which you will have already! (Mobos come with ATA cables) SATA fastest? SATA is faster than (P)ATA, that's the entire point of it. Still not as fast as SCSI though.
5614 Posted January 3, 2005 Author Posted January 3, 2005 Try to work out how many cables it has. If it's only 40, then it will be pre ATA66 (I think the lower standard was 33, but I'm not sure). If it's 80 or more, then it'll be at least ATA66. (Note that the connectors are the same; the additional 40 wires are just grounds for all the existing cables). it looks like it's got 40 wires and 41 pin hole connectors at each end of the cable.... however how can you tell it's age because all IDE cables i've ever seen (ranging from 13 year old (this one), about 5 years old (my family computer) & about 1 year old (my own computer)), all the IDE cables are the same size, so how can they have different numbers of wires?
Kedas Posted January 3, 2005 Posted January 3, 2005 http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCable80-c.html
5614 Posted January 3, 2005 Author Posted January 3, 2005 ok, this: comparison picture is quite good, at the top an 80 wire IDE cable, and at the bottom a 40 wire IDE cable... i have the 40, as you can see from the image they are the same width so when i open a up a computer happen to look at an IDE cable in passing and then a month later open up another one it is easy to think they are the same! this is an older 40 wire one, im guessing the ones in newer computers will be the newer (80)ones.
Dave Posted January 3, 2005 Posted January 3, 2005 im guessing the ones in newer computers will be the newer (80)ones. Indeed.
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