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Are 36" IDE cables out of spec?

V

vetteguy

Diamond Member
I am rebuilding my server, and my main hard drive is out of reach of my normal IDE cables. I saw that Newegg has 36" round IDE cables, but I thought anything over 24" was out of spec. Would I have problems with a 36" one? Or since this is a dual device cable does that make it ok? Just curious, as there isn't really any other way for me to reach it. Thanks!
 
18" is supposed to be the spec for safe transfer in ide. This only really becomes important to hard drives as ide cables for optical devices doesn't really matter as much. 36" is way out of spec but if you want to try it, I would make sure that the data isn't as important and that you have a spare cable handy that is shorter and maybe move your drive lower so that you can keep it in spec.
 
Hmm...that really sucks, because with the case I have there is no way a 24" cable will reach the hard drive. They put the ONLY 3.5" internal bay way at the top, which is out of reach even by a 24" (and the connectors are even near the top of the motherboard). I don't know what I'm going to do now...I guess find another solution. Thanks!
 
Why not pay your local 2nd hand computer parts store a visit and grab a set of 3.5 to 5.25 drive adapters ( they'll cost you next to nothing - the store probably has them coming out their ears).

Greg
 
Go for the 36" cables. I have 2 36" cables in my computer round...ata 100/133, and have had for about 6 months and have no problems with them. I always used the flat cables until I got my raid hooked up. Without the round cables I couldn't be able to keep the pc cool, and have a awful garbled mess inside. I don't see the problem with 36" cables, but I am not a cable expert. I just know they work for me.
Curt
 
Originally posted by: Gstanfor
Why not pay your local 2nd hand computer parts store a visit and grab a set of 3.5 to 5.25 drive adapters ( they'll cost you next to nothing - the store probably has them coming out their ears).

Greg
Click to expand...

It's not that easy...I have a RAID setup with 6 drives in hot-swap bays, and they are soaking up the bays down below. The best I'd be able to do would be hook up the drive on the lowest open bay, but that would still leave me without a CDROM (which is also on top).
 
18" is spec. Either get another case or do what you have to (i.e. use the 36" cables). You may not have a problem, but if you don't use a cable at all you will have a much bigger problem! 😉

~box
 
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