Are there alternatives to parallel ports?

[Merethrond]

I have a question, I am sick of all those big, messy parallel ports that plug into the hard drive, CD drive and floppy drive, so I am wondering if there are round cable available that do the same job. Thank you for any help.

 

[Sunner]

Those are IDE drives/connectors/cables, a parallel port is something quite different

And yes, for one there's Serial-ATA, if your mobo supports it, otherwise you have to get an addon card.
The cables are very thin.

And yes, there are rounded IDE cables, just have a look in your local computer shop.

 

[Merethrond]

Well that shows how little I know. I will have a look at the round IDE (is that the same as EIDE?) cables. What is this Serial-ATA thing that you are talking about and how do I know if my motherboard supports it. Thank's.

 

[EeyoreX]

Round IDE cable examples at SVC.com. Course, you can get them lots of places.

Serial ATA cables and adapters (should your motherboard support SATA), also at SVC.com, and also available elsewhere.

To be honest, you were not THAT mistaken to refer to your IDE cables as "parallel cables" as they do connect "Parallel ATA" drives. But that's another matter. Most people just refer to them as IDE cables. No more confusion to parallel printer cables.

If your computer is fairly new (I'd say less than 6 months?) your motherboard MAY support SATA. If you can give us more information about your computer or motherboard, we can help. Or, check your manual. It should say. For info on hard drives (ATA and Serial ATA) StorageReview has lots of good information.

\Dan

 

[Merethrond]

My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-8SIMLH. I do not think it has SATA support. Is SATA a lot better than ATA? Thank for your help and the links, I am going to take a look at them now.

 

[snidy1]

serial is not a lot better and it's too expensive right now. Just get round ATA cables.

 

[Merethrond]

So what is a good brand to purchase? Thank's.

 

[snidy1]

I like Antec cables, but there are a lot to choose from that are good.

 

[Insidious]

If you have choices on length, shorter is better.

My recommendation is steer clear of them. That doesn't mean they can't work, but.....

A lot of people have had trouble with rounded cables. YMMV

-Sid

 

[Merethrond]

Originally posted by: Insidious
If you have choices on length, shorter is better.

My recommendation is steer clear of them. That doesn't mean they can't work, but.....

A lot of people have had trouble with rounded cables. YMMV

-Sid

Now I do not know whether to buy one or not.

 

[RyanVM]

I rounded my own IDE cables almost three years ago (I remember doing it on the Saturday after the 2000 election because I was watching coverage of the Florida recounts ) and they've been working great for me since day one without a hiccup.

 

[Merethrond]

I had a look at them at Newegg.com and the Antec cables seem to have positive reviews. What is a good length for the cables? Also, it seems as though you need different cables for your floppy drive than you do for your hard drive and CD drive. Is this correct. Thank you.

 

[Merethrond]

Posts get bumped of the front page so fast on this forum. Anyway, can anyone help me out?

 

[snidy1]

Originally posted by: Merethrond
I had a look at them at Newegg.com and the Antec cables seem to have positive reviews. What is a good length for the cables? Also, it seems as though you need different cables for your floppy drive than you do for your hard drive and CD drive. Is this correct. Thank you.

CD rom and hard drive are the same. Floppy is a differant size.
And also, round cables are just as good as the ribbin cables.

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: snidy1
serial is not a lot better

Interesting ... have you seen SATA vs ATA Raid benchmarks? Have you seen how Raptor performs against other ATA drives?

and it's too expensive right now.

Based on? Compared to? I'm sure you have some points in there somewhere but you should back them up for the guy. You can get a Raptor (36GB) for $155 (goto pricewatch.com select HardDrives and then put raptor in the HD search box), which will perform hugely better then any other ATA drive you could get and is clearly ALOT cheaper then SCSI.

Thorin

 

[snidy1]

Originally posted by: thorin

Originally posted by: snidy1
serial is not a lot better

Interesting ... have you seen SATA vs ATA Raid benchmarks? Have you seen how Raptor performs against other ATA drives?

and it's too expensive right now.

Based on? Compared to? I'm sure you have some points in there somewhere but you should back them up for the guy. You can get a Raptor (36GB) for $155 (goto pricewatch.com select HardDrives and then put raptor in the HD search box), which will perform hugely better then any other ATA drive you could get and is clearly ALOT cheaper then SCSI.

Thorin

Or you could get a 200 gig ATA for $150. I'm just saying wait a couple years and they'll get cheaper

 

[thorin]

Everything gets cheaper given time.

Thorin

 

[numark]

Originally posted by: Merethrond
Well that shows how little I know. I will have a look at the round IDE (is that the same as EIDE?) cables. What is this Serial-ATA thing that you are talking about and how do I know if my motherboard supports it. Thank's.

EIDE just stands for Extended IDE. It's used more in reference to the speed and features of the hard drive (all hard drives from, say, the late 1990's on are EIDE). You don't find EIDE cables because there's no such thing. All IDE drives use IDE cables, even if they're EIDE.

 

[Merethrond]

Thank's again for the help. Insidious said above to get short cables: how short? Also do you recomend me buying another hard drive and connect them in ATA raid?

 

[Mday]

Originally posted by: Merethrond
Thank's again for the help. Insidious said above to get short cables: how short? Also do you recomend me buying another hard drive and connect them in ATA raid?

seeing as how you are still starting, i dont recommend going RAID. basically, the shorter the cables the better, as long cables tend to cause problems with transfer speeds (crosstalk due to EMI). the specifications call for 18" cables max, but i have used 24" cables fine. i would avoid SATA right now since there arent that many drives out, and they are expensive.

if you want to get rounded ribbon cables, they have become so popular that many stores carry them. www.svc.com www.newegg.com are to mention but 2 sites that carry them.

 

[Viper96720]

Short enough to reach from the drive to the motherboard. Rounded cables aren't usually that flexible.

 

[Insidious]

From what I've read, I agree that 18" is your best bet.

I don't use rounded cables and that makes me NOT an expert. I didn't mean to bash them or imply they don't work.
it's just that in my wanderings, it seems like I have seen 'several' instances where users solved their problems by
getting rid of the rounded cables and switching back to ribbons.

They have been around a while now and are pretty popular, so the quality has most likely gotten better over time.

again, I wasn't trying to burst any bubbles with my earlier post.

-Sid

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: numark

Originally posted by: Merethrond
Well that shows how little I know. I will have a look at the round IDE (is that the same as EIDE?) cables. What is this Serial-ATA thing that you are talking about and how do I know if my motherboard supports it. Thank's.

EIDE just stands for Extended IDE. It's used more in reference to the speed and features of the hard drive (all hard drives from, say, the late 1990's on are EIDE). You don't find EIDE cables because there's no such thing. All IDE drives use IDE cables, even if they're EIDE.

Actually it's Enhanced IDE. And it's actually ATA drives and ATA cables, though there are ATA33 and ATA66/100/133 cables to differentiate between. IDE stands for Integrated Drive Electronics and is incorrectly used by alot of the computing world in place of ATA (AT Attachment). By definition even SCSI and FibreChannel drives are IDE which "actually" refers to the integration of the drive electronics on to the drives themselves (you know the little circuit board on the bottom of your HD) ....... anyway I'm off topic and rabling

i would avoid SATA right now since there arent that many drives out, and they are expensive.

There are lots of drives out, each manufacturer (Maxtor, Seagate, Western Digital) has at least one model out if not 2 (in various capacities). Price has already been covered in previous posts.

To answer the original question ATA cable spec is 18" however 24" and 36" cables can be found and used with varying success.

Thorin