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Cable Select vs Master/Slave, which do you use?

  • Thread starter Thread starter KF
  • Start date Start date
K

KF

Golden Member
The last couple of HDs, and every CD-ROM for quite a while, have come with the jumpers at default on Cable Select. The set up manual for one HD said CS was the default standard for HDs with the the 80 wire cable. They seem to be saying people should be converting to the CS system, provided it works with the mobo.

So which are people using? In a way CS is less error prone. OTOH hand, if you need a CD and HD on the same cable, it would be hard to twist it around so the HD (master) was at the far end and the CD in the middle.

Is there some reliabity or speed advantage to CS? Or is it just a convience for OEMs who don't have to change jumpers?

How the heck does the mobo know which system you are using? Both work on two mobos I tried.
 
currently I'm using CS and have no problem. Is it any better than switching to Master/Slave. Have no idea.
 
Master/Slave


Although, some of the new drives won't work as a single "Master", it has to be CS.
rolleye.gif


amish
 
does cable selct mean the mobo figures who is master or who is slave ( sounds kinky)

I too have had to deal with the master hd all the way on the bottom of the case with the slave cd or dvd drive all the way up.

does cable selcet enable you to physically put the hd on the slave side and the cd on the master side without any performance or stablitly problems?

does cable select mean it does not matter how you place them on the ribbon? that would be great since I do not want to deal with jumpers.

I have this one particular hd wd does not like to share a ide cable. I am wondering if cable select will fix this.

what does it mean anyway cable select? I thought that was for raid setups.

can someone enlighten me
 
on the IDE 80 pin. there's a black and grey connector. The black goes to master and grey goes to slave that's how the mobo can tell which drive is master and slave.
 
I have a bunch of those $7 removeable HD enclosures from CompuGeek that I use on my system. Since I want to be able to remove any drive and move them all around without opening up the enclosure to change jumpers, I only use CS on everything. Never had a problem with any problems with using CS on the new 80-pin cables.
 
"have a bunch of those $7 removeable HD enclosures from CompuGeek that I use on my system. Since I want to be able to remove any drive and move them all around without opening up the enclosure to change jumpers, I only use CS on everything. Never had a problem with any problems with using CS on the new 80-pin cables"

2 questions

1. so if I choose to use cable select all of my drives (cdr ,hd) should be set to cable select, and it does not matter what position they occupy on the ribbon?

2. new 80 pin cables? I have a couple of ribbons that came with my motherboards (dragon plus, k7s5a) and I have mixed the cables with my old ones, how can you tell if its 80 pin (short of counting)?
do you need 80 pin cable to use cable select?

okay technically 3 questions


thanks
 
The position is important when using CS with the newer cables - and presumably the older ones as well. The middle connector is the slave, the end connector is the master.

The new 80-pin cables are fairly easy to distinguish from the older 40-pin. First the wires are much smaller on the 80-pin cables. Also the wires on the 80-pin cables are solid-core copper and are wound/stranded copper on the 40-pin so the newer cables are less flexible than the older ones. Lastly, the cable connectors are color-coded on the newer ones and were just plain black on the older.

I'm certain that you don't need an 80-pin cable to use CS, but I've heard that it was a little less reliable. On the new 80-pin cables it works perfectly. On the older 40-pin cables, I've heard of problems if you mix manufacturers of drives (like one drive is Seagate and the other WD).
 
>1. so if I choose to use cable select all of my drives (cdr ,hd) should be set to cable select,
>and it does not matter what position they occupy on the ribbon?

Yes.

But you can put the drive on either connector regardless of what system you use.

With cable select, it is the way the wires are connected that makes the difference (I guess), so only one drive gets the signal that it should respond to commands, dependending on which of the two connectors is is hooked to.

However, one drive is still considered the master or first drive; the one at the end, for which the connector is color coded black. The center is for the second drive, and is colored gray. The connector that plugs into the mobo is blue. That'll tell you if you have the newer 80 wire cable.

With master/slave, both drives get exactly the same commands, but depending on the drive jumpers, one drive responds to commands that are identified as for the master and the other for the slave. Something like that.


BIOS's are generally set to boot from the first HD on the first controller. So puttting the HD drive elsewhere (not at the end) with CS may not work.

>2. new 80 pin cables? I have a couple of ribbons that came with my motherboards
> (dragon plus, k7s5a) and I have mixed the cables with my old ones, how can you tell if its 80 pin (short of counting)?

If they give you HD cables, one will be 80 wires, at least that is how it has been for me for quite a while. If you buy a HD in a retail box, they usually give you an 80 wire cable. Those dang cables used to be $20-30 when this started. CD drives I have seen only come with the old style 40 wires, no matter the speed.


>do you need 80 pin cable to use cable select?
Probably.
Cable select (CS) has been around since long before the high-performance cables. But whether the mobo and BIOS identifies and handles it correctly, I have no idea. And I would guess the cable has to be different also, even if it has 40 wires, since that is the way the two drives are determined. For instance, I have seen cables that look like they have a hole punched in them. (Maybe you could slice the right wire yourself.) Some 80 wire cables have a hole punched in them.

 
thanks for all the answers.
I will definitely try using cable select on my system have 3 cpu's at home and switch stuff around and sometimes have to bring out the manual for jumper settings.

This sounds like an easier way to go. I never really understood cable select before I guess it basically means what it says "it lets the cable position of the drive determine whether it is master or slave. "ergo cable selects"

for once computer talk that actually means what it says thats what threw me off.

thanks again
 
Stick with CS as some hard drives don't have the jumper setting sticker on the driver so you gotta search their crappy webpages for that info if you ever need to switch
 
In order for CS to work, the cable has to be specially modified. All 80-wire cables are supposed to be CS from the mfr. per IEEE spec. 40-wire cables are usually not CS unless it came in a name brand computer as they use CS to simplify assembly. The cable will be marked (HD, CD near the primary, secondary connector respectively). Often the primary will be in the middle on 40-wire as it is easier to make the cable that way as only one line has to be snipped between the connectors. To make the primary at the end, the line has to be made to bypass the middle connector. In the 80-wire cables, the proper contact is missing in the middle connector, so the line can bypass that connector, thus the different colors.
Master/Slave will also work on CS cables as if the drives are set that way, the CS lines are ignored.
Connecting your HD in the middle with a CD on the end on the primary controller will work, as it is the first HD detected on the primary controller that will be set as the boot drive. If you have two HDs or two CDs on the same cable, then they will be allotted drive letters in order of Pri/Sec.
Retail boxed drives should still be set to Master by default, OEM drives are all set to CS now--too bad, that used to be a way to detect gray-market drives as they were re-sold cpq/hp/dell/etc. overstock.
Hope this helps.
.bh.
 
There is no diff. in performance unless you make partitions on the drives, then there can be a difference in performance between partitions on the same drive. I t hink that is a Winblows (FAT) bugaboo and not necessarily inherent in the drives--or if a drive is somehow not detected at its true speed (UDMA33, 66, 100, etc.). With a good 80-wire cable, that should not be an issue
.bh.
 
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