Can someone verify something on udma66 cables?

[Cougar]

Hey everyone,

I've got a small question about udma66 cables that I was hoping someone could answer. Is it true that the cables are keyed so that devices have to be set up in a certain order on the cable? What I mean by that is this, at the very end of the cable is a blue connector (that I'm assuming goes into the motherboard), in the middle of the cable is a grey connector and at the other end of the cable is a black connector. Now I'm not entirely certain, but I thought I remembered reading somewhere that the blue connector has to go into the board, the grey (middle) connector has to go into the slave device, and the black connector has to go into the master device. Is that true? I hope it's not because it's going to screw up my whole system design if it is.

I've got 4 things that are ide on this board: 30gb hdd, 100mb zip drive, ls-120 drive, & 12x dvd drive. I had planned on making the hard drive primary master and the ls-120 drive primary slave, the dvd drive secondary master and the zip drive secondary slave. If it's true that the cables are keyed then that would mean that I would have to mount the hard drive on top of the ls-120 drive and the dvd drive on top of the zip drive in order to get things set up right.

So does anyone know the answer to my question, or did I manage to confuse everyone?

By the way, if you've read any of my other posts then this sounds like the same setup as my friends system but it's for my cousin and he already had an ide zip drive so he won't be getting a scsi zip drive like my friend is (it would have made things a whole lot easier if he would just buy a scsi zip drive too).

Sorry for the long post.

 

[jblondi]

I dont think the color has anything to do with it. I have a cable with 3 black plugs. I can switch it anyway I want. I would just try it out and see if it works. If it does, then great, if not, then you know the colors do have meaning.

 

[Terp]

You are exactly right; Blue in the m/b....grey is for slave device...black in your primary IDE device

 

[Cougar]

jblondi...

thanks for the quick reply. It's not so much the colors that concern me it's the fact that I seem to remember reading somewhere that the master device has to go on the end of the cable, the slave device has to go in the middle of the cable, and the other end of the cable plugs into the board. I guess I could try and plug the hard drive into the middle of the cable now that nothing is installed yet and see what happens.

 

[Train]

the slave/master jumpers on the hard drives determine whats what, the order of the cable dont mean $%&^#$

 

[Train]

sorry, double post

 

[MSBHVN]

Yeah Train and every M/B manufacturer who explicitly details how to properly install a UDMA66 cable write that in their manuals just for fun, eh? I think not.

Terp is exactly right. Blue in M/B, primary on end (black) and slave in middle. Anybody who says different is dead wrong, IMAO.

 

[Cougar]

Terp...

Jeez you guys are quick. You responded to me while I was responding to jblondi =)

Since the cables are keyed in a certain way, then I don't think that there will be any way to set up this system with udma66 cables without having a truly messed up design. It looks like my only choice is to use udma33 cables if possible. The hard drive is the only thing that supports udma66 (other than the motherboard of course), so would it cause any problems if I use a udma33 cable to connect the hard drive to the motherboard (as well as the rest of the devices)? The systems not going to get all pissy just 'cause I used an "old" cable is it?

 

[MSBHVN]

Cougar, what M/B are we talking about?

 

[Train]

whats with the colors? you cant be serious that blue has to be in back, like every udma66 cable has those colors, mine are in fact all black, and ive seen them all gray. If it works in any order for me, it will work in any order for anyone.

 

[Cougar]

hmmm....now there's two votes for keyed cables, and 2 votes against keyed cables. Now I'm not sure what to do.

 

[Cougar]

MSBHVN...

I've got the MSI K7 Pro. I haven't even installed windows on it yet, 'cause I'm not sure what to do about this cable situation.

 

[Train]

well, i have 2 Hard Drives, a DVD, a CD Burner, and a Zip 250 all on my udma66, and ive switched them all over the place, never had a problem, but if YOUR motherboard or udma controller card tell you different, then do what the manual says if your worried, but i would just plug them in and let er rip, at worst your system wont boot then youll have to put them in order.

 

[Cougar]

Train...

That's the thing. My motherboard manual doesn't say anything about the order in which they should be installed on the cable. I just remembered reading something on the 'net about the specific order the udam66 cables needed and that's why I figured I'd ask you guys and see if what I read was true. By the way, how'd you get 5 devices on your ide chain? Do you have a motherboard that has both udma66 and udma33 controllers like the be6-2?

 

[MSBHVN]

Cougar, I was hoping your board supported more than 4 IDE channels, like my BE6-II that supports 8, 4 UDMA66/IDE and 4 IDE. Then, you could have put the UDMA66 on it's own channel using that cable and the other stuff on the regular IDE channels.

As for the colors, doesn't your M/B manual show you how to install that cable correctly? It should explicitly show and explain the routing and colored connectors, just like they did in my BE6-II manual. BTW - I've never seen a UDMA66 cable that didn't have different colored connectors on it. Are you sure you have a UDMA66 cable there, Train, and not a UDMA33 type? What mobo do you have? Just curious.

Isn't the LS-120 floppy drive 3½ size? Why can't you just install it under the HDD? You must have more than one 3½ slot. Well, depending on your case, that is.

 

[Train]

no my mobo only supports 33, but the system came with a udma66 controller card

 

[Cougar]

MSBHVN...

The manual doesn't say anything about how to install the drives or the cables. This is what it says about installing drives:

The mainboard has a 32-bit Enhanced PCI IDE and Ultra DMA/66 (ICH)/Ultra DMA/33(ICH0) Controller that provides PIO modes 0~4, Bus Master, and Ultra DMA/33 function. It has two HDD connectors IDE1 (primary) and IDE2 (secondary). You can connect up to four hard disk drive, CD-ROM, 120mb Floppy (reserved for future BIOS) and other devices to IDE1 and IDE2. These connectors support the provided IDE hard disk cable.

The first hard drive should always be connected to ide1. IDE1 can connect a Master and a Slave drive. You must configure second hard drive to slave mode by setting the jumper accordingly.

IDE2 can also connect a Master and a Slave drive.

That's everything that it says about installing hard drives. It seems pretty vague if you ask me. If I were to rearrange things on the cable and the system didn't like it how would I know? Would it just not detect the drives on boot up or would the problem manifest itself in strange system crashes?

 

[Terp]

A friend bought a new 66 drive and didn't know there is a special cable to take advantage of the 66M/sec technology, so he, too, used his old IDE cable....I asked him to run HD Tach on it and came back at 31 m/sec, which would indicate ultra 66 wasn't working....ordered a new cable, which ironically came with a BLUE, GREY, and BLACK connector...installed, ran HD TAch....52 M/sec....then, hooked his old ultra 33 drive to the slave connector and both worked fine..the 33 ran at 33, the 66 drive ran at the same 52 m/sec as earlier....

 

[Mem]

My Promise manual says "the blue cable connector must be attached to the ultra66 connector"(or motherboard if you don`t have a Promise ultra-66 card ,so the black end goes on harddrive).If you are not sure just stick the blue on mb,& black for primary harddrive, this is the recommended way .Promise should know what colour goes where,if it does not matter why are they colour coded?

 

[Cougar]

MSBHVN....

Forgot to add that, yes the ls-120 drive is 3 1/2" but my cousin wants his system set up in a certain way. The specs for the case are as follows: four 5 1/4", 2 external 3 1/2" and 2 internal 3 1/2" (4 total 3 1/2" bays). He wants his ls-120 drive on the top (1st) 3 1/2" bay, the zip drive in the second external 3 1/2" bay and the hdd in either the 3rd or 4th 3 1/2" bay.

 

[Train]

again, color had nothing to do with it, 33 connectors have 40 or 50 wires, 66 connectors have 80, thats all the difference

 

[Scorpion]

The Blue end definatly goes in the Motherboard. After that, you can put your Master or Slave on either of the other 2. The Jumper settings on the devices determine what they are.

UNLESS you have them on Cable Select. Then the order matters. And it's exactly how you said. Grey = Slave, Black = Master.

And that's how it is!

 

[Mem]

Once again,blue for motherboard or ATA-66 card,grey slave ,black for primary harddrive,PROMISE THE COMPANY & ScoRp!oN,Terp,MSBHVN,are all correct if you don`t trust us, trust Promise the company.

 

[MSBHVN]

Well Cougar, sometimes functional priority outweighs personal wants.

I say fit the devices in the case, the best way that you can to take advantage of the UDMA66 controller and tell your cousin that's the way it has to be.

Train, why are you the only person who has a UDMA66 cable without colored connectors? I find that strange. However, I never rule out anything people say, because it is true for them. It just goes against the industry standard, that's all. Look in any PC parts magazine and look up UDMA66 cables. They'll all have colored connectors.

Cougar, I suggest you ask a guy like Russ, who owns a PC business and has seen and installed probably hundreds of UDMA66 cables.

 

[Cougar]

Mem...

I would suggest that maybe it's different for promise controllers, but it seems as if everyone is saying that udma66 cables all have blue, black and grey connectors so there must be something up with the whole color coding scheme. Or it could just be a plot to make me go crazy =)

Anyone know who invented the udma66 standard so that I can go to their website and see what they say about it?