IDE cable help, thanks!

[aman74]

I need an 80 pin IDE cable. From what I remember in the past with random cables I had around, I had a hard time find one that would fit properly. They have that bar that passes over the top of the cable where it attaches to the connector. This forces the cable to be bent over in a certain direction. In the past I found that this caused the cable to have to be twisted in order to be able to reach the drive and would cause a problem routing to a slave.

Is the direction of the cable supposed to be standardized? So that if I order one online I will know I'm getting the right one.

Local office stores don't even have them. All compusa had where the expensive round style. We have a microcenter, but it's far and they are usually pricey. Where do you guys get them locally? And if not where is a good place online and a typical price? I'm thinking maybe ebay.

Thanks for taking the time to read and help out, much appreciated.

 

[mikeford]

80 pin cables are standard now, the notch thing has been around a LONG time, and its so that pin 1 goes in the right spot for the motherboard and the drives

Blue goes in the motherboard.
Grey is the slave.
Black is the master (makes me wonder what the LA school board had their undies all in a bunch over).

Somebody on ebay must be selling these cable for like $2 shipped, just look around, its a ATA100 or ATA133, but don't think they have changed since ATA 33 or 66. This from a random search with no endorsement, http://store.pchcables.com/flatidecables.html

 

[aman74]

Originally posted by: mikeford
80 pin cables are standard now, the notch thing has been around a LONG time, and its so that pin 1 goes in the right spot for the motherboard and the drives

Blue goes in the motherboard.
Grey is the slave.
Black is the master (makes me wonder what the LA school board had their undies all in a bunch over).

Somebody on ebay must be selling these cable for like $2 shipped, just look around, its a ATA100 or ATA133, but don't think they have changed since ATA 33 or 66. This from a random search with no endorsement, http://store.pchcables.com/flatidecables.html

Thanks for the help thus far.

What I'm more concerned with as far as a "standard" is the direction the cable is routed as this is what caused issue for me in the past. Are they all the same?

The way my board is and most I've seen you can't squeeze two cables next to each other unless the wire is going a certain way off of the connector.

Thanks

 

[mikeford]

yup all the same, and even before they all had the notch, pin 1 on the motherboard still had to go to pin 1 on the drives, they just used the black stripe. Any twisting you had to do before you STILL have to do now, but if thats an issue pay the $5 and buy round cables.

Some boards are laid out poorly, but the cables ONLY work one way, blue on the motherboard, grey is slave, and black is master.

 

[mikeford]

Clarifying, on the cables I have in front of me, ALL of them have the flat cable coming out of the blue motherboard connector on the side with the notch. I have no idea if that part of the cable orientation is standard, somebody else will have to chime in, but it is a pretty safe guess that if you buy two they will be the same from the same vendor.

 

[iRONic]

I have many new surplus ribbon IDE cables. I can send you one for the price of shipping.

PM me.

 

[aman74]

Thanks all for the help all and I will shoot ironic a PM.

So do you guys often have to twist them for your setups?

Maybe someday I will try the round ones. The ones I have seen though have been more then 5 extra and I hear some are inferior than the flat style.

Thanks mikeford for the clarification because the first reply I had already understood the cables and pin 1, it's really the cable routing I had wondered about since when I set up this PC some were different ways, but I think one might have been 40 pin.

It just seems if the boards and cables were standard it would be easier.

 

[iRONic]

Originally posted by: Livedistortion
Thanks all for the help all and I will shoot ironic a PM.

I got it, but can't reply. I get a error that says you don't accept PM's. Here's what I wrote:

No big wiggle, mang.

Shoot me a snail addy and I'll send it tomano. Is USPS Priority Mail cool? It should fit in your mailbox, plus you don't have to sign for a UPS driver.

I'll put the receipt in the envelope and you can Paypal me after it shows.

-Ron

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, If you are talking about a retainer bar over the entire cable, most of those just snap off without damageing the cable. If you are talking about the little projection on the side of the connector. It can be cut off. Just be sure to connect with pin one in the right position. Jim

 

[aman74]

Just wanted to post and say that I received the cables from iRONic.

He's a very generous guy!

 

[iRONic]

S'no big wiggle, mang. Just the price of a few stamps.

Glad they got there intact.

 

[Zepper]

If your drives are stacked properly, then the cable shouldn't have to be twisted. They are normally set up to expecte the primary drive to be physically above the secondary drive and the mobo downstream from that. If your secondary drive is physically above your primary drive, then you may want to set the drives to Master;/Slave instead of Cable Select so where they connect on the cable won't be important - only thing is that some drives will be unhappy set to one or the other (of M/S instead of CS) so your setup won't work. Of course, that shouldn't happen. But... And some brands of HDs have TWO master settings - one as standalone and the other is master with slave - WD does that the most and causes mucho hair-pulling. Most drives use just one jumper: jumper off or jumper on. Now that's just too simple for WD...

.bh.

 

[aman74]

Just used the new cable.

I don't know if this is the case with all of the cables, but the 40 pin cables route the cable in the opposite direction from the 80 pin. This is what makes it a pain on my motherboard (intel). It's better now that I have an 80 pin on the HD and on the Optical drive. However the floppy drive is routed the opposite way and makes for a tight fit.

So I don't know if the routing on 80 pins is standard, but it seems to be. I do know that it isn't standard for the 40 pins to be the same as an 80 pin.

I guess this may be something to do about nothing, but I know it caused me a hassle when I built this PC about 4 years ago and now it caused me a hassle again so I appreciate the feedback, I'm just surprised it's not more clear cut on how it should be.

Peace