Length of round cables in Antec 1080AMG Case?

[Beandog]

I am use to Midtowers, but my new system is using the New Antec PLUS Grey Metallic Case 1080AMG and I am using MSI KT3 Ultra2 Board with Just one hard drive, floppy, DVD, and CDRW. I am pretty sure the 10inch Round cables will be fine for the Hard Drive mounted in the lowest spot, and the Floppy as well since the connectors on the MB are near the Hard drive. But what length cable will I need to get the DVD and CDRW into the top two slots? I see duel cables at SVC for 36inch, 24inch, and 18inch, which is best? Thanks

 

[npcom]

Mesure the distance from your optical drive (the cone closest to the Mobo/IDE connector) and the IDE connector you are aiming for.

Position of the IDE connector and placement of the drives effect the length needed. I had to wire 2 CC tubes in a LianLi case. I thought I would only need to modify one of them... the other one ended up being 2 times longer.

Easy way to make the mesurement. Take a standard ribbon cable from the board and use that. 18" maybe tight, bit 24 should fit just fine.

 

[BornStar]

You said you were using your optical drives in the top two slots? If so, you're never going to reach up there with a 24in cable. I have a 24in cable that barely reaches the bottom two 5.25" drive bay. I suggest moving your drives down to the bottom.

 

[stonecold3169]

Originally posted by: BornStar18
You said you were using your optical drives in the top two slots? If so, you're never going to reach up there with a 24in cable. I have a 24in cable that barely reaches the bottom two 5.25" drive bay. I suggest moving your drives down to the bottom.

That can't be a 24" cable you're using, the case is only 20.6" tall from bottom of case to very top. I have an Abit KT7a RAID mobo in that case, and a 19" cable is sufficent for the top two optical drives in the case. That's WITH a little bit of tucking room as well. If you want to tuck cables all over and make it really neat though I'd go a bit longer.

 

[Megatomic]

With my Epox 8K3A+ in an Antec SX840 case, 24" rounded cables barely reach my two optical drives which are positioned in the top two 5.25" bays. Your case is even taller so I am doubtful that the 24" cables will be long enough for you. 🙁

And I hear that unless you have tightly-wound shielded round cables, any cable over 24" is susceptible to picking up noise (antenna) and crosstalk (chatter between parallel conductors).

 

[BornStar]

I forgot to look at a picture of your motherboard. I also have a MSI board but the IDE connectors are in a different place (at the bottom of the board) which is why it's such a long way for me. With the KT3 Ultra, you might be able to make it but it'll be a tight fit. Incidentally, I don't have the 1080AMG however, I do have the Chieftec clone which (AFAIK) has the same dimensions.

 

[piasabird]

The EIDE ATA Standand is a length of 18", but CD devices are ATAPI devices. Because they are designed to run slower, more length may be possible. Anything over 18" may be subject to excess error detection and correction, which would slow it down even further. I dont know if they make software to benchmark the error detection/correction rate or not. Simple things like running too close to a chipset cooling fan or being too close to multiple 12V power wires could cause interference.

This is where SATA is suppose to extend the length up to about a meter or 36+ inches. It might be something worth looking into for purchases of newer CD drives.