Round IDE Cables

[avi85]

I am in the market for Round IDE cables and I noticed that they sell cables longer than 18 inches.

I was under the impression that part of the ATA133 standard is a max cable length of 18 inches yet many 24 inch cables are listed as ATA133.

I would appreciate an explanation for this discrepancy.

 

[Goi]

Yeah IDE ribbon cables are specified at a max of 18", so anything beyond that and you're deviating from spec. With that said, 18" is probably a conservative maximum, so longer cables will still work(if not they probably won't be selling them). However, as with all high speed interconnects, the shorter the better.

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, To be safe most engineer will add a "Fudge Factor" to their specs. An 18" spec may well work up to 36" or more. I've run about 36" flat ribbon IDE way back before drives got so fast and picky. Jim

 

[furballi]

Keep the length as short as possible for optimum performance.

 

[mshan]

Does the fact that these cables are round, rather than ribbons, make them out of spec?

 

[Mem]

Personally I've never had any issues with 24" cables and I have used them in different PCs over the years,infact still do,no reason why they won't perform as well as 18" cabes regardless of the spec standard.

 

[GrammatonJP]

I actually have 36" ide cables, 80 wire, and I used to think that the data will corrupt, I tested it on my servers, 0 problems... I got 3 poweredge server on 36" cables..

 

[esun]

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Drive_Electronics):

"The ATA standard has always specified a maximum cable length of just 46 cm (18 inches). This can cause difficulties in connecting drives within a large computer case, or when mounting several physical drives into one computer, and it all but completely eliminates the possibility of using parallel ATA for external devices. Although longer cables are widely available on the market, it must be understood that they are outside the parameters set by the specifications. The same is true of the "rounded" cables also commonly available: The ATA standard describes flat cables with particular impedance and capacitance characteristics. This is of course not a guarantee that other cables will not work, but an indication that nonstandard cables should be used, if at all, with caution."

Realistically, if they want us to use cables with a max length of 18 inches, they need to design cases with that in mind. I have also used longer cables without a problem, so I guess they just made this conservative standard which everybody ignores because they know it's safe to do so.