Rounding your own ide cables: split loom question:

[fatbaby]

which diameter of these should i get? is this a good price?

 

[Grendel99]

I purchased 1/4" I think (I already tore up the package), but I did my floppy first. I just folded it and not actually rounded it with a knife or anything and it was REALLY stiff. I could barely get it to bend without creasing. How do you plan on doing yours? Who else has done this method? My HD, CDROM, and CDRW are close together, and if it is this hard to bend, it will be impossible for me. I might just buy real rounded cables.

EDIT: Price seems good, I got a 7ft package from Lowe's for like 2 bucks.

 

[Neuroanatomist]

I used 1/4" for the drive power supply cables
1/2" for the IDE/floppy cables
3/4" for powersupply-motherboard cable bundle.

Those prices at www.allelectronics.com seem very good... but they only sell black.

If you want split loom in different colors (red, blue, yellow)
split loom @ jcwhitney.com. More expensive though..

 

[Grendel99]

Did you round the cables by cutting them or did you just fold them before you put them in the split loom?

 

[Neuroanatomist]

Used a new scapel blade to cut at after every 5th wire.

..also, these were on ATA33 40 pin cables. Have not tried it yet with an ATA66/100 80pin cable.

 

[fatbaby]

<< Did you round the cables by cutting them or did you just fold them before you put them in the split loom? >>



I plan to fold them..

Does anyone have a guide to cutting them? Anyways, how much are regular ata100 ide cables (if i make mistake)? $2?

 

[Witchfinder]

Here`s the article

OC Workbench cable article link

and what it looks like in my case

Cables rounded pic Link

I only did HALF of the CDROM ones as the bit which joins the two drives was unnecessary - also modded cables are less- stiff than bought ones so you`re less likely to damage the logic board on your HDDs

 

[chiggachu]

I rounded mine pretty easily with a plain old razor blade. I just did one little cut and manually separated the rest of the cable...worked flawlessly with my ATA100s and my floppy. I used some 1.99 spiral wrap from radio shack...1/4 inch. This worked fine because I made a square with my cable, but i would go for a bigger size if you are planning to flex the cables a lot. i would take a pic but i have no digicam!

 

[Zap]

I've bought all the sizes at All Electronics (hey, flat rate shipping). Actually I've already gone through 100' each of the 3/8" and 1/2", and had to reorder. Stuff works well. As some others mentioned, I also cut the IDE and FDD cables every few strands with a utility razor to get started, and pull apart. The cables seem less stiff after this is done. I haven't tried doing ultra ATA cables yet. A friend of mine did, and he ruined some (but at $2/ea., no matter) but ended up with a few. I recently bought some rounded cables, and yes, they are REALLY stiff. Heck, I'm thinking of cutting off the rubber housing and just enclosing the wires in split loom. They seem like individual strands surrounded by stiff rubber. Anyways, here's some pics of the inside of one of my computers:
first pic
second pic

 

[Grendel99]

Very nice cable setup Zap. I ordered two rounded ATA100 cables and I'm gonna round the ATA33 40 pin and Floppy cables myself and then put them in split loom. I might even try rounding the ATA100's just to see if I can do it.

 

[Crucial]

rounding ata100 cables is just a little more difficult than 40 pin cables. I just used my swiss army knife to make a small cut between 2 wires and then manually pulled them apart. My 40 pin IDE's got cut every 4 strands and the ata100 every 8 strands. Then I wrapped them with tommytape. they are very bendable after cutting. the tommy tape makes them stiffer but you can form it to the shape you want and it will stay put. The tommy tape doesn't stick to anything but itself. Theres a review of it here. It comes in multiple colors as well.

No afiliation blah. blah. blah...

 

[fatbaby]

So i can cut in the "crevices" in the cable? and expect 0 performance loss?

 

[Crucial]

Thats exactly how i did it. I put the very tip of the blade in between 2 wires and pushed in and down until it made a split. then split it by hand. Just be carefull you dont cut the wires. I practiced on some old floppy cables first. I haven't scrapped a cable yet.

[edit]
I don't have any scientific data but I haven't noticed any data transfer problems after doing my ata100 cable on the harddrive and the 40pin cable for the burnner and dvd drives.
[/edit]