IDE Cables?

Endurance Man

Does the length of an ide cable affect perfommance on a pc? I am using these 90cm ones :eek: , in pc's and im just wondering if they will affect the pc at all, as apposed to shorter cables?
Thanks

odie

If they were a few metres long you might have a slight slow down in data xfer rates, but @ 90cm it would be negligible.

Malafus

Shortest possible answer: No.
Well, the shortest possible answer would simply be: N; but you get the idea...

Electricity doesn't traverse distances, it simply pushes all the free electrons round in a loop, i.e. it is instantaneous. The only difference long cables would make is the amount of interference they pick up - only an issue if you had many, many metres of cables.

Oh, and long cables restrict airflow unless they are neatly tucked away, which is where short cables are an advantage.

Snowbat

Electricity propagation through a cable is not instantaneous. The propagation speed is determined by the velocity factor of the cable. Typical propagation delay for an 80-conductor IDE cable is 4.1 ns/m (1.25 ns/ft).
http://www.mycableshop.com/sku/WIRRIB80FEP-100.htm

The official maximum ATA66/100/133 cable length is 457mm. Longer cables have been known to work but are outside the spec and can cause data corruption. Apart from that , length does not affect speed/performance as the strobe rate is fixed.
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/ata-66_cables.htm
http://www.dansdata.com/rcables.htm

jor el

I use 120cm rounded ATA100 cables on all my IDE drives. The rounded ones will improve airflow for cooling and I've seen no problems with the length of them over shorter standard flat cables.

Malafus

Snowbat wrote:

Electricity propagation through a cable is not instantaneous. The propagation speed is determined by the velocity factor of the cable. Typical propagation delay for an 80-conductor IDE cable is 4.1 ns/m (1.25 ns/ft).
http://www.mycableshop.com/sku/WIRRIB80FEP-100.htm

The official maximum ATA66/100/133 cable length is 457mm. Longer cables have been known to work but are outside the spec and can cause data corruption. Apart from that , length does not affect speed/performance as the strobe rate is fixed.
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/ata-66_cables.htm
http://www.dansdata.com/rcables.htm

I bow to your superior knowledge.
Still, at such speed, the extra delay in a longer cable is negligible - would it ever be an issue, in RL?

Khannie

Answer: Nope.

Malafus

Oops, forgot my sarcasm tags. 'Twas a rhetorical question.

Khannie

Love that word.

Malafus

Hmmm, out of those 9 words, I'm guessing the one you love is surely not "a" or "my", and probably not "oops", "forgot" or "question".

That leaves "sarcasm", which is a very popular choice, "'Twas", a word whose use is in steep decline - something I deeply lament, and "rhetorical": the single greatest excuse for asking a dumb question, ever. But, of course, not in this case .