486 IDE Cable ok for today's standards?

  • Thread starter Thread starter TE
  • Start date Start date
T

TE

I recently aquired a batch of IDE cables from some old 486s and Pentiums.
Have IDE cables evolved much from that era? Should I just throw them out?
I'd like get back into cable rounding/squaring and this could be some
good practice... I attempted this a few years ago but had strange
behavior w/my HDD afterwards... If the 486 cables are still good, then I
could add a some nice cables to my first mod!! Should I bother or will
things be too slow? Thanks in advance!
 
I recently aquired a batch of IDE cables from some old 486s and Pentiums.
Have IDE cables evolved much from that era? Should I just throw them out?
I'd like get back into cable rounding/squaring and this could be some
good practice... I attempted this a few years ago but had strange
behavior w/my HDD afterwards... If the 486 cables are still good, then I
could add a some nice cables to my first mod!! Should I bother or will
things be too slow? Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

They work fine up to ATA33 speeds, which means they are probably fine for
any CD or DVD drive currently made. They will not work at ATA 66/100/133
speeds, so should not be used with current Hard disk drives.

JT
 
I recently aquired a batch of IDE cables from some old 486s and Pentiums.
Have IDE cables evolved much from that era? Should I just throw them out?
I'd like get back into cable rounding/squaring and this could be some
good practice... I attempted this a few years ago but had strange
behavior w/my HDD afterwards... If the 486 cables are still good, then I
could add a some nice cables to my first mod!! Should I bother or will
things be too slow? Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

As someone already mentioned, they're fine for optical drives.
I wouldn't bother with rounding them though, it's time consuming and
not done correctly unless you make twisted pairs with added ground
lines... just a whole lot easier to buy ATA133 rounded cables. Here's
a place with pretty low prices on 'em:
http://www.svcompucycle.com/cables.html
 
The old cables will transfer data at ATA 33 speed at the fastest, maybe
slower.
Click to expand...

Is there any way to determine which ones are "old cables" ? I think there
might have been some pentiums or possilby faster...
 
TE said:
Is there any way to determine which ones are "old cables" ? I think there
might have been some pentiums or possilby faster...
Click to expand...

Both the new cables and the old cables have 40pin connectors but the new
cables have 80 wires. The wires will look much smaller and more closely
packed. Anything older than a pentium III is probably using the older 40
wire cable.
 
Is there any way to determine which ones are "old cables" ? I think there
might have been some pentiums or possilby faster...
Click to expand...

Most of the newer ones have different color connections...black, blue,
and gray.

At any rate, the spec for them is different (the number should be
printed along one side of the cable).


Have a nice week...

Trent

If the cheese isn't yours...its Nacho cheese, man!
 
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