X-Fi Drive Bay Cabling

[Arucard]

For those with the X-Fi Platinum or Fatal1ty, what kind of cabling is there between the card and the bay? I sk because I'm building my computer tomorrow, but the card is still a feew weeks away, so I want to figure out what cable routing I can do now.

 

[LordBelial]

Hey, i just bought the platinum 3 weeks ago, alls it is is a single ribbon cable that goes from the bay to the card..thats it! nice and easy..and let me tell you, i didnt think sound was worth 200, turns out it was one of the best pc upgrades iv ever done.

 

[DaveUK]

I've got the Platinum, off the top of my head there is an IDE-similar ribbon cable and I think there is also a floppy-similar power supply connector. The unit has a built-in preamp.

HOWEVER I cant guarantee that these aren't proprietary so I'm not sure if you could replace with say, a rounded IDE cable.

If I were you I'd just wait til you get it. Cable routing adjustments will vary depending on case and other hardware and you will probably tweak it on the fly a few times anyway before you get something you are happy with.

And yes, the kit owns its the best soundcard ive purchased bar none.

 

[Cabletwitch]

You can indeed use a standard IDE cable in place of the proprietry one, the only difference being that the one creative uses has a few holes in the connectors blocked out, so you cant use their cable as an IDE one. Simple as that.

Rounded cables shouldnt pose any problem, but weirder things have happened. I actually rounded the cable between my Audigy 2 and the bay myself, and it worked fine. My advice is to try it, if it works, then great. If not, use a normal IDE cable, or the one that came with the card.

 

[halcyon]

The blocked pins on the Creative AD_Link cable have different pins blocked than what you see on a standard IDE cable, but otherwise it looks pretty much the same.

SO, IF you can find a rounded IDE cable with NO pins blocked out you can easily use this on the X-Fi Plat. and Fatality. I used an 80 pin ATA66+ cable with no problemos @ all.

Sigh...I took my X-Fi Plat. back today since I had an X-Fi XM in my Dell Cookie Cutter that I wasn't likely to ever use. ...I stole it out of the dell and put it in the Jukebox. ...got my $200 back that went towards a set of Bose Companion 3's. A most worthy upgrade in my subjective listening tests thus far.

...I'm going to miss that drive bay break-out box and it's 1/4 inch headphone- out and TOSlink I/O but I've learned speakers come FIRST...heck, i could've used the Bose with one of my SB Live's and it would have still sounded better than the iTrigue 3800s...which sounded good, believe it or not.

 

[Arucard]

OK, thanks for all that. Rounded cables are easy enough to find, so I'll wait until I get it, and then start cable tying everything.