40 pin IDE cable

[ls120]

About 10 days ago I picked up a Silverstone FT02. sweet case, right? right. except the heinous chassis cabling. srsly. wtf.

so this afternoon I had a stroke. I'm not sure if it was genius or not yet, and the internets have failed to offer any definitive information - can an old school 40 pin IDE cable handle 12vdc @ 0.16a ? I'm pretty sure each strand is 28ga, and my only real concern is that the cable might get too hot from too much draw.

if it can, sweet! i solved my ugly cable problem. if not, well, back to square one.

 

[jamesyboy]

Wow, that sux. I'm surpised you're not in the hospital....afterall, strokes are dangerous. I think you should get some help.

On the other hand, if you had a stroke of genious, you'd be fine.

I wouldn't risk it LS. Good luck on ur case.

 

[saaiello]

IDE cable is to thin and will create too much resistance. More resistance means power supply has to work harder creates more heat and could also have catastrophic failure. It could power a few LED lights and maybe a fan but I wouldn't use it for a hard drive or optical drive and definitely not a GPU. But for lights on the case and the power button sure thats fine I wouldn't push more then 1 amp thru it to be safe.

 

[shovenose]

huh? you want to pull apart an ide cable and use it as a power cable for a device in ur computer? bad idea. fire hazard. epic fail.

 

[pjmelect]

The ribbon cable can easily handle that much power without getting too hot however you didn’t say what you will be powering with it, I would be concerned that as ribbon cable has a relatively high resistance and inductance that you may get electrical noise on the device that you are powering. You can always try it and see.

 

[jitpublisher]

Do you remember the movie "revenge of the nerds", when all the jocks were outside singing "our house, our house, our house is burning down" I dunno, I just got that image in my mind as I read your post. What in the world are you thinking?
There are a lot of good guides for cable management and examples of how other people have hidden their power cords for a nice tidy look. Just Google around for some of them.

 

[runswindows95]

I agree with shovenose. This sounds like a bad idea overall. There are better ways to handling cable management.

 

[ls120]

The ribbon cable can easily handle that much power without getting too hot however you didn’t say what you will be powering with it, I would be concerned that as ribbon cable has a relatively high resistance and inductance that you may get electrical noise on the device that you are powering. You can always try it and see.

Basically, i'd be using the ribbon cable as a connector cable between the fan and the motherboard fan connectors, over about 9 inches between the motherboard fan pinouts and the fan connectors.

a few have cited guides to cable management... any links to these guides? i haven't found them so far.

Thanks!

 

[pjmelect]

Ribbon cable will be fine if all you are powering with it is a fan, its resistance and current rating will not be a problem.

 

[misry]

This FAIL will be useless without pics.

 

[jitpublisher]

Come on now, they are not hard to find.. In less than a minute I found about a dozen videos, and at least 50 pictures and articles. Here is a start:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poXyU-BwNbk

 

[shovenose]

omg its by monstermawd

 

[JohnnyLucky]

ls120 - I read your original post twice. You did not mention what you wanted to power with an old 40 pin, flat ribbon, data transmission cable. I read your second post which seems to indicate you want to use the old cable as a fan extension cable to connect fans to your motherboard.

All that work is not necessary since fan extension cables in a variety of configurations that are readily available from online vendors. Here is an example with two pages of fan extension cables:

http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l2/g2/c251/list/p1/Cables-Fan_Cables.html

If you have more fans than motherboard connectors, then here is link to a very handy connector that allows you to connect 4 pc case fans to one power supply molex connector:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8780/cab-163/FrozenCPU_Standard_4-Pin_to_Quad_3-Pin_Adapter_Cable_PFP18.html?tl=g2c251s274

Currently out of stock. I build pc's for others so I usually by several at a time.

 

[shovenose]

yead idk though..the whole idea of using an ide cable seems kinda dumb...
NO OFFENSE INTENDED!

 

[ls120]

ls120 - I read your original post twice. You did not mention what you wanted to power with an old 40 pin, flat ribbon, data transmission cable. I read your second post which seems to indicate you want to use the old cable as a fan extension cable to connect fans to your motherboard.

All that work is not necessary since fan extension cables in a variety of configurations that are readily available from online vendors. Here is an example with two pages of fan extension cables:

http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l2/g2/c251/list/p1/Cables-Fan_Cables.html

If you have more fans than motherboard connectors, then here is link to a very handy connector that allows you to connect 4 pc case fans to one power supply molex connector:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8780/cab-163/FrozenCPU_Standard_4-Pin_to_Quad_3-Pin_Adapter_Cable_PFP18.html?tl=g2c251s274

Currently out of stock. I build pc's for others so I usually by several at a time.

I'm talking about powering 4 case fans, and consolidationg 3 switches (9 individual cables) into one 40 pin ribbon cable that i can tuck behind the motherboard... turning this mess:

into something a little more sleek. i'm not talking about using ribbon cables to go between the power supply and the fans. i /am/ talking about using the ribbon cable between the 3 pin fan headers on the motherboard and the fan.

 

[ls120]

i guess i should revise the cable count to something more accurate... 9 cables from the switches and 12 cables from the fans - the 3 fans you see @ the bottom, and the one on the top.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The photo you posted shows the back side of the motherboard tray that is normally hidden from view by a side panel. Is anyone going to see the wiring? Is it just a matter of personal preference?

 

[ls120]

this is definately just a matter of personal preference. i'm going for as minimal and clean as possible, which is where the ribbon cable comes in... i can wrap all the fan cables you see there, and terminate them in a 3 pin male pinout, jam those into the ribbon cable female end, and sneak that under the motherboard.

it's just a matter of whether or not the 28 ga ribbon cable can handle the load that the stock 26 ga chassis wiring takes.

 

[ls120]

after a little more digging, here's a product spec list for standard 40 pin ribbon cable:

* Number of Conductors = 40
* Ribbon Cable Outside Conductor Spacing (mm [in]) = 49.53 [1.950]
* Insulation Material = PVC
* Temperature Range (°C) = -20 – +105

Electrical Characteristics:
* Voltage Rating (VAC) = 300
* Impedance (Ω) = 100
* Capacitance (pF/ft) = 14.0

And the 26 gauge cabling it would be replacing, in my application:

Electrical Characteristics:
* Voltage Rating (VAC) = 600
* Impedance (Ω) = 150
* Capacitance (pF/ft) = 12.0

i'm looking for a spec sheet for the chassis fans, however this should work.

 

[pjmelect]

As I said before ribbon cable would be fine for what you want, however my concern was that you might have been thinking that you would use it to power any of the drives (CD, floppy, hard disk) which would be a very bad idea as although it might work could give reliability problems.

 

[ls120]

heh... this great plan has come to a screeching halt until i can locate a single row (amp mta type) connector.

I measured incorrectly and didn't allow for the ribbon crimp, and so it just won't fit under the motherboard.

 

[ls120]

Best answer selected by ls120.