Does split IDE Cables affect system performance?

[LancerEvolution7]

I recently built a new computer. I found that the ide cables were very cluttersome. So I took a xacto knife and split the IDE cables(between the wires of course) into sections and taped them into round type cables using masking tape. Call me cheap if you will, but I really didn't feel like spending $10 on round ide cables. Anyways, will that affect harddrive performance?

 

[lhgpoobaa]

ahhh... nothing like good old fashioned ghetto cable mod's

if you did it carefully, without cutting or exposing any wires then yes, it should work perfectly well, as thats basically what rounded cables are. hoever even if you just nic a wire then you can get corruption problems, that sometimes are extreemly difficult to detect.

something to bear in mind.

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[Crashman]

Right, as long as the insulation is intact, it's OK, early round cables were made that way.

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[HammerBot]

The cable you split, was it an 80 pin or 40 pin? 80 pin cables has every second wire connected to ground in order to limit crosstalk. When you split the cable and make it round, you reintroduce the possibility for excessive crosstalk. If you at the same time have a long cable and run UDMA (fast transfers) you might get errors. Thats why I do not use round cables, since im not willing to take the risk. The best way to make a round cable, is to take an 80 pin cable and split it between the wires, BUT ONLY BETWEEN EVERY SECOND. In that way, every signal wire is still close to a ground wire. Its not as good as the original (Since here, every signal is in between two ground wires). You do change the cable impedance and increase crosstalk. But the above solution is deffinitely better than splitting a 40 pin cable, or an 80 pin cable between every wire.

 

[jihiggs]

what about twisting those pairs? thats what is done on high quality scsi cables.

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

 

[HammerBot]

Kind of difficult to twist the pairs if the connectors are mounted. But if you are making a cable from scratch, twisting the wires in pairs is a good solution. Ofcourse the resulting cable impedance depends on the cable dimensions (wire/insulation thickness) AND the number of twists pr. meter. Increasing the number of twists reduces the impedance.
If I should make such a cable I would have to calculate the number of twists required for the chosen cable type in order to get the right impedance. But then again, this is really not that critical and a good start would be about 100 twists pr. meter.

 

[jihiggs]

those ends are pretty easy to get apart, the pins are just like punch down blocks.

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal