24" cables - yay or nay?

[fury]

I picked up a couple 24" ATA100 cables today. I've heard some stories about this length being prone to data failure, are they true?

 

[Justintime]

Yay if good quality, nay if generic.

 

[chcr]

I've got a tall server tower, and I use one. It is a good quality one, however. I didn't hear about the data loss thing until after I'd had it for a while. No probs though.

 

[Aunty Em]

I've been running the TBird for a year or so with 60cm/24" cables with no problems. (I couldn't get anything shorter over here at the time.)

 

[Justintime]

Have seen em cause problems, if the build is good and its kept fairly untangled it should be fine.

 

[fury]

They're rounded, does that help it stay untangled?

 

[chcr]

That's for airflow.

 

[fury]

Yeah, I know, but do they tangle less when rounded? There's a clear plastic tube over the cables with one bend in the middle of the long part, is that gonna cause me trouble?

 

[Justintime]

Ack, thats hit or miss man, rounded cables go flaky much faster and damage easier, plus the bunching together doen't help signal integrity.

 

[fury]

Shit.

 

[Justintime]

Don't worry too much man, it should work ok provided you take proper care, just warning you of possible issues.

 

[fury]

Well assuming these contain all the problems listed, what should I do for cables that won't break apart when I pull them out of drives and controllers? Get a serial ATA controller and serial->parallel adapters?

 

[Justintime]

If you can, i love this SATA, its not faster (with normal ide drives) but it sure takes up alot less space

 

[Mirlyn]

If you can, i love this SATA, its not faster (with normal ide drives) but it sure takes up alot less space

I was thinking about doing that....what do the adapters run? I was looking at getting the Abit nForce board for that reason (came with SATA->ATA adapters) but settled for the Asus (no adapters). Not for speed....I'll buy an SATA drive when the newer revisions come out (faster).

Any thoughts/ideas on the adapter? I can't seem to find anything on Newegg's site, and Pricewatch seems to be overly generic in its results.

 

[fury]

GIYF

Google is your friend

 

[fury]

Google is your friend, part 2

 

[fury]

Google is your friend, part 3

Some of these are quite expensive, but with SATA being so relatively new, there aren't many, if any, reviews out for a serial->parallel adapter so it's hard to tell you which one to get. Maybe they're like network cards and an adapter is just like every other adapter.

 

[Mirlyn]

Wonder how long it'll take until a known-good vendor will carry them

 

[fury]

Well, I'm having a pretty good experience with SIIG so far, their RAID card works pretty well on my main computer. They have pretty good support too.

 

[Mirlyn]

I've had good luck with SIIG as well....but I think I'll wait until the price drops. $30 isn't worth it to me (yet). My temps aren't a problem, so the advantage seems to be novelty only.