# [info] Don't use round cables

## veggie2u

I am sure that many people could write here that their systems use round cables and work just fine, but I just want to warn people that round cables COULD be a bad idea. I was building a fileserver, and thought that round cables would be a good idea cooling wise with 5+ drives in one case. Turns out, not a good idea.

I originaly posted here  trying to figure out how to use and interpret drive tools, but the the real issue was this :

```
hde: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }

hde: dma_intr: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }

ide: failed opcode was: unknown 
```

I ran hdparm and smartctl without seeing problems.

After this, I decided to pull drives, cards, cables and go back to minimum hardware. After adding things back in, I still get the error using a round cable, but don't with a standard ribbon cable. Maybe they are cheap cables. I don't know.

I also found this where others with round cables had the exact same issue, but it went away replacing the cable.

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## frostschutz

I simply don't have room for inflexible flat IDE cables. So I am using two 90cm round cables for IDE. However, these cables are of very high quality. They work without any problems for years now, despite the specification allowing only flat cables and a maximum length of 60cm. I also got another pair of round cables that came with my motherboard; these were really cheaply made (the plastic mantle came off and everything), but they worked as well (maybe because there were considerably shorter).

I think using round cables is not that much of an issue. It doesn't matter either way since IDE is already being replaced by SATA. However, there are dangers when buying cables in general... many of them are just cheaply made. This doesn't mean that cheap cables are always bad; there are very good cables that are cheap, and very expensive cables that are just produced to take money out of a dummy user's pocket.

Don't buy in a computer apothecary; rather go to a dealer who only sells stuff that is known to work well, and is willing to back his words with a money-back guarantee. I got my cables from a shop which specializes on electronics and cables, who sells at very fair prices, and never had any issues.

Whereas in a computer apothecary all you get is the l33t stuff for l33t people, like triple shielded cables for 40$ each, which use such cheap cables on the inside -- since it's shielded, you can't see what's going on in there, besides such slight glitches in data transmission are hidden from Windows users anyway -- that they just won't meet your requirements.

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## Robelix

Dont't blame them because they are round, blame them because they are bad.

I had so far only good experiences with round cables, and a lot of troubles with flat cables, even with new ones.

Simply get good cables (round or flat) but stay away from the fancy looking stuff. They are designed to look cool, but often not to work.

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## Naib

more then likely it is because the ones you have are unscreened.

if they are round or flat are meaningless, however screening is essential

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## veggie2u

Anyone care to post where they buy quality cables? I don't think I have ever had trouble with the flat cables I get with motherboards or drives, and I don't think that I have heard from many people that have had drive errors due to bad flat cables. I will concede that it is possible to have bad flat cables and great round cables, so it would be interresting to see numbers on flat vs round cables and issues vs price. I never see people posting reviews of cables, so how do you suggest figuring out what is good vs bad.

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## adsmith

Another thing people frequently ignore is the max length spec for IDE/ATA cables.  

IDE cables, espescially those fancy 80-wire ones, should never be more than 18 inches.  However, for a big chasis, it's easy to go buy  3 foot cables.  BAD IDEA.

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## Cintra

 *veggie2u wrote:*   

> Anyone care to post where they buy quality cables? I don't think I have ever had trouble with the flat cables I get with motherboards or drives, and I don't think that I have heard from many people that have had drive errors due to bad flat cables. I will concede that it is possible to have bad flat cables and great round cables, so it would be interresting to see numbers on flat vs round cables and issues vs price. I never see people posting reviews of cables, so how do you suggest figuring out what is good vs bad.

 the trouble with the flat cables is that your transfer results will probably be a LOT worse - have you run this lately..

```
#  hdparm -tT /dev/hdx
```

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## KiberGus

Firstly IDE cables har 40 wires, but with increasing data transfer speed noise was growing, so cables with 80 wires were made. Every second wire is ground and screens one wire from others. In round cables wires are gripped together. In my cables (the are round) ground wires look lilke a spiral which rounds normal wire and this works.

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## ohyeah1942

 *Cintra wrote:*   

>  *veggie2u wrote:*   Anyone care to post where they buy quality cables? I don't think I have ever had trouble with the flat cables I get with motherboards or drives, and I don't think that I have heard from many people that have had drive errors due to bad flat cables. I will concede that it is possible to have bad flat cables and great round cables, so it would be interresting to see numbers on flat vs round cables and issues vs price. I never see people posting reviews of cables, so how do you suggest figuring out what is good vs bad. the trouble with the flat cables is that your transfer results will probably be a LOT worse - have you run this lately..
> 
> ```
> #  hdparm -tT /dev/hdx
> ```
> ...

 

what?

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