What's a round cable for?

They are for use on the new ATX-R motherboards. The "R" of course stands for
ROUND. It is a new motherboard to further advance the mod craze that is
happening in the computer world as of late.


;\)




"jm" wrote in message
news:9xGVa.15829$YN5.13755@sccrnsc01...
I keep seeing mobos and little ads for round cables. Is that for ata 133?
I am looking at the ASUS A7V8X-X on newegg and can't find mention of it
even
having ATA 133, but they have an ad next to it for the round cables.
Thanks.

How about the R stands for RAID? :-)


"Evil Homer" wrote in message
news:1059537790.706259@news...
They are for use on the new ATX-R motherboards. The "R" of course stands
for
ROUND. It is a new motherboard to further advance the mod craze that is
happening in the computer world as of late.


;\)




"jm" wrote in message
news:9xGVa.15829$YN5.13755@sccrnsc01...
I keep seeing mobos and little ads for round cables. Is that for ata
133?
I am looking at the ASUS A7V8X-X on newegg and can't find mention of it
even
having ATA 133, but they have an ad next to it for the round cables.
Thanks.

Howdy!

"Olav" olavatwintechdotno wrote in message ...
"jm" wrote:
I keep seeing mobos and little ads for round cables. Is that for ata
133?
I am looking at the ASUS A7V8X-X on newegg and can't find mention of it
even
having ATA 133, but they have an ad next to it for the round cables.
Thanks.


ATA100 interface can only work with drives upto 137GB due to 32 bits
adressing.
ATA133 has 48 bits adressing. If you want to use a larger drive, then you
also
need an ATA133 interface,

Really? *looks at 160G drive on an Ultra-100TX ATA100 controller*

The ATA133 spec calls for LBA-48, but it's a separate spec, and can
be supported independent of ATA-133 clocking.

So, no, it's not "can only work with drives up to 137GB".

RwP

In article 1059537790.706259@news, says...
They are for use on the new ATX-R motherboards. The "R" of course stands for
ROUND.

Oh dear. Go away and learn something please.


--
________________________
Conor Turton

ICQ:31909763
________________________

watch those 'round' cables.....some cheapos are causing undo noise in the
sound system.
"jm" wrote in message
news:9xGVa.15829$YN5.13755@sccrnsc01...
I keep seeing mobos and little ads for round cables. Is that for ata 133?
I am looking at the ASUS A7V8X-X on newegg and can't find mention of it
even
having ATA 133, but they have an ad next to it for the round cables.
Thanks.

May I suggest that you watch some saturday morning cartoons so as to bring a
sense of humor back into your life???


"Conor" wrote in message
...
In article 1059537790.706259@news, says...
They are for use on the new ATX-R motherboards. The "R" of course stands
for
ROUND.

Oh dear. Go away and learn something please.


--
________________________
Conor Turton

ICQ:31909763
________________________

Howdy!

"Olav" olavatwintechdotno wrote in message ...
"Ralph Wade Phillips" wrote:
Howdy!

"Olav" olavatwintechdotno wrote in message ...
"jm" wrote:
I keep seeing mobos and little ads for round cables. Is that for ata
133?
I am looking at the ASUS A7V8X-X on newegg and can't find mention of
it
even
having ATA 133, but they have an ad next to it for the round cables.
Thanks.


ATA100 interface can only work with drives upto 137GB due to 32 bits
adressing.
ATA133 has 48 bits adressing. If you want to use a larger drive, then
you
also
need an ATA133 interface,

Really? *looks at 160G drive on an Ultra-100TX ATA100
controller*

The ATA133 spec calls for LBA-48, but it's a separate spec, and
can
be supported independent of ATA-133 clocking.

Interesting.
I replaced my Ultra100 with an Ultra133 when I moved to 250GBs.
Does that mean I didn't have to, and can put it back to use in another PC?

Might need to update the BIOS - I did, but if you'll check the
update DOES support LBA-48.

Also the drivers.

Matter of fact, since I don't boot on the card I've not yet updated
the BIOS, but I !HAVE! updated the drivers. 2K finds the drives just fine
....

RwP

"Conor" wrote in message
...

I'm English. We have no sense of humour that we are aware of.

LOL

"jm" wrote:

I keep seeing mobos and little ads for round cables. Is that for ata 133?
I am looking at the ASUS A7V8X-X on newegg and can't find mention of it even
having ATA 133, but they have an ad next to it for the round cables.
Thanks.

A little de-mystifying is in order.
The only key word you haven't used is controller.
What's a round cable for?
The same thing a flat cable is for.
To collect together a bunch of wires.
Or coax cable (a ground and a co-axial wire
with some dielectric in between .

Round vs flat simplified.
In flat cables, a ground wire between signal wires minimizes
cross talk (noise) between the wires (which are very close together.)
As you move from ATA 66 to ATA100 to ATA133, (slow to fastest)
you move from 40 wires to do the job to (many of) 80 wires to do the job.
(Not all wires are signal, and only some may be critical at low speeds.)
So 80 is needed sometimes for ATA 100 and most always for ATA133.

(You can use an ATA133 cable on any of the others)
If you try the other way around, it may not work at all,
or performance may be degraded.
Depends on how smart the controller/hard disk combination is.

The shielding around a round cable (I don't think) helps this at all.
And I've never seen "specs" on any cables sold. Just pretty colors.

For what it's worth..



----- My favorite quote -----
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
- One test is worth ten thousand words -

"mchiper" wrote:
"jm" wrote:

I keep seeing mobos and little ads for round cables.
Is that for ata 133? I am looking at the ASUS A7V8X-X
on newegg and can't find mention of it even having
ATA 133, but they have an ad next to it for the round cables.

Round vs flat simplified.
In flat cables, a ground wire between signal wires minimizes
cross talk (noise) between the wires (which are very close together.)
As you move from ATA 66 to ATA100 to ATA133, (slow to fastest)
you move from 40 wires to do the job to (many of) 80 wires to do the job.
(Not all wires are signal, and only some may be critical at low speeds.)
So 80 is needed sometimes for ATA 100 and most always for ATA133.

(You can use an ATA133 cable on any of the others)
If you try the other way around, it may not work at all,
or performance may be degraded.
Depends on how smart the controller/hard disk combination is.

The shielding around a round cable (I don't think) helps this at all.
And I've never seen "specs" on any cables sold. Just pretty colors.


A good place to start to understand the connector requirements
for ATA vs. Ultra ATA cables is to read the webpages that
start he
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confSig-c.html

For Ultra ATA (133MBps), an 80 conductor cable is required
in which every other conductor is grounded to provide a sort
of shielding for the other 40 conductors (which have the same
configuration as the 40 conductors for the slower ATA speeds).

The "round" ATA133 cables also have 40 grounded conductors,
each one paired and twisted together with one of the "standard"
40 conductors. Some (or all) have a metal braid to act as a
shield to aid in noise isolation. There is no specification by any
standards group for these cables, though, and my guess is that
their noise susceptibility varies widely. My impression is that round
cables are used mostly by gamers because of cooling requirements
of their speedy systems (which are aided by the reduced cross-
sectional area of the cables), because who cares if the Kung Fu
hero has a weird pixel now and then, and because round cables look
cool.

If I were to use round cables, I'd use the shortest ones that would
do the job and I would use the 2-connector versions (instead of the
Y-configurations that have 3 connectors) if only one device were
involved, all to minimize the probability of noise pickup and cross-
talk between signal conductors.


*TimDaniels*