Newbie question - very basic ( cables)

I have a very simple question regarding the cables that came with my
motherboard. The box contains the following:

2X 80-conductor ribbon cable for Ultra DMA 133/100/66 IDE drives
1X 40-conductor IDE cable
1X Ribbon cable for 3.5-inch floppy drive

Obviously the floppy cable is used for the floppy, and I know that the hard
drive gets one of the 80-conductor cables... but what is the 40-conductor
cable for? Do I use that for my optical drive? I thought I would just use
one of the 80-conductor cables for that too.

TIA for clarification,
Al

AU wrote:
I have a very simple question regarding the cables that came with my
motherboard. The box contains the following:

2X 80-conductor ribbon cable for Ultra DMA 133/100/66 IDE drives
1X 40-conductor IDE cable
1X Ribbon cable for 3.5-inch floppy drive

Obviously the floppy cable is used for the floppy, and I know that
the hard drive gets one of the 80-conductor cables... but what is the
40-conductor cable for? Do I use that for my optical drive? I thought
I would just use one of the 80-conductor cables for that too.

TIA for clarification,
Al

The 40 conductor cable is used for ATAPI (optical) drives. The 80 conductor
cable is used for hard drives. You may use an 80 conductor ribbon cable with
optical drives, if you like.

On Tue, 4 May 2004 22:14:12 -0400, "AU" wrote:

I have a very simple question regarding the cables that came with my
motherboard. The box contains the following:

2X 80-conductor ribbon cable for Ultra DMA 133/100/66 IDE drives
1X 40-conductor IDE cable
1X Ribbon cable for 3.5-inch floppy drive

Obviously the floppy cable is used for the floppy, and I know that the hard
drive gets one of the 80-conductor cables... but what is the 40-conductor
cable for? Do I use that for my optical drive? I thought I would just use
one of the 80-conductor cables for that too.

TIA for clarification,
Al


You could use 80 conductor for opticals, but since you have the 40
conductor you might as well use it then have (the 80 conductor cable you
might've used instead) free, available for another use.

Optical drives generally support ATA33, do not benefit from 80-conductor
cable except in an extremely noisey system, not a typical configuration.

"AU" wrote in message
. ..
I have a very simple question regarding the cables that came with my
motherboard. The box contains the following:

2X 80-conductor ribbon cable for Ultra DMA 133/100/66 IDE drives
1X 40-conductor IDE cable
1X Ribbon cable for 3.5-inch floppy drive

Obviously the floppy cable is used for the floppy, and I know that the
hard
drive gets one of the 80-conductor cables... but what is the 40-conductor
cable for? Do I use that for my optical drive? I thought I would just use
one of the 80-conductor cables for that too.

TIA for clarification,
Al

40- and 80-conductor cables have in fact the same number of signal cables,
but with 80-conductor cables, each signal cable is shielded separately,
which ensures better signal transmission (lower risk for interference) at
the higher frequencies involved in ATA66, 100 and 133.