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General discussion

Are there different speeds for IDE -EIDE?

Oct 27, 2004 3:59PM PDT

I had to grab a IDE cable from an old computer i have,like very old,looks like it was from the very early 90's.The computer i put it in is a 2.2 ghz Amd Athlon XP,and i have a 80 gb hard drive with a 8 mb buffer on it.I am using the older ide cable for my hard drive,but my computer does not seem to run at it's full potential.Even my cd-rom which is a 52X only seems to go the speed of my 24X cd-rom.Should i get another IDE cable,i thought they all went the same speed or so?

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Re: Are there different speeds for IDE -EIDE?
Oct 27, 2004 11:10PM PDT

I suspect what you have done is to install an old 40 conducter ide cable.

When the bios sees that cable it slows the ide port speed to udma 2.

You should be able to verify this by looking around in the bios.

If the speed is set to udma 2 then what you need are some 80 conducter cables.

Get the round ones---their PRETTY.

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That drive requires the use of the
Oct 27, 2004 11:11PM PDT

80 conductor IDE cable. [still a forty pin connector but 40 extra ground wires.

Of course, if the mobo's controller doesn't support the higher data rate the cable won't help. Usually if the controller supported the faster rate you would get a message saying that you don't have the proper cable.

However, the 80 conductors are better for any version of computer. It is a lower noise design which gives more margin against noise and crosstalk.

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Didn't answer the subject line
Oct 27, 2004 11:17PM PDT

Thre are four speeds. the basic 33, then the 66, then 100 then 133. Put an ATA in front of them.