How many cables do I need?

[jch216]

I want to replace all of the ugly, flat air restricting cables in the pc that I am building. I haven't gotten the components yet so I need to know how many, what kind, and what size I need to get to replace the ones that I haven't gotten yet.

Here's the page where I'm looking at cables:

http://store.yahoo.com/svcompucycle/roundrivcab.html


And this is the pc that I am building:

Abit NF7-S Mobo
ABIT GEFORCE 4 Ti4200-8X Ti 4200 128MB video card
AMD Barton 2500+ processor
40gig Western Digital HDD w/8meg cache
lite-on cd/rw
lite-on dvd/rom
KINGSTON 512MB 32x64 PC2700 DDR RAM
WORKS 430watt PSU
56k Modem
Win XP


Any idea which cables and how many that I would need? This is my first build, so I have no clue.

well you need one for the hdd and one for the two optical drives as for how long thats hard to say because we don't know the size of your case and pos of your mobo in aspect to your drives oh and don't forget the floppy. And you wanna buy colors that cordinate with your case and lights and what not.

[jch216]

Oh, chieftec dragon case.

Do I really need a floppy?


Here are the options on that page:


ATA 100/133, Floppy, and SCSI Round Cables

Which should I be looking at?

[robin801]

you need 2 ata 100/133 cables.

and if you have a floppy drive you will need 1 floppy cable.

you do not need any scsi round cables.

i have the 18" size. i also have a chieftec case.

robin

Unless your mobo has SCSI RAID on board (which I severely doubt ), you will need ATA 100/133 cables for the HDD and optical drives (CD/DVD's). You will need at leas two ATA cables (as you have three devices, and cables only take 2 devices each).

And if you use a floppy, a single rounded floppy cable as well.

The other thing you may consider is some cable "wraps" for your power cables (ie the cables that come ut of your power supply), if it doesn't already have them wrapped. Looks neater.

Cheers
Mick

edit: unless your board has SATA connectors - then you could use SATA cables and adapters for the drives. I'll have a quick look at specs for your mobo.

OK. That mobo has 2 Serial ATA connectors. The cables for SATA are very thin (much thinner that rounded ATA 100/133 cables), and would be your best bet for both neatness and air flow.

So, I'd suggest looking at SATA connectors for your IDE devices.

Something like this (BTW, that's not a recommendation to buy form that place - they just had a nice pic. ).

Not sure if optical drives cabn be run on SATA yet - you'll need to check that out. edit:Looks like it depends on converter you get - this one works with CD-ROM's, etc. Check before you buy!

Cheers
Mick

[jerrygarcia]

I bought mine from Here.


Here is an old pic of my case.

[jch216]

lol, I'm sorry Mick. You lost me at "hello".

So I need 2 ATA cables....and what's all this about SATA cables?

Serial ATA (SATA for short). It's a newish interface that is replacing IDE/ATA.

Cables are thinner and neater than ribbon IDE/ATA cables.

The only catch is that you need a converter to attach an IDE/ATA device to a SATA connector. They arer about US$20 each ATM. AND you need a SATA cable (abou tUS$5 each).

And as I said above, check if the converter will work for CD/DVD drives. Some only work for HDD's.

Won't work for floppy, though, AFAIK.

Hope this helps

Cheers
Mick

[jch216]

lol, I just saw your first post Mick. No wonder I was lost! Ok I see what your saying.

I'll probably just stick with regular cables for now. My mother board may come with a converter...one i think.

So I'll just need one cable for the HDD, and 1 cable with a slave connecter (optical drives). Don't think I'll fet a floppy. I haven't used the one I have now in 3 years.

Thanks!