Rounding IDE cables

[kayden azagthoth]

Does anyone have any experience with rounding their ribbon IDE cables by hand? I've been reading a lot about CAREFULLY slicing and seperating the wires and binding them together with ties or electrical tape. I'm thinking about doing it for more cooling and making the insides of my case neater looking.

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And all you touch and all you see, is all your life will ever be.

-Pink Floyd

[YODA74]

I Think pete explained this once here i believe you got to be real careful and not to cut the caseing on the strands themselves it is kind of teedios so make sure you have good patients or your in a real good moode. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Treading,Troden,Trails
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[ranchdog]

kayden....

Yes.... And it's waaaayy to much work. Trying to get the ribbon cables wrapped was the biggest problem.

A complete set of rounded ribbon cables can be picked up for about $35 bucks. They come in yellow, red, blue, etc. Neat as canned peaches. They use like a shrink tube material for covering.

Functional and help the airflow situation.

Got mine at www.pcnut.com (http://www.pcnut.com) .

How ya getting along with the new PC?

Luck.

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......Indecision may or may not be my problem......
...... Kickin' A Rock....

[This message has been edited by ranchdog (edited 11-27-2001).]

[mjc]

Here's another source...www.cableconn.com (http://www.cableconn.com/).

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[kayden azagthoth]

Well, I think I might give it a go for the hell of it. I have lots of patience and if I mess one up, I'll go for the already rounded ones! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

As for my new computer, it seems to be running well, but I'm not sure. It doesn't seem as fast as I thought it would be. I've also been getting the occassional freeze up while playing games. Now, the freeze up can be fixed my doing the three finger salute and ending the task. Could it be a heat issue? I doubt it though because I have a great heatsink/fan combo and 3 extra case fans + my ps fan. I'm wondering if it's something in the BIOS that I might have fubar'ed up. I'm not even sure if I set the clock speed or anything like that right...truthfully, I'm not sure where to look. I just went with the basic defaults that the BIOS set up and went from there. It could be my Soundcard drivers need to be updated...I don't know. I'm grasping for straws.

Basically I don't know if she's up to speed and why the periodic freezing.

Any ideas?

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And all you touch and all you see, is all your life will ever be.

-Pink Floyd

[rond36]

Go here (http://www.virtual-hideout.net/guides/rc/index.shtml) you can find instructions for that and alot more. I thought I gave you that URL to find a fan bus. Look in the tutorials and how tos

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Alright who messed it up this time!



[This message has been edited by rond36 (edited 11-27-2001).]

[fixrupr]

Hand rounding ATA 33 and floppy cables is easy. Not so for the ATA100. So have some spares upon which to practice. I do it all the time and it takes maybe a half hour per. I have a box of failures, but by using them, learned that you can even move the connectors to other locations, shorten cables, etc (black & gray can be swapped). The aforementioned sites are good, though for ATA100 it should be called “squaring” cause ya separate them into strips 4-5 wires wide, and stack em up. But, ya don’t really slice the cable because inevitably ya hit the conductor. Separation is done via repeatedly running sharp pointy tool (backwards X-acto or scriber) in the grooves.
Continuously taping bundles makes cables stiff so I kinda tie-wire them every 2-3 inches with 1/4" wide black tape.
These are better than pre-mades because of flexibility.
Will reaffirm others advice to be very patient, and LOL!

fixrupr

[fixrupr]

OOOOOOOOH!
I just reread your post and you said that you left bios settings on default. That means (at least in my athalon system) that cpu is running at about 50%. Check your paperwork and see if it gives correct settings for cpu. If not, the real geeks will walk you through the process. It's a little scary foolin around in bios the first time, but after that it's no big deal.

[Paleo Pete]

Yes, I posted instructions for this a while back. I split the cables on every computer I build mainly for neatness and increased airflow. I haven't tried it with 80 wire ATA 100 cables, those things look awful thin and so far I've been chicken, but one day I'll tackle one.

I use telephone wire to hold them together, it's small diameter and holds well, a 6" piece will wrap the cable and stay put pretty well. (The individual inner wires, not the 1/4" cable...) Tie wraps or electrical tape will work well too. As noted above, be prepared to scrap a few cables learning how, I think I have about a dozen junkers around here as reminders...

It takes about 2-3 minutes with a 40 wire cable, and I only bother with the long section, usually the shorter section between two drives is ok left flat. It's the longer section that is routed through the case in the way of airflow, and is often difficult to get around when you try to route other cables, install memory or set jumpers later, if necessary. (ie upgrading CPU or clearing CMOS.) In most cases I don't have to remove cables to get to the insides, just move them over at most. They move lots easier too...

The airflow issue is debatable, but it definitely makes the inside look neater...also makes it obvious you put some effort into it.

Just BE CAREFUL! And check very closely for nicks in the insulation.

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[BigBlue66]

Howdy,

Tweaking the BIOS for CPU settings depends on what is available in your particular BIOS. Some of them only let you set the FSB of the memory and nothing else. Others get more extravagent and let you set voltage, multiplier and FSB for both memory and CPU. Or, maybe you have jumpers on the motherboard? Read your manual. Let us know what options you have to play with.

OR, your BIOS may have something called "Optimal" or "Default" and then "Performance" or something like that. Choose to load the performance values and see what happens. Those settings are generally pretty taxing on the system, so if you have problems, reset to fail safe defaults and post here what BIOS tweaks you have.

Cheers,

Big Blue 66


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Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.
- Pamela Vault Starr

[ranchdog]

As Blue referred to... Set your CMOS(BIOS) at optimum, save and exit.

That MSI board can take it.

Occasional freeze while playing games should be a driver issue. Unless the RAM isn't hummin'.

When you first boot-up and the memory count is posting - right above it you should be able to read your CPU information. Might have to use the pause button to hold it.

Can always go to somewhere like www.bootdisk.com (http://www.bootdisk.com) and download CPUID. It'll give you your clock speed etc. etc.

Luck.



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......Indecision may or may not be my problem......
...... Kickin' A Rock....

[kayden azagthoth]

Thanks for the replies guys! (Better late than never, eh? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif)

I downloaded Si Soft Sandra to get it to diagnose my computer. It gave me a warning that my FSB is set to high for the cpu clock speed...or something like that. I don't know how much I trust Sandra.

I'll give my BIOS a tweak now and write some stuff down. I'll let you know how it goes. I do believe that I have a performance setting in my BIOS, so I'll put 'er there and see how it works. Other than that, I'll make notes and relpy either later tonight or tomorrow.

Kayden

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And all you touch and all you see, is all your life will ever be.

-Pink Floyd

[iisbob]

What is your Power supply?; an inadequate or low quality PS will also cause freezes and crashes ( know this from experiance-hope you never here a loud POP! ) With the no# of peripheral's you've got and OCing you systmmay be straining to provide the necessary voltage needed. If you're running less than a 300, you could be in for a catastrophic failure. I'drecommend going for a 400 minimum. Try to get another PS from a known good system and try it, this will help elimninate the PS as your culprit.

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iisbob
""I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know."
Mark Twain