Simple (hopefully) IDE question

[daveleau]

I am putting together a system and ran short on IDE cables. I have one regular one and two cables that have the blue ends signifying ATA66 compatible. I used the regular IDE cable on the hdd but need one for the CD-ROM. Can I use the blue-ended ATA66 cable? Will this hurt my CD-ROM? thanks-Dave

[Susan]

Ultra ATA/66 is 100 percent backwards compatible with both Ultra ATA/33 and DMA, and with existing EIDE/IDE hard drives, CD-ROM drives and host systems.

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Ygor]

The main difference is that each conductor has its own ground sheath to reduce noise. It's possible that could make an improvement in cd sound but I doubt anyone's ears would notice.
Yes, it's completely backwards compatible.

[This message has been edited by Ygor (edited 02-04-2000).]

[Ed_S]

Dave, remind me to send you some regular ones when we get our deal going. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif I've a ton of them & there's no point leaving those better ones in if standard will work. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Ed

[CMonster]

I got one of those blue-end ATA66 cables - cost me neary $20 - and the main difference in my cable is that each pin has 2(two) conductors - one on each side of the pin - no ground/noise reduction sheaths here.