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Round IDE & Floppy Cables
Company: CrazyPC
& OCZ
Product: Round ATA/100 & Floppy Cables
Street Price: ~ $15-$20
Date Reviewed: March 2, 2001
Reviewed By: Jason
Rabel
How Does It Fit?
When I first looked at these cables, I was thinking that there
was no way they would fit well in my mid-tower case. The way I have everything
setup my hard drives are only about 4" away from the connectors on the
motherboard. If you look at the left picture below, you can clearly see the mass
of bundled cables in the center of my case from the hard drives & floppy
drive. I was able to reduce the clutter a little by cutting my floppy cable
shorter; what I did was use the middle connector on the floppy cable to plug
into my motherboard, and I just cut off the rest with a pair of scissors. I did
the same thing for a short run between my motherboard and Zip drive (which is
hidden, but it's directly above the two hard drives).
The picture on the right shows the case after adding in the pair
of round IDE & the floppy cable. Note that I still had that
"short" IDE (ATA/33) cable that went to my Zip drive, and my
"homemade" round cable that goes to my HP CD-RW (very top) & 3rd
hard drive (second from the top). To me there is a lot less clutter caused from
the cables. Even with the IDE cables being so long, I was able to neatly fold
them under my HD's and above the intake fan, so they caused very little air
obstruction. You can barely even see the floppy cable now, it is so thin you can
just wrap it up and tuck away the excess.
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Case Comparison |
| Regular ATA/100 & Floppy |
Round ATA/100 & Round Floppy |
 |
 |
There was no change in case temperature unfortunately, however I
have a quick rundown on the temperatures for you people that like that sort of
thing. The ambient temperature was 76F / 24.4C.
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Case Comparison |
| |
Regular ATA/100 & Floppy |
Round ATA/100 & Round Floppy |
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Idle |
Temp Probe : 86F / 30C
Internal Diode : 86F / 30C
MB Temp : 84F / 28.8C
|
Temp Probe : 86F / 30C
Internal Diode : 86F / 30C
MB Temp : 84F / 28.8C |
|
Full Load |
Temp Probe : 98F / 36.6C
Internal Diode : 104F / 40C
MB Temp : 84F / 28.8C |
Temp Probe : 98F / 36.6C
Internal Diode : 104F / 40C
MB Temp : 84F / 28.8C |
Conclusion:
I was really surprised that these cables fit so well in my
mid-tower case with the hard drives so close to the MB connectors. I think these
cables would really look & function better in a full tower case though, and
with the extra length you wouldn't have to be stretching the cables and / or
re-arranging everything in the drive bays to allow everything to be hooked up.
I wasn't expecting a temperature drop in my system, I have extra
80mm fans on the front (in the plastic shroud), and the the back (below the
power supply), along with two 92mm fans that I mounted on the side panel (that
was removed to take the pictures of the inside of the case). So I have more than
adequate airflow in my little case.
These round cables do reduce the clutter & bunching up that
happens with traditional cables. They also just look darn cool. Joe over at
ProCooling matched
the dye in his water cooled rig to the color of the cables. You can see from
his pic's that he needs all the space he can get in that little case.. hehe...
The only drawback to these cables is the price. They range from
roughly $15 - $20 each. But if you are a die hard tweaker and must have the
coolest things for your case, no price is too much to pay.
A big thanks to CrazyPC
& OCZ for
supplying the cables for the review & the contest!
Pros:
High Quality / Professional Grade
Longer Than Regular Cables
Extremely Flexible
Reduce Case Clutter
Cons:
A Little On The Expensive Side
A Little Too Long For Smaller Cases
Rating:
For The Average User: 5 / 10
For The Extreme Overclocker: 9 / 10
Featured Sponsor:
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So now you have read the review, and are drooling over these
cool cables. How would you like to win a pair for FREE? Head over to the contests
page to find out more!
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