Guys, i heard round cable affects perf, is it true?

Nee help as above! Heard ppl said round cable lose data, is it true? Pls enlighten, thanks!

Unless its very cheap substandard cable then I doubt this is true.
I double that there would be any crosstalk or interference since the cables are fairly close in the standard IDE cable anyway (I assume that its IDE cables that your talking about?)
Plus when its simply between a single of 1 and 0 its quite hard to have that signal confused without serious interference. I'm no expert in this field but I know a lot of the members here use rounded IDE cables and haven't heard of problems from them.

Also, I fold all my cables and as often as I have hooked them up and taken them off and folded and unfolded them I have never had a problem with them, but like Arris said, I would stay with good quality ones, thats why I don't round my own, I would be cutting wire all day, and 80 wire cables get too darn small.

What is the deal with getting rounded cables? I know it helps with cooling, but what are some other advantages of them? It does look nice and all, but are they really worth it?

If y'all have any links I could look at if would be cool! Thanks!!!

Yes, worth it. Increases air flow in the case which is all important now. Besides they look tidy!
Torn I think makes his own, but they are commercially available. I've used cable ties to take up the excess slack on my rig, but rounded is better.

I posted this before in another catagory but I use tie wraps and spiral wrap to keep everything neat and tidy too. I was actually shocked when I took the time to wrap everything and tie it back up, my temp went down and my case looked great inside!!

So basically it's alrite and no prob! Unlike the scary rumors from what i heard that it spoils data that sort of things? Right.

Dont worry about it..Just another rumor floating around. Try to find a good price on them because they can get costly from some prices.

Tnx man!

From the current forums:
Case Neatness

From the old 3ds forums:
Athlon XP Rig - Some discussion of the benefits of rounded cables here
rounded IDE cables?

I'm not too clear on what kind of insulation these rounded cable have and how the wires twisted interact with each other. I presume the difference is negligible. I know that UTP CAT5 for example has 4 pairs of wires, each pair twisted around each other for cancellation effect etc (spring break hehehe already made me forget all my cisco stuff). But we're talking specs of 100 meters here, IDE cables probably run max of 1 or 2 so I don't think it should be a factor at all.

Perhaps the stories stem from some self made ones, as most of us know if you twist it enough it'll break In music class we had to use amp meters to test the patch cords for electric guitars because a section somewhere within the length of the wire was broken - for whatever reason. I'd guess it's because of the long months spending in the bottom of a box somewhere coiled up and twisted wrong, but don't put any money on that.

Here is a nice thing to try for some of you that are hesitant about cutting your IDE cables:

Looks like a pretty neat little trick to me!!!

rounded ide and scsi good for me

I did a few folded and split & taped IDE cables -- worked OK but I onlly was dealing with ATAPI 40 wires.... when I considered the excellent effects on air circulation and cooling, I decided to go whole hog. However, these shaky old hands ain't up to slicing fine enough for 80 wires.

On all my systems [especially undercooled old Dell XPS with NO CASE FAN] I concluded ribbon cables don't make design sense due to air obstruction. So I went to commercial round cables, some are smooth coated [and come in pretty snazzy colors] 80 wires IDE and I also use braid-covered 50 and 68 pin internal SCSI cables. No indication of any crosstalk or similar problems whatsoever. Major reason: CPU and mobo temp drops of between 2 and 6 degrees C with all else equal. Surprisingly enough, some of the best results came with my favorite Addtronics 6896a which has lots of big fans in and out and 2-fan enermax PSU. Minor reason: look very fine and neat.

I like the roundies enough to make that mod the very first I do in starting any new rig or fixing an old one up. Even the newest 'cool' cpu's need to breath and from that standpoint the ribbons are a large leap in the wrong direction. Not sure why roundies aren't standard by now.

my US$.02
croc

Re: rounded ide and scsi good for me

I have to agree with ya Croc..I did this "mod" about 3 months ago and it makes quite a difference when you are working in the case. Ribbon cables obstruct air flow and are ugly looking. The next computer I buy or build will definately have rounded cables as well.

Rounded cables won't lose data any worse than normal cables because hey, a cable is a cable, they're still made from the same thing, just one's compacted more.
So no, you will not experience any more data loss than regular cables. Theoretically, at least...

Its having the strands of cable grouped together in a compacted sleeve that starts these rumours of data loss in the first place. You can experience all sorts of problems with cable but usually when you are trying to pass a signal through them over greater distances. Particularly if there are other strong signals which may interfere with the original.

Crosstalk for example is one type of interference caused when signal frequencies from one line are coupled onto an adjacent line. This may cause the data which is received to be corrupted.
Whereas signal degredation only occurs over distance.
With IDE cables there is no need to worry about the possibility of crosstalk.

I've been thinking about doing this mod, but I'm not exactly sure how to. I mean do I simply cut each individual wire and bunch them all together? Also, I've been checking out our giveaway contest sponsor's website and found some rounded cables. What do you guys think of these:

http://www.azzo.com/test2/cables.html

I'm thinking some yellow rounded cables would look sweet!!! Also, if you guys know of any quick sites I might be able to go to look more into doing the rounded cables deal I would be greatly appreciative if you would post the links for me. Thanks guys and girls!