Maximum length of ide cable

[simonstevens35]

hi all,
Im thinking of putting my pc tower out the way under my desk, however i use the cd drives a lot. With this in mind, i am going to remove the cd drives from the pc case, and build a wooden enclosure for them to be positioned on the desk. my question is this:what is the maximum length of an ide cable, and does the length effect the performance?

Thanks

 

[edfair]

40 conductor has been extended to about 30" successfully but may not work with what you have. 80 conductor is 18".
Depending on the tolerances of the drives you have, performance may go to pot at any length over 24". All you can do is try.

You could switch to SCSI for your CDs. The interface specs are more lenient for cable length. 36" at least.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[BitFuzzy]

personaly I'd just bend down to use the cd

however, if you are intent on doing this you may want to consider swapping your drive for a USB drive, or you may be able to find an enclosure to turn your IDE device into a USB device

 

[SYAR2003]

Datafab is known for external IDE housings
both with USB and firewire or dual.

 

[micker377]

I agree with BitFuzzy. The sell an enclosure to make IDE hard drives portable (USB), for about $30.00. I suppose they would work for CD. The only problem is proper power for the CD player.

 

[BitFuzzy]

This looks interesting

http://www.neticamall.com/adwords/P_1217.htm

 

[SYAR2003]

How about something like this.

http://www.usb-port.com/uda200.html

Only issue with all cdroms as usb is boot from
cd if the sios don't support it.

 

[BitFuzzy]

Syar2003:

you follwing me?!

actually your link is the same as the one I provided except mines 1/2 the cost

 

[SYAR2003]

Hi again !
Correction:
Only issue with all cdroms as usb is boot from
cd if the biosdon't support it.

I agree Bitfuzzy this converter would make it possible
with the length and the wooden case .
And i guess the one you found isn't that expensive either.
Only that the cable looks a little short.

 

[BitFuzzy]

syar2003:

Yea it does, but a simple 6.00 usb extension cable should fix that