external HD case questions

[ribitch]

I bought the firewire 40GB HD i listed in got|deals, and opened the sucker up. Inside is a IBM GX120 40 GB 7200 RPM deathstar. Its attached to the oxford 911 chipset by a short 40 pin IDE cable.

I have a macally firewire enclosure with a short 80 pin cable, and this one only uses a 40 pin cable. the drive is very fast as it is, but if switching to a 80 pin cable will give me a performance boost, then i will do it.

so, how fast (ataXX) of a drive will be utilized by the oxford chipset? I know i have a link to this information someplace in my favorites menu, but i am too lazy to look.

heres a pic of the guts:

http://www.ribitch.com/images/fiirewire.jpg

[skynet]

To my knowledge, having the 80pin over the 40pin won't exactly give you a performace boost, however, having 80pins gives you more electrical conductivity, I can't think of the word right now, but it makes for less interferance. So the 80 is better than the 40, but won't make the drive run better than the drive can.

[irwin]

I give it 3 weeks before ribitch replies to this thread saying that his hdd died. :hihi:

[Bires]

I did something similar about three years ago. It wasn't a ATA33 vs ATA66 ot 100 issue, but I did try to put a different device in the enclosure. It didn't work because the (USB) drivers expected a device with different settings. Although I doubt changing the 40 pin cable for an 80 will change anything, you could prolly get away with it and test it in Sandra or with HDTach (for...mac?)

But...where would you get a 80-pin cable that small?

[seqiro]

Well I found this link (http://www.fwdepot.com/911.html) that indicates that the chipset supports DMA 0 through DMA 5, so I would think that changing the ribbon to an 80 wire could help, since anything above DMA 2 requires it.

[skynet]

"But...where would you get a 80-pin cable that small?"

You can easily take the ends off of any IDE cable and shorten them. Just takes patience and control. I once made and IDE cable into a parralell cable, just took the ends off of each and combined them, I had a diagram though telling me which pin corresponds to which.l

[ribitch]

thanks for the info. i will try it out to see what works. The drive already puts in great numbers, but i will try to find/make a shorter cable

the drive itself is the 120 series, not the 60/75 series. I believe th eissues with the eathstars was with the 60 & 75 series.

i am tempted to buy another one for teh case and ebay the drive.

[ribitch]

buy

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=I394U-1000&sourceid=00391004455947836596

for only $9 w/ coupon code XB-42A, regular $15. Exp 12/31

[bachviet]

Originally posted by ribitch
buy

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=I394U-1000&sourceid=00391004455947836596

for only $9 w/ coupon code XB-42A, regular $15. Exp 12/31
Good deal on the card! I got the Adaptec Firewire card yesterday from CompUSA but it costs $30 after MIR. Time for me to return the card and get the one from www.compgeeks.com.