"40 pins" ATA adapter cables for 2.5 PATA?

[BusError]

I'm using a 3.5 to 2.5 ATA cable in my SFF, and linux keeps telling me that it degraded the speed down to ATA/33 because I'm using a "40 pins cable" and not a "80 pins cable"
Well, technicaly it's true, the I'm wondering why it should degrade the performance.. the 80 cables are just the same as the 40 but serves two disks on the same cable (master, slave)

Anyone knows if it's an old-time sort of precaution and could be ignored with modern '40' cables ?

 

[nightmare99]

Well, technicaly it's true, the I'm wondering why it should degrade the performance.. the 80 cables are just the same as the 40 but serves two disks on the same cable (master, slave)

That is not correct the max you can have on a 40 way cable is ATA33, the 80 way cables are not to allow for two drives they have the extra 40 cables seperating the first 40 cables so there is less noise on the bus allowing for faster transfer speeds.

 

[Guardsmon]

I'd buy a IDS to sata converter instead - better speed performance and not very expensive.

 

[BusError]

Well, I have that 160GB PATA disk lying around, and the SATA ports are used by my CF RAID1 array.

So I'll stick to what I have, the speed is not a big problem as it's not the system disk.. It's just slightly nagging

 

[bledd]

are you using a 40pin or 80pin cable?

 

[BusError]

Technicaly it's 40 pins. but I don't see how it can be worse than a 80 pins cable with one disk missing. I understand LVDS pairs more than most, and I know how they work, but IDE/ATA is not like that at all, so a modern 40 pin cable /should/ work as good as a 80 one.

 

[bledd]

doesn't work like that

i threw out all my 40pin cables years ago, just get a hold of an 80pin, even if it's not the main drive, it's worth it

 

[rpstewart]

so a modern 40 pin cable /should/ work as good as a 80 one.

No it won't. A 40 way cable doesn't have pin 34 grounded. If this pin is not grounded the drive and controller will only run to ATA-33 speeds.