ide cable length question

[artificialj]

Ok, so whenever I try to google the answer to this, I get a lot of conflicting answers.

Question is: Is there really a problem with extra long ide cables? Whenever I try to find an answer, there are people who swear that you can't go past 18", or 24", or 36", but where is the true limit of functionality?

Thanks

 

[defakto]

It's one of those your milage may vary tyep situations, i've used 24 inch cables before without a problem, but friends of mine had issues with them.

 

[DougLite]

The official spec is 18." This spec can be reliably exceeded if you purchase high quality cables. Beware of cheap longer cables though. Be sure to carefully examine your setup with longer PATA cables and make sure you are not experiencing bizarre problems like dropping to PIO mode, etc. Use SATA if possible for runs over 18."

 

[artificialj]

What would the results be if i used ribbon cables with a heavier wire gauge?

 

[tdg]

Heavier gauge wire may help if you're going to go over the 18" IDE spec since it should have lower resistance, but the best thing to do is use the shortest cable possible. I've had problems on a few machines with the long cables, and it's more up to the controllers on the motherboard and hard drives to be able to run long lenghts then the cables themselves from my experience. Also rounded cables tend to present more of a problem because IDE was never meant to have all of the wires bundled together as it can cause interference, which worsens over long runs.