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Avon · Oct 7, 2002, 07:55 PM

I have an apple DVD drive I want to put into an external old school apple cd 300 enclosure. All I have to do is drop it in and yank the scsi connectors. My question is... How long can an IDE cable be????

Thanks...

Paul S · Oct 8, 2002, 08:54 AM

I've seen up to 36 inches. I don't know that this is a limit, but just the longest I've seen in catalogs, etc.

tooki · Oct 9, 2002, 02:56 PM

The IDE specification specifies an 18" maximum, but it is easy to get cables that exceed this. I've never seen a 24" cable cause problems, I've never tried a 36" so I can't say about those.

What I would recommend is that, even if it's only for ATA/33 or slower, to buy high quality 80-wire cable.

tooki

tooki · Oct 9, 2002, 03:10 PM

P.S. so yeah, for a DVD drive, you could probably get away with using an 80-wire 36" cable, but doing that externally is one hell of a hack that I would not at all recommend.

I don't blame you for wanting to use that wonderful Apple case. Those are so nice! So, instead of running a naked cable, use this little gadget from Miglia.

tooki

Avon · Oct 9, 2002, 10:25 PM

Originally posted by tooki:
P.S. so yeah, for a DVD drive, you could probably get away with using an 80-wire 36" cable, but doing that externally is one hell of a hack that I would not at all recommend.

I don't blame you for wanting to use that wonderful Apple case. Those are so nice! So, instead of running a naked cable, use this little gadget from Miglia.

tooki

Wow. Thanks for the info. This is exactly what I am going to do. I was looking for a way to avoid an ugly aftermarket enclosure. Now I can have firewire in an old school case. Retro....

Thanks.