Ribbon cables

Built and written by Stein Magnus Jodal
Published 28 November 2000

Following in the trail of my "hardisk rack"-guide a month ago I now bring you another well-used mod. To have something that can be called a system in your cables is important. If the cables are everywhere, they will be in the way for the airflow. That will again cause higher temperature in your case. The worst problem here is the so called ribbon cables, the old ugly floppy, IDE and SCSI cables. Cutting the ribbon cables has thus been a quite normal thing to do afterwards.

In the future, in 12 to 18 months from now, we will probably see HD's with Serial ATA interface. Serial ATA will have thin cables, just like all other cables, and will give much higher transferrates.

This may cause more static electricity in your computer, but we have never experienced any problems.

This is some of my ribbon cables. I have 7 IDE-devices, and I have a max of 12 devices. Things could be messier, but this isn't to nice anyway. It practically kills my airflow.

Make a nice bed for your cable, so you don't destroy your desk	Use a wallpaper knife, or another sharp knife

Now the question is how you will slice it up. Do you want to cut between every wire, or will you group four and four or six and six together? I've cut between every wire at my floppy cable and between every fourth on my ATA33 cable. The floppy cable is a great place to start, because the wires are pretty thick. Unless you are real shaky you'll manage that one without problems, and it will be some practice before going on to ATA66 and SCSI-cables. Now, don't rush and take your time!

Cut 2-3cm with a knife first	Use your fingers to do the rest of the job