Re: RAID questions...

[J Moore <jaymo@cullmail.com>]

On Tue, Jan 04, 2005 at 04:49:20PM -0600, the unit calling itself Breen Ouellette wrote:
> J Moore wrote:
> 
> >In general this is not true. 
> >
> >There are junk round cables just as there are junk flat cables. If you 
> >use round cables, buy them from a reputable mfr, buy from a mfr that has 
> >test results published somewhere.
> >
> >Jay
> > 
> >
> Rounded cables fly in face of spec. The extra 40 conductors that were 
> added to IDE cables are there to prevent transmission errors across the 
> cable. When you shred them up in the way that round cables are made, you 
> undermine the very reason for having 80 conductors in the cable - data 
> integrity at higher transfer rates.
> 
> In my experience, most OpenBSD users don't like to go against spec, 
> especially when it undermines a mechanism which is in place to protect 
> from data errors. If you don't care about data integrity (and there are 
> people on here who would argue that you don't because you use IDE, but 
> we'll forget about that for the time being), then by all means continue 
> to use cables which are out of spec.
> 
> In my experience, flat cables can be used in a manner which impedes 
> airflow on a similar level to rounded cables. The difference is that it 
> takes a little more time, care, and thought to do it right with flat cables.

All your red herrings aside, Breen the fact remains that people can and 
do get very good, reliable performance from round IDE cables.

Jay