Introduction
Rounded cables you gotta love em. The increase the airflow and look damn cool. When I got this round IDE cable I had no idea that it was �ultra violet� (UV) reactive, but discovered its nature when the Bigman himself told me. UV cables appear to glow when placed under an ultra violet light source, a high quality UV light will emit little visible light, thus the cable will appear to glow. I didn�t recognise that the cable was UV reactive as the clear flexible plastic covering the cable is very clear. Which gives a nice effect when the computer is turned on. The little wires in the cable are multi coloured except for ever other wire which is white, this wire is a ground wire to reduce interference.
About Xpcases:
Check out their site at www.xpcases.com
Specifications on the product:
* Glows when placed next to UV Light
* Increases Airflow in your PC Case
* Stronger and more Durable than standard Ribbon Cable
* Looks clean and neat inside your PC Case
* Pull Tab for easy detachment
* Comes in many different colors
* ATA 100/133 Device Connectivity
* System Board, Primary and Slave Connectors clearly marked on Pull Tab
* Total Length: 10″
The product:
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I was suppressed by how flexible the cable was, I was worried that with 80 little wires running through it, surrounded by metallic chrome brading that the cable would be as flexable as a concrete slab, but you can bend it in any direction without any effort. This makes fitting it around the oversized graphics cards of today a breeze. The tabs which note what pug fits into what socket are extremely useful for removing the cable from drive or motherboard. Without these �tabs� the current method of removing IDE cables should be to pull the plug out, but this is very difficult so most of us resort to pulling on the ribbon/cable, but this can be dangerous.
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After playing for hours with my UV cold cathode, I did notice that a piece of plain printer paper gave off a brighter blow then the rounded cable, but the paper isn�t transparent. I removed my old flat ribbon style IDE cable and inserted the round one, the insides of my computer instantly looked neater although with all the loose wires its not the neatest case in the world.
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I connected the one side to my motherboard and the other to my 40gb matxor 72,000rpm hard drive. Switched on the computer and it started first time. Before I change my old ATA133 80 conductor cable I ran sisoft SANDRA�s �file system� benchmark, the result before the change of cable can be seen on the right and the result after can be seen on the left, the rounded cable increased the speed of the result by 200kb which really isn�t a great change and cannot really be counted as significant.
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Conclusion
I really liked this cable, it was flexible, neat, fast and looked excellent, everything anyone could want from a rounded IDE cable and the UV reactive side of the cable was great, my preferred style. The glow could have been brighter but still this cable deserves 5 stars.
Pros:
+ Excellent price
+ Fast
+ Flexable
+ Looks Great
+ Pull tags
Cons:
- UV glow could be a bit brighter
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