do they make a 4 drive supported IDE cable?

[thecavemankevin]

i am trying to update my computer and i have 4 CD roms (2 DVD burners, DVD drive and i think the last one is a CD burner..????). However, my mother board only has one IDE connector. now i know i can just buy another card that will allow me to add more drives, but a 4 drive ribbon would just be easier and leave me an open slot.

they do make 3 drive cables like listed below, but if they don't make 4 drive and i have to buy a new card....i'll just use one of the many 2 drive cables i have sitting around and save myself the 20 bux from buying this cable:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=333149&CatId=68

[SlartyBartFast]

I've just gotta ask: Why?

With two DVD burners (and why do you need two of those?) why do you need another DVD drive?

I can understand having a CD-burner and a DVD-burner. If you have both already, it's not worth springing for a combo drive. But I really don't get the need for four drives.

[MarkM]

The cable you linked to will not work for your unit it is a SCSI cable...re-read the description.

An ide controller card is your only way of a work around.

When you say your MB has only one IDE cable do you mean that litrally as if so then you are nailed as you can only add one of your listed rom drives to that so that would still leave you with 3 unconnected units again if this is so why on earth did you buy a MB with only one ide input...as you do say you are upgrading. If you mean you only have one free ide slot unless you have two hard drives hooked up on that you can connect everything as per normal (bar one of the drives) most pcs have 4 units connected to the MB I do, but mine are 2 HD's and 2 rom drives. I do have RAID capability as well but I can't be bothered to use it.

I do echo what SlartyBartFast has said Why? You only need a DVD drive (plays all cd roms as well) and a DVD/Combo burner.

[thecavemankevin]

my board is the board that came with my dell that now really no longer resembles it's orriginal form. when i say only 1 ide slot i mean that it only has one ide slot for the cd drives, 1 ide slot for the hard drives, and one for the 3.5 floppy drive.

as for the why do you need 4 cd drives....meh cause i have them...??? I bought one DVD-R burner a few months back used here on AO for real cheap. The other DVD burner i just bought because it does both +/- R and i can get +R discs cheaper than -R. Not to mention it is faster than the other DVD burner and was relatively inexpensive.

The other two drives....well the CD burner came with the computer when i bought it from Dell, and the DVD rom is my original rom from my last computer. So while it may be a little out dated....it still works great. Not to mention my new case can handle 4 drives.

Plus i do play a bunch of games on my computer and often switch back and forth....with this many drive i wont have to pull one CD out and put another one in quite as often as before!

Thanx for the help mark, your right i didn't look at it ver closely.

[spantol]

A single IDE controller can support only two devices. This is why you're having so much trouble finding a suitable cable.

[Ironmag]

Plus i do play a bunch of games on my computer and often switch back and forth....with this many drive i wont have to pull one CD out and put another one in quite as often as before!

Damn dude, that's lazy. And I thought I was lazy. My computer case also has room for 4 drives but I only have 2 put in. I got a pci ide controller put in on my comp so that I can have several HD's in there. My current setup is IDE-1: Boot HD, Zip 250; IDE-2: DVD+/-RW, CD-RW. PCI IDE-1:HD. Using a controller card is your only option if you want to go with 4 drives. The way I see it is to use the other 2 drive bays for a SB Audigy controller and maybe an fan controller or temperature control system. That's what I've seen in other comps with the 4 drive bay setup.
FYI, the floppy drive uses a different type of ide connection, it is smaller.

[Miscue]

There are multi-headed IDE cables - 5, 7 head... etc. But these are for when you have drives far apart, and then you use which heads will reach - useful in full towers.

2 drives maximum per cable, like was mentioned. Otherwise you need another IDE controller.

[Darken Sun]

make your own IDE cables with a switch
I hope you're not too lazy to flip a switch

[kdawg]

A single IDE controller can support only two devices. This is why you're having so much trouble finding a suitable cable.

That is the problem right there. Your motherboard only has 2 IDE slots. Each of these can support 2 drives. Therefore, you can connect the HD and a CD/DVD drive on the one, then 2 other devices on the other. If you want to run more than 4 ide devices, you will need another controller card which has already been mentioned.

[thecavemankevin]

make your own IDE cables with a switch
I hope you're not too lazy to flip a switch

very interesting...but all in all...i think it will just be easier and far less hassle to get a new controller card

thanx guys for all your help

oh and if you know of a decent mother board made by ATX for intel chips let me know

[Gunga]

oh and if you know of a decent mother board made by ATX for intel chips let me know

Uhm...ATX is a motherboard layout standard, not a manufacturer. Some reputable motherboard manufacturers are
Abit , ASUS , and MSI .

If you're planning to put a new motherboard in your Dell case, unless they've changed things, you won't be able to hook it up, so you'll need to buy a new case as well. Dell uses an 'all in one' connector to the motherboard for the case power/reset/HDD LED/etc stuff since they use custom mobos. Your standard motherboard & case combo use separate leads for power/reset/etc.

[Darken Sun]

s478 GIGABYTE mobos I know GIGABYTE makes good Athlon 64 boards, and I've heard nothing but good about their Intel boards. Oh, and I would advise against ASUS. Very bad experience with them

[thecavemankevin]

Uhm...ATX is a motherboard layout standard, not a manufacturer. Some reputable motherboard manufacturers are
Abit , ASUS , and MSI .

If you're planning to put a new motherboard in your Dell case, unless they've changed things, you won't be able to hook it up, so you'll need to buy a new case as well. Dell uses an 'all in one' connector to the motherboard for the case power/reset/HDD LED/etc stuff since they use custom mobos. Your standard motherboard & case combo use separate leads for power/reset/etc.

thats what i mean

i actually have a new case, and thats what started all this searching and learning in the first place. i had three CD drives at the time and was looking at new cases on ebay with a friend and found one that i really liked for rather cheap....i couldn't resist.

thanx for all the help guys