I was contemplating swapping the ghetto IDE cable (ATA66) that comes in the Xbox for an Ultra ATA133 round cable. For those of you who didn't catch my other thread, I was concerned about the 18" round cable fitting. Well, after removing the boots on each connector, it fit just fine. I would say that 18" is perfect. If you went with a 24" or more, I think you would have a hard time stuffing it all in. 18" gives you just enough play and the extra can be tucked away behind the DVD drive just fine.

As for looks, it looks about 10x better than the ribbon cable that came with it. I was mainly looking for something that would look better under my windows and clear jewel and it completes that task just fine.

As for performance, it takes about 1/4 the time it seems to load from the HDD. I didn't take any times or anything but seat of my pants tests tell my that a 25% in increase in access time wouldn't be over estimating at all. I haven't had a chance to run a game or DVD in the DVD drive to test that, but I don't really use it that often anyway so this is of no consequence to me one way or the other.

In closing, this was one of the quickest, easiest, least expensive mods I have done yet and is worth every penny spent. I would recommend it to anyone who is not above voiding the warranty by opening their box... drop one of these in. You will not be disappointed.

http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/sleep.gif

They also made a video game and computer fourm. People talk about there xbox's in there, you might get a beter response. http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

Skibo said:
They also made a video game and computer fourm. People talk about there xbox's in there, you might get a beter response. http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif



Yeah, just like the post I made there about Small Business Server 2k3 that has had no responses? That forum sucks becuase nobody visits it.

Jer said:

Skibo said:
They also made a video game and computer fourm. People talk about there xbox's in there, you might get a beter response. http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif



Yeah, just like the post I made there about Small Business Server 2k3 that has had no responses? That forum sucks becuase nobody visits it.


Are you saying you have an improvement in performance from a cable swap? http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/wtf.gif

Scott said:

Jer said:

Skibo said:
They also made a video game and computer fourm. People talk about there xbox's in there, you might get a beter response. http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif



Yeah, just like the post I made there about Small Business Server 2k3 that has had no responses? That forum sucks becuase nobody visits it.


Are you saying you have an improvement in performance from a cable swap? http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/wtf.gif


You can get better performance if the hard drive is a true ata133 compatible drive if the drive is only a ata66 drive then it'll still run at ata66 so you'd have to know the drives ata speed and adjust for performance that way.

On the computer forum comment...well if you post in the ag forum and not in the computer and video games forum of course there isn't going to be a response...since no one is posting there, help create more traffic http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/idea.gif...I would have answered your server 2k question but I don't know the answer to it...so ohh well normally I answer most of the questions in there.

Even if you got an ATA133 cable it would do no good. The xbox "motherboard" ata bus speed is a 66, not 133. I have a modchip and 120gig harddrive installed, and there was no improved performance by adding the ata133 ribbon. The bus can't support it.

For everyone who doesn't believe me:

http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Mods/xbox_ata100_cable_benchmark.htm

go with the stainless steel cable mods on the joysticks, man! way better responsiveness on the controls

Jer said:

Skibo said:
They also made a video game and computer fourm. People talk about there xbox's in there, you might get a beter response. http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif



Yeah, just like the post I made there about Small Business Server 2k3 that has had no responses? That forum sucks becuase nobody visits it.


Looks like it made the jump to the computer forum after all... http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

You've got 7 replies to your server question now. Can't comment on this one since I don't have an Xbox (PS2 myself), but I do have the 18" and 24" round cables (red) in my PC. Love the cables.

Yanno, if you have 'really technical' questions, there was a computer forum I used to hang at last winter (lotsa nerds, but in a way, it's similar to the enthusiasm of this place, just computers instead of motorcycles) at Extreme Tech. It's a good forum, just that I haven't been there in awhile. Used to help out when I could in the tech sections.

Extreme Tech clicky (http://www.extremetech.com/)

Rob