Antec Cobra IDE and Floppy Cables review
Antec recently launched their own line of rounded cables, the Antec Cobra Cables. Why did they call it Cobra? Well, I guess that they named it Cobra because these cables are very flexible, and their black nylon mesh with red stripes really makes them look a bit like a snake. Why would you need rounded cables you ask? First, it looks a lot better than the ugly bulky flat IDE cables, and second, it improves the airflow in your case!
Antec's Cobra Cables are designed to address two major performance-robbing issues which are often ignored: signal integrity, and heat.
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Features of the IDE cable:
* Wrapped with nylon mesh for maximum air flow improvement
* 40-pin 80-conductor cable, ATA133/100/66/33 compliant for high-speed data transfer (A26 IDE cable)
* Highly flexible 26" round cable (16" + 10") with two device connections, one motherboard connector.
* Shielded with aluminum foil and braided silver mesh with ground, for maximum shielding
Features of the Floppy cable
* Wrapped with nylon mesh for maximum air flow improvement
* Highly flexible 16" round cable with one device connector, one motherboard connector
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Performance
Antec claims that these cables provide better performance than standard IDE cables. I performed the "File System Benchmark" from SiSoftware Sandra to find out if it's true. The tests were done on an old test system, and I know that most recent systems HDD will give results 7x higher than these but still it's interesting to see what these cables can do for an old system. I've run the test three times, and I picked out the best results.


With standard self rounded IDE cables

The Antec Cobra Cable
The standard cables gave me 3717KB/s, the Antec Cobra Cables gave 4074KB/s. That's a difference of almost 10%! But to be honest I couldn't really notice any difference while I was working with the PC. Temperatures didn't drop dramatically, only 0.5°C less than normal with the self rounded cables. If you change from standard flat cables to the Cobra cables then the difference will be higher of course.





Conclusion
Overall I was very pleased with these 'Snakey' Cobra cables from Antec. They look a lot more professional than standard ribbon IDE cables and even better than most other rounded cables. More important is that in the benchmark I performed I could see a difference of almost 10% against a standard flat IDE cable!
Prices : The IDE Cobra Cables costs $14.95 and the Floppy ones $9.95.
The Good Stuff
- Looks better than flat IDE or floppy cables
- Looks more professional than 'self rounded cables'
- Higher performance than standard cables
- The cables are longer than standard cables
- Allows better airflow than standard cables
- More flexible than standard cables
The Bad Stuff
- Floppy and IDE cables don't look 100% the same (IDE cables have a metallic mesh under the nylon sheathing)
- The protective boot covers make the cables a little bit less flexible.
Added: March 30th 2003
Product reviewed: Antec Cobra IDE and Floppy Cables
Reviewer: LSDsmurf
Score: 9/10