Form
and function seem to never come together on today's computer equipment.
Either it performs awesome but looks like it got hit by the ugly
stick one too many times. Or it looks absolutely amazing, but
performs horribly. With today's computer modifying market as it
is where the average Joe has a window on there tower the insides
need to look just as good as the outside. Cable sleeving, cable
management, lighting, and cable choices are all important. Round
cables are one of the more important when it comes to function.
Being round allows for better air flow in the case and better
air flow means better cooling. Form wise, they usually look pretty
good as well. The only problem is they all seem to look the same.
You can change the color all you want; they are still going to
just be round cables. This is where Startech aims to please. Fairly
new to the modding market, Startech
has started their product lines with some cables and lighting
accessories under the Mutant
Mods banner.
The
Startech 24" Round IDE Cable with EL Wire is what is on the review
bench today. Startech handles the form section quite nicely utilizing
the standard round cable design. The function part is handled
by the EL Wire. Lighting the cable all the way around makes them
quite attractive. Let's take a closer look.
Packaging/Product
The packaging on the Startech cables is simple but attractive.
The clear front displays the cables nicely. The rear is a piece
of thick paper with some basic details on the cables. These cables
are capable of running at Ultra 133 speeds and are backed by a
1 year warranty (how often do you see that).
The
cables themselves seem to fairly high quality. The actual round
shealthing is quite well done, all the ends seem to meet properly.
The EL wire is wrapped all around the cable showing it off quite
nicely when it is plugged in. The cable itself looks like a
regular flat cable, just cut into individual wires and covered
by a layer of plastic tubing. Sadly no fancy metal insulation
is inbetween the cable and plastic tubing, performance wise
there is no difference, just estically it looks better in my
opinion.
Performance/Benchmarking
Two tests were performed to judge the performance of these cables
compared to a standard 80 conductor cable. The first test was
using Norton Ghost 2003 doing a direct copy of one Seagate Barracuda
120GB hard drive to another. The hard drive had 55786MB of data
on it. Tested first was the regular 80 conductor cable, immediately
followed by the Startech Round Cable. Shown below is a chart
of the test results.
| Item |
Time
(Minutes) |
| Flat
80 Conductor Cable |
39:51 |
| Startech
24" Round IDE |
40:01 |
As
you can see performance on the Startech cable is right on par
with the flat cable. The difference between the two cables was
10 seconds. The Startech cable was slightly slower in this test,
but is not noticeable, and was more than likely caused by the
system, not the cable itself. Data transfer rates were exactly
the same speed wise.
The
second test performed was done using HD Tach 2.61. Once again
tested first was the flat cable, then the Startech Round cable.
Shown below are the two screen captures showing the results.
Regular
Flat 80 Conductor Cable
|
Startech
24" Round Cable |
As
you can see from the pictures performance once again was the
same with both cables. Even though the Startech cables are slightly
longer, they perform exactly the same, which is what you would
want.
Final
Words
Personally I have mixed feeling about the Startech cables. They
look really cool and perform on par with a regular flat cable.
Being round they increase airflow throughout the case, which is
always a good thing. The EL wire looks really neat as well, they
show off the cable just enough to know its there, but not too
much that it takes away from the rest of the case.
The
downsides to these cables though are their length. Although being
very useful for the full tower case lovers, they 24" cable are
just too long for my tastes. The pure length makes it a little
too hard to mange. Gladly Startech offers a slightly shorter 18"
model which may be a better cable for a mid tower case. Another
annoyance on these cables is the location for the inverter. The
actual inverter is located on a fairly short length of cable off
of the top IDE connector. This greatly limits your chances at
hiding the inverter. I would have much preferred Startech to hook
up the inverter on the motherboard end of the cable which would
allow you to mount the inverter on the bottom of the case, out
of the way of any thing else.
Pros
Round
Lighted just enough
Perform on par with regular flat cable
Look pretty cool
Cons
Too long for my liking (18" Model available though)
Inverter mounted on top end of cable
Bottom
Line
These cables work well and look good. Being 24" they should be
able to reach even the top of your full tower. Good product over
all.
If
you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.
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