Installing and Replacing Desktop Board Components
37
Connecting the IDE Cable
The IDE cable can connect two drives to the desktop board. The cable supports the
ATA-66/100 transfer protocol. Figure 17 shows the correct installation of the ca
ble.
NOTES
ATA-66/100 compatible cables are backward compatible with drives using slower IDE
transfer protocols. If an ATA-66/100 disk drive and a disk drive using any other IDE
transfer protocol are attached to the same cable, the maximum transfer rate between
the drives may be reduced to that of the slowest drive.
Do not connect an ATA device as a slave on the same IDE cable as an ATAPI master
device. For example, do not connect an ATA hard drive as a slave to an ATAPI
CD-ROM drive.
For correct function of the cable:
• Observe the precautions in "Before You Begin" on page 23.
• Attach the cable end with the single connect
or (blue) to the Intel desktop board
(Figure 17, A).
• Attach the cable end with the two cl
osely spaced con
nectors (gray and black) to
the drives (Figure 17, B).
Figure 17. Connecting the IDE Cable