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[HSDEMONZ]

Product: Hydra UDMA Cable for Xtender Case Riser Kit. (included in new Xtender Kits, but it was also offered separately at time of release.


http://pictures.xbox...nder2-hirez.jpg

Official Site:
http://www.teamxtender.com

Where to buy:
www.divineo.com
www.divineo.co.uk
www.divineo.cn


It’s been awhile since I pumped out some reviews.. and now that’s we’re hip deep into the summer I’ve now got some time to catch up and post some reviews that should have been posted sooner. First of many reviews coming in the next few weeks..

Product: Hydra UDMA Cable for Xtender Case Riser Kit. (included in new Xtender Kits, but it was also offered separately at time of release.
Manufacturer: http://www.TeamXtender.com



For the XS review on the original Xtender Kit that didn’t have this new cable, catch up on it here..

LINK: http://www.xbox-scen...are/xtender.php



I won’t rehash the original review. The product is virtually the same, with the exception of the new included Hydra UDMA cable.  This review actually focuses on the cable, and why it was needed.

When XS did the original review, both Xantium, and myself, had tried the Xtender on a few simple configurations, and wrote our reviews based on that. We had no issues to speak of. We were confident and secure in that we had written a good detailed review, on a product that worked as advertised.

As time passed, it became increasingly clear that people with their unique and varied hard drive combos, were having mixed results, or couldn’t get the Xtender to work at all.

Turns out (post review) that it was discovered, and somewhat now commonly recognized, that the original Xtender with it’s long IDE cable was not providing 100% compatibility with many common drives/combos on the market.  I considered going back, and taking a second crack at the same review, with some of my new findings. Time passed, life got in the way, and the idea of rehashing the original review was dropped. Until now.

Long story short, many combinations of Hard Drives, some from the same manufacturer, simply will not work reliably on the Xtender.  With 20+ Hard Drives, ranging from 80-160Gb in size, from many top manufacturers like Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital I went to town, and worked on some in depth tests. I then compared my results to results posted in public forums. The results were interesting.

I spent some time with some troublesome combos that would not function, simply changing the order of the drives on the cable yielded good results. In other cases, finding (no so easy) new hd firmware resolved issues. With a few other combo’s, I opted to replace the IDE cable with a heavy duty, heavy shielded cable. (and crimp my own connectors onto it).  

I have absolutely no idea why changing the order of the drives, or using newer firmware helped. All I know, is that it did. The heavy duty cable though, with it’s successes, seem to imply that maybe either the original cable was poor quality, or that many people’s problems are line noise. Some Hd’s clearly, didn’t like the noise on the line. I’ll leave it to those more technically minded to explain why or how that excessive noise is generated. Regardless, a properly shielded cable worked wonders.

TeamXtender.com/FarmerEntertainment.com then released their Hydra cable, which I was then able test, using the same combo’s that caused grief before. The results, were more interesting.

In combinations where drives were of the same manufacturer, the cable, seemingly improved reliable performance and function. Combo’s that would work, now did with a 30% improvement.

In combinations where drives from 2 or more manufacturers were mixed, I saw only a 17% improvement. (in as many situations as possible, I used one stock Xbox hard drive in the mixtures)

What does this mean? Let’s put this all into context. In September 2004, we (xs) thought the original Xtender product worked well and reliably. (at least it did for us during the 6 weeks of testing and daily usage with the combo I had on hand at the time). However, people had issues, plenty of them. I won’t lay them all at the bed of TeamXtender though, cause I suspect the line noise issues originate from the motherboard, and are worsened by having the longer poor quality ide cable and more drives and power cables etc nearby. If my assumptions are correct, then this new HYDRA cable that has been included in 2005 models of Xtender kits, is an improvement.

The Hydra cable, has one end to connect to the motherboard’s IDE connector, one end to connect to the DVD drive, and the hydra ends that splinter off to connect to the 3 hard drives. Something about this design improved relibably and function, especially in those combos that were test to have problems.  It’s an 80 wire cable, stiff, rigid, like most UDMA cables. I wondered what they did differently with their new cable that seemed to improve the situation.


http://pictures.xbox...400-exposed.jpg

Interesting, they used a single pcb design, to allow for the splintering off of different lines. I can only assume this design/philosophy change are the reasons for the new results. Regardless, it does make an improvement.

The Hydra Cable, on it’s own, separate from an Xtender, might make for an interesting addition to your own 411 based concept projects. The design is simple and clean, and if you remove it from the black brick case/connector, you can swap in your own cables, for your own needs.

Pro: Hydra Cable, simple, clean, improves compatibility in Xtenders and 411 concept projects.
Cons:Hydra Cable is getting hard to find on it’s own now, but it’s included with current Xtender models, but doesn’t guarantee compatibility.

So, where does that leave us? The Hydra cable, while it won’t solve all the problems Xtender owners are having with IDE compatibility, for those that have the original units and are having problems, you might see an improvement and a cessation of current problems. For those of you using a current Xtender, that shipped with this cable, and are still having issues, I don’t have any remedies for you.  

It would be hard to recommend the Xtender, old or new, given the plaguing compatibility issues. The Xtender, was a nice idea when it was released, but with it’s compatibility problems, only those who enjoy troubleshooting should enter these waters. I’d be more interested in seeing them produce a new case, taller than the stock, or their XCM cases, and an improved switcher/interface.

Original XS Forums Discussion thread
http://forums.xbox-s...howtopic=279547

This review originally posted on XS news page @ http://www.xbox-scen...kZpUCxilrSS.php

[bucko]

At least they have tried to fix it

[Zeusydude]

who in there right minds would use that

[dbdlowrider]

some one in the mind of a huge multi meadia center would use that or a better lookin case.

and hsdemonz some reviews would be nice but most people se this on the home page. witch is very very well updated daily. I check it a couple times a day them i dont have to work.

[HSDEMONZ]

Not everyone reads the news page.. (gasp)

Second.. anyone not wishing to read it.. didn't have to. It's clearly marked. They also don't have to post either.

[jiggysmb]

I have never liked the Extender case, but I was painting an 'extended case' for a college friend and after priming it white he took it home and loved it....looked much better.  I should have took some pics but I assumed he would have wanted paint on it.  It was a beast of a machine but considering he had his entire collection of games & movies in one place... it may have been worth all the time & money..but probably not  

[Zerovande2]

I just got one of these xtenter kits, it works great! Only problem I had was from the power cable.  I pressed the #1 HD switch and connector 3 powers up.  An easy fix and something I wouldn't complain about.  Before purchasing this, I didn't go by what others had to say about the case, I just bought it and used it.  If you're really thinking about purchasing this case, just do it.  Don't go by what others had to say, lots of times it's user errors.  That's just my .02.

[halofreak007]

QUOTE(Zerovande2 @ Jul 25 2005, 07:00 PM)

I just got one of these xtenter kits, it works great! Only problem I had was from the power cable.  I pressed the #1 HD switch and connector 3 powers up.  An easy fix and something I wouldn't complain about.  Before purchasing this, I didn't go by what others had to say about the case, I just bought it and used it.  If you're really thinking about purchasing this case, just do it.  Don't go by what others had to say, lots of times it's user errors.  That's just my .02.

a problem to most people is that it looks ugly and it doesnt match with the case

[jiggysmb]

yeah thats what I meant...looks $hitty

[Snoopster J]

If you see an SLR on the street with keys with your name engraved on them sitting on top but you don't like the colour, do you take it? That was probably the worst analogy I've ever thought up, and that was a fat run-on sentence, but I'm getting the X-tender anyway. I just wish it could be maybe just a bit cheaper? Especially considering the tax and shpping to Canada...still trying to find a Canadian reseller

[Evil6six6]

IMO DON'T BUY the x-tender!!!!

A customer brought me his xbox and another HD and wanted me to install this. Asthetically it doesn't look that bad once it's together and the three wire solder is a piece of cake. The only problem is that it won't recognize drive number two! Both drives happen to be Western Digital 1. 250g 2. 300g (I guess the x-tender doesn't like WD). I have tried everything to get this thing to work. Everything is soldered correctly Drive #1 boots no problem, but drive #2 hangs then goes to errors 7-9 each time i boot gives different error code. If I unplug drive #1 from the IDE cable (and yes this is the "new" Hydra cable with the S#itty plastic DVD drive connector that won't stay plugged in) drive #2 boots. I wouldn't suggest buying this thing....if you want multiple HD's just buy a cheap PC case and some removable drive bays If you can solder an xtender in then you should be able to put an xbox in a pc case. On a scale of 1-10 I give it a -7 hehe sorry for the flame on this, but I feel it's a poorly thought out product. I hope they (divineo) will take returns because I'm going to have him send it back.
Thanks for reading my post!

[micarey]

I just Installed an xtender in my xbox this week and mine works perfectly. The only thing I have found is that the xtender has extra wires on it that dont seem to be needed. The soldering is an easy job the cable is pretty much straight forward once you figure it out. I did mine in about 20 minutes and hed both drive working in that time.

[RoboChicken]

After a pain in the ass installation an maxing out my credit card I finally found a config that works:

Xtender 2 Hydra

320GB Western Digital: First on the paired IDE
300GB Seagate: Second on the paired IDE
300GB Seagate: On the solo IDE

320GB WD on solo IDE or 2nd paired IDE didn't work. Originally I had 2 320WD and they only worked on the First paired IDE (lower one). I ended up buying 2 300s and swapping them for the customers 320s. It did not like the 160GB he already had in there so we took it out. Now he's got 920GB and it's working perfectly. Luckily I had a spare Xtender 2 Hydra because the one he bought me didn't work.

His friend is not so lucky. I don't have a Hydra for him. His config is:

160GB Maxtor: On solo IDE
300GB Seagate: 2nd on the paired IDE
320GB Western Digital: First on the paired IDE

Games don't start on the 300GB and it's intermittently erroring out and intermittently not getting power to the HDDs. He's coming in tommorow and we're going to repinch the molex connectors and lock a different hard drive for live. The 300GB games were a transplant from his 160GB maxtor because it was Fonly and the new chip I installed is F and G (a must since we're running 250GB+ drives).

 

[Snoopster J]

I'm eating my own words. Xtender is the worst thing that I've ever come across. I'm scarred for life. Don't buy it. I've resorted to leaving my Xbox lid open, and switching the IDE and power cables whenever I want to play on live. Not a big hassle at all, but it would've been nice to have it work...and yes the Hydra cable is terrible. After messing up the resistors on two Xbox motherboards (thankfully my dad's friend helped me fix the wiring...I was already too scared to do it myself) with a terrible soldering iron from Circuit City, I was lucky enough to have only killed the power button and nothing else. I fired it up, and all was going swell until I found myself (well not me, but the hard drive) constantly freezing and getting kicked out of Halo 2. There goes that plan. So bottom line is, don't buy. I very much regret doing so.

Snoopster J

P.S. Sorry for digging up this thread again (it's been many months since my predicament), but I just came across it and I had to add something. Hmm I remember reading about another Xtender-like no-soldering-required kit for noobs like me. Time to go digging again.