In a world of see through window PCs, it is hard to distinguish yourself from the others. Sure you can add round cables, but they all look a lot alike. While these cable add an esthetic appearance they also aid in airflow. Some cables even claim better performance with their round cables. PAClink cables from PACtech seem to accomplish setting itself apart from other cables immediately. The cable has the same casing as most round cables, but with a difference. They shrink wrap the end of the sheathing and have the individual cables bare at the terminated ends. This makes installing them in a tricky angle a bit easier and cleaner looking.

Ok, so how do they perform? I used SiSoftware Sandra 2002 standard to run a simple disk test using 3 different cables:

Ultra ATA 133 Flat ribbon cable (came with MSI motherboard)
PAClink cable
Off the shelf Clear Round cable

I ran 4 separate runs with the File System Benchmark. The first was using the Ribbon cable to give a standard for the benchmark. The result was 34842kB/s. Next I ran the PAClink cable and the result was 32278kB/s. I was surprised at the slight drop so I ran the test for another run and came up with 32297kB/s. Lastly I ran the test using the off-shelf round cable and got 32228kB/s. Now in the picture you will notice another benchmark run of 36839kB/s. This last run was done using the PAClink cable and all system background resources turned off, such as Anti-Virus and Sound management. All the marks with these turned off led to the same consistent marks.



Looking at the benchmarks the performance of these cables is on par with Flat ribbon cables. The difference in kB/s is negligible between all 3 cables. I wanted to see how these would perform under normal circumstances. The last run being run with everything turned off is irrelevant to me since I would never run without these things.

In an interview with Aaron Chui of Pactech Inc I asked about the design and manufacturing of their cables, here is a portion of that interview:

MaximumPDA: “Do you manufacture all of your cables or do you just modify an OEM cable and do you have your own engineering team?”

Aaron: “Yes, we do our own manufacturing in San Jose and also factory in China. We also do OEM/custom size cables upon customer's request. For quick turn around and smaller scale production we will do locally, especially for brand name connectors and materials; while in offshore factory we can supply larger scale production.”

Maximumpda: “Where are your cables manufactured and how many units a year do you produce and do you produce cables for other companies like Vantec, Belkin, etc?”

Aaron: Not exactly estimate yearly output on production - but we are selling to some superstores directly or indirectly- like Fry's, Computer Centers, CompUSA, etc and our factory also do Belkin's cables with retail pack. Besides, high-end system houses are my customers too.

In conclusion I would say that these rounded cables offer the fine finishing that many of the similar ‘look alike’ cables lack such as the shrink wrap at the ends of the insulated tubing. The ability to order them in custom lengths adds a high degree of customisability for the case mod enthusiast or anyone looking or the ‘just right’ fit. The performance is top notch unlike many of the cheap computer store cables that simply lack the engineered ability to produce the certified speeds these cables promise. For your next case mod project or PC upgrade don’t hesitate to buy a Pactech cable. We look forward to the next Pactech product.

Paclink Shield UL ATA133 RoundCable

Gelder Griffith
--Guest Reviewer