Introduction:

  For those of you who have read my review of the first edition of these A.C.Ryan Roundcable2-FX Cables and anxiously awaiting the "Version 2" I spoke of in the review, the time is finally here. The good news is they're much better. The bad news is, as of right now, I have no idea where you can buy them. More on that in a bit. Let's see what changes have been made and so on.

  Before You proceed though, I strongly suggest you read my first review of the originals to get you familiar with the product and why the new ones are better.

Packaging:

  One thing right off the bat that surprised me, and annoyed me, is the fact that the packaging for the original packaging and the NEW packaging is absolutely identical, yet the new one has been tweaked and truly a better product. How the hell is someone suppose to know which one they're getting? I don't know. I mean a simple "version 2" on the packaging would suffice. But instead, not so much as a model number has changed. Very disappointed there.

A Closer Look:

  Once I removed the cables from their "bags" it was immediately evident to me that they did indeed change some things for the better. The new cables felt more supple and flexible in the hand. They also had a new look to the IDE cable itself with alternating black/white scheme and it was a little softer in that area.

  Another key improvement was to the plastic covering over the steel mesh. It felt much softer and bendable as compared to the originals tough skin.

  The final icing on the cake to the cable itself was the major improvement to the steel mesh itself withheld within the plastic covering. The original cables would scar horribly when bent to extreme angles and there was no getting it out once it was kinked. The new softer, more pliable mesh is softer to bend to those extreme angles but more importantly, the mesh can be kneaded back to it's original shape very easily with basically no scarring at all!

Overall the cables now feel much more limber which should greatly add to the usability of this product.

  Perhaps the biggest addition to the new cables design is in fact the addition of about 1/4" to it's spacing between the IDE connections. If you've read my first review of the originals, you know that the spacing was just shy for my liking. Well sometimes a 1/4" can make all the difference. The official spacing is pretty much the full thickness of the IDE connector itself, as you can see in the pictures above.

  The trademark 'extendable IDE "flap"' remains intact and now once pulled out to maximum length, gains that 1/4" of spacing distance.

Conclusion:

  With the new improvements to the A.C.Ryan Roundcable2-FX Cables (version 2), I can certainly recommend them now for everyone out there looking for a great cable that's not only unique, but used in the right situation, can clean up some bulky round cables of old.

  The new softer and superior materials, along with the slight extension between the IDE connectors, really put these cables into a league of their own. They won't work for everyone out there, but for most they should do just fine. All you need to have, to be able to utilize these cables to their full potential, is to have your IDE drives fairly close together. As for Hard drives stacked up on top of each other, they'll be perfect and there's no better IDE cable on the market for that situation.

  As long as your optical drives (CD-R, DVD-RW, etc) are pretty close to the same length (don't have to be exactly the same length, but the closer the better), you'll love these cables.  

  Once I hear back from A.C.Ryan about the availability and Pricing of these new cables, I will update this review immediately. Until then you can email A.C.Ryan for more information.