right when my computer is turning on and doing the system checks, I get the message "Primary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed" Then it goes right into WinXP Pro and seems to be working okay ...

Twisted? Like with wire pairs twisted? I've only seen that with some SCSI cables. The closest to that that I've seen on IDE cables is 80-wire shielded cables (for ATA-33+ transfer spec). As far as ...

Building a modern computer is something plenty of us have done, and with various tools available to ensure that essentially the only thing required of the end user is to select parts and have them ...