The very kind people at www.andahammer.com were generous enough to send me a mini2440 cable kit! This will be much easier than chopping up 2.5" IDE connectors! The kit has all the connections you could ever need and will certainly make things much easier!
After getting the DS1621 thermometer working on the I2C bus i now on plan on connecting something more complicated and very small! They probably won't recommend it in the data sheet but you can solder LGA14 using a normal iron and some enamelled wire. My first attempt is below. Unfortunately i started with much thicker wire which subsequently pulled a pad off but the thinner 0.15mm stuff is fairly easy. Checking the connections with a multimeter revealed no short circuits.
The plan is try this again with the same device (without breaking it!) and then solder it to some veroboard to which i'll connect one of my new cables :)