Should I buy a generic SATA cable?

Andy_pandy · 2 Jul 2012 at 15:26

I know buying a generic HDD or DVD drive is not good at all. But I'm not too sure on buying generic SATA cable.

Any thoughts?

SouthEastBlue · 2 Jul 2012 at 15:30

A sata cable is a sata cable, not much can go wrong with it to be honest. I've bought cheap £1 or £2 odd ones before with no problems.

Hagar · 2 Jul 2012 at 15:30

By generic, you mean no identifiable manufacturer? Most SATA cables are identical, there is no advantage in buying for SATA II or III. Personally I like the thin round ones with one end right angled.

IronWarrior · 2 Jul 2012 at 15:37

nkata said:
By generic, you mean no identifiable manufacturer? Most SATA cables are identical, there is no advantage in buying for SATA II or III. Personally I like the thin round ones with one end right angled.

Do you know any good store that sells them for cheap?

The cheapest I seen them or is £3.30 for the really thin ones.

T345 · 2 Jul 2012 at 15:38

an auction site

IronWarrior · 2 Jul 2012 at 15:39

T345 said:
an auction site

That's where I got the price from.

T345 · 2 Jul 2012 at 15:40

2 45 cm (red) for £1.15?

Justintime · 2 Jul 2012 at 22:56

Be warned that some can be of poor construct, had a batch i had to return as they kept dropping HDDs and corrupting data, likely poor conductors or soldering etc.. Also really nasty ones can either be a bastich to fit or fit too easily and fall out eventually as the connectors are poorly molded.

ChilledLJ · 3 Jul 2012 at 01:58

Certified SATA cable £19.99 each and guaranteed for 5 years

Justintime · 3 Jul 2012 at 06:45

ChilledLJ said:
Certified SATA cable £19.99 each and guaranteed for 5 years

Certified ripoff?

Broken Hope · 3 Jul 2012 at 07:01

I recommend these http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-076-AK&groupid=1929&catid=1928&subcat= there's different lengths available on the site, they are very flexible and nice and thin.

Greebo · 3 Jul 2012 at 07:54

Justintime said:
Be warned that some can be of poor construct, had a batch i had to return as they kept dropping HDDs and corrupting data, likely poor conductors or soldering etc.. Also really nasty ones can either be a bastich to fit or fit too easily and fall out eventually as the connectors are poorly molded.

This. I have had cheap and nasty ones fall to peices before now and I have lost drives.

Better to spend an extra quid or two on a half decent one IMO

Schizo · 3 Jul 2012 at 08:05

I'm in the market for 6 new sata cable's but must be round and braided and black.

cant find them anywhere.

IronWarrior · 3 Jul 2012 at 09:50

Broken Hope said:
I recommend these http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-076-AK&groupid=1929&catid=1928&subcat= there's different lengths available on the site, they are very flexible and nice and thin.

Can get the 50cm for cheaper from elsewhere.

Greebo · 3 Jul 2012 at 10:24

schizo said:
I'm in the market for 6 new sata cable's but must be round and braided and black.

cant find them anywhere.

like these?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-005-BX&campaign=pcm/googleshopping

Schizo · 3 Jul 2012 at 10:27

Greebo said:
like these?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-005-BX&campaign=pcm/googleshopping

yeh,but i want the cable round

Greebo · 3 Jul 2012 at 10:30

schizo said:
yeh,but i want the cable round

**** pics on ocuk i think. If you google the make on look on other peoples sites you will see that they are round

Hmmm perhaps not. Akasa so round ones though I beleive........

G J · 3 Jul 2012 at 12:34

After buying 2 cheep generic/unbranded SATA cables as I needed ones with a right angle connectors, 1 of them failed a while back now after causing the drive to rarely kill itself and the way to recover the data was running testdisk on a 1TB drive for about 4-5 hours.

After switching the cable it not happened since.

The other I've just thrown away as it started to cause a high number of SMART (C7) Ultra DMA CRC error count's (Can be caused by bad cables) and random crashing on a drive. Again after switching the cable it not happened since although now after about a year I have to RMA the drive as it's now got bad sectors on it

So cheeper one's can work fine without any problems but from my experience they may not last long. Strange as I've never had any issue with cables included with motherboards. :confused:

Greebo · 3 Jul 2012 at 12:59

Like I said, some are really. really cheaply made. The last cheap one I bought, the end fell in half as I plugged it in............

Doesn't inspire confidence.