Spare SATA Cables

Richeh · 3 May 2012 at 12:02

Hello,
I am currently waiting for delivery of my new CPU and 2 x 2TB Seagate Hard Drives within the next hour to go with my recently bought Gigabyte Z77-D3H motherboard, 128GB Crucial M4 etc

Problem I have just thought of is basically my new PC will be gaming/HTPC. I will use the SSD for the OS/Games/XBMC, then I already have 1x2TB filled with media as well as a 1TB both SATA. When the 2 new hard drives come it will bring the total to 5.....now the problem.

As the 2x2TB are OEM I am 99% sure I won't get any SATA cables, the motherboard came with 4 (2xSATA3 2xSATA2) now I have ready you can use either cable for SATA3/SATA2 drives they are exactly the same but as I am missing one cable I dove into my 'computer bits' box and luckily found some unopened SATA cables from my old MSI K8N Neo 2 motherboard, only problem being I am sure that board was only SATA 1 so am assuming the cables are also. Are SATA 1 cables also compatible or do I need to invest in a SATA2+ cable?

Cheers in advance!

Surveyor · 3 May 2012 at 12:08

There's really no difference in SATA cables.

Just use one of your old cables and see how you get on.

It'll likely work fine.

Hagar · 3 May 2012 at 12:09

SATA 1 cables are compatible.

bledd · 3 May 2012 at 12:18

I was under the impression that you needed SATA III cables to guarantee full speeds? Can someone clarify this?

Personally, I bought 4x Silverstone 90 degree braided SATA III cables for my latest build.

End of page 5 http://www.serialata.org/documents/SATA-6-Gbs-The-Path-from-3gbs-to-6gbs.pdf

Or is that just scare tactics

Essexraptor · 3 May 2012 at 12:58

Nah ... it's a cable at the end of the day

Marketing is marketing... + of course an excuse of charge you £'s more for the pleasure of a different number on the packaging

bledd · 3 May 2012 at 13:06

Well with IDE cables you could get premium ones that performed better in benchmarks.

PistolPete · 3 May 2012 at 13:08

It's like any data cable. You buy really cheap and you get ****- buy expensive and you've been had.

Just don't buy the cheapest bargain bucket cables and you'll be fine 99.9% of the time.

@bledd - that because flat IDE cables were notorious at picking up noise in what was a very electrically noisy era where PC's were concerned.

namnoc · 3 May 2012 at 21:06

bledd. said:
Well with IDE cables you could get premium ones that performed better in benchmarks.

Only if you faked the benchmarks.