How can you tell your SATA cable is rated at 6 Gb/s?

Happy Hopping

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I was told some cables are only 3 GB/s, as it says so on the sticker of the cables.

So if you buy a motherboard that c/w some SATA cables, the motherboard is all 6 Gb/s connectors, and yet the cables do not say whether they are 6 Gb/s cable, do you just believe that they should be 6 Gb/s cable?

Likewise, w/ the red cable that c/w Intel's SSD, Foxconn 1152 G10333-001, E124936-B, should they be 6 Gb/s cable? As it doesn't say at all
 
"SATA 6G" cables are being labeled and sold as such because it presents a marketing opportunity to take advantage of people that don't know better, and because there is literally no downside for suppliers and sellers to label them 6G - it costs them nothing and increases units moved by adding that pool of people thinking they're doing well to replace their old cables with "6G" cables.

This is psychological contentment, nothing more.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/SATA-cables-Is-there-a-difference-97
 
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LOL. He'll probably want to sue the sata cable company for selling him the wrong kind of cable :)
 
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Exactly. All SATA cables are rated for 6gbs.

I would write that as "All cables that actually comply to SATA specifications are good for 6gbps".

I have no doubt there are cheap junk cables out there that just barely work at 3 gig, and which would have unacceptable error rates at 6 gbps (even then you probably wouldn't notice much difference without diagnostic equipment). The trick is telling them apart.

There was a similar situation in the USB 1.1 to 2.0 transition. Theoretically a certified USB 1.1 cable was supposed to work at 2.0 speeds, but there were a lot of out-of-spec cables floating around, so it was worthwhile to look for cables that had the "Hi-speed certified" logo on them just to be safe.
 
Would be nice if someone did a benchmark on typical SATA cables, and the maximum rates they can handle before the signals break down.
 
Would be nice if someone did a benchmark on typical SATA cables, and the maximum rates they can handle before the signals break down.

This link did that on a very limited bases:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/SATA-cables-Is-there-a-difference-97

Although since there was no problems for the test SATA II cables transferring at SATA III speed there was no way to see what speed the cable broke down. Perhaps if there was some SATA IV interface and device to test..
 
We really should make this a sticky. All SATA cables, IF MADE TO SPEC, are compatible from 1.5 to 6.0 Gb/s. The ones with the metal retaining clips are less apt to fall off. That is all.
 
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fe..._down_your_data_transfers_max_pc_investigates

"The official word from the SATA International Organization is no, not at all. The SATA I/O lays it out in its FAQ:

“Question: Does SATA 6Gb/s require different connectors and cables to support the higher transfer speed?

Answer: The same cables and connectors used for current SATA 1.5 and SATA 3.0 Gb/s implementations can be used to connect SATA 6Gb/s devices, although SATA-IO recommends quality components be selected to ensure data integrity and robust operation at the faster SATA 6Gb/s transfer rate. Keeping the existing SATA connector form factor enables SATA 6Gb/s to be designed into the same cost-conscious hardware architectures while minimizing infrastructure changes.”

Every single SATA cable they tested was basically the same speed.
 
I would write that as "All cables that actually comply to SATA specifications are good for 6gbps".

I have no doubt there are cheap junk cables out there that just barely work at 3 gig, and which would have unacceptable error rates at 6 gbps (even then you probably wouldn't notice much difference without diagnostic equipment). The trick is telling them apart.

see, I have a bunch of SATA cables, there is a sticker that wraps around the SATA cable says 3 GB/s
 
+1 Here's another article to drive the point home: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fe..._down_your_data_transfers_max_pc_investigates

"SATA 6G" cables are being labeled and sold as such because it presents a marketing opportunity to take advantage of people that don't know better, and because there is literally no downside for suppliers and sellers to label them 6G - it costs them nothing and increases units moved by adding that pool of people thinking they're doing well to replace their old cables with "6G" cables.

This is psychological contentment, nothing more.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/SATA-cables-Is-there-a-difference-97
 
FarSide.jpg


Applies again.
 
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