Does SATA 6GB/S require special cables?

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Spare-Flair

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Just wanted to get a quick answer about this because I have hooked up the SATA III ports on my motherboard with some old cables I had previously to match a color scheme but I have seen some other SATA cables that say 6gb/s printed on the connectors.

Do I need to use new cables or will my old SATA cables be fine?
 
From document above:
SATA 6Gb/s Cabling
In the transition to SATA 6Gb/s, it will be important to use highquality cabling.
Problems may be related to the use of cables made from marginal materials that perform at the edges of SATA 3Gb/s tolerances, which could become a failure point at the faster 6Gb/s signal rates. SATAIO therefore recommends that only high quality cables and connectors be utilized for SATA 6Gb/s.
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Something interesting from the document as well:
Naming Conventions
In order to avoid confusion between different SATA specifications, the SATAIO
has outlined some basic naming conventions that are geared to eliminate ambiguity.
Manufacturers should avoid using the terms “SATA III” and “SATA 3.0,” as it is unclear
whether “SATA 3.0” refers to the SATA Revision 3.0 specification, SATA 6Gb/s as
defined by the SATA Revision 3.0 specification, or the SATA 3Gb/s transfer rate.

The terms “SATA II”, “SATA 2.6”, and “Gen 2” should be avoided as well. While
the terms “Gen 3”, “Gen 2”, and “Gen 1” are used within the SATA Revision 3.0
specification, they refer to technical specification items and should not be used for
marketing or product naming purposes.

The formal name for the new specification is the “Serial ATA Revision 3.0
specification.” The technology can be referred to as “SATA 6Gb/s” and products should
be called &#8220;SATA 6Gb/s <product name>.&#8221; By following these naming conventions, the
storage industry can avoid undesirable confusion that could stall adoption in the market
place.
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Also, if there's any confusion, the same was true for the cables during the SATAI->SATAII transition, or should that be SATA 1.5Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s :D
 
I thought you had to use the red ones




sorry...couldn't help it, we had a whole long sarc thread going on on this very subject a couple weeks ago
 
The cable quality might be sufficient, I'm using some grey enterprise SATA cables I took from a server because I needed really long ones. I'll run some benchmarks.
 
I am using modsmart sata 2 and sata 3 cable, got some that are like 30 inches long for like $1.74 a piece :p
The sata 3 cables I believe, are supposed to be shielded according to spec to prevent crosstalk, but as far as the connector itself is concerned 0 difference, though "most" sata 3 cables now have locking connector ends which I do like, and, unless you are getting very veyr low quality sata cables, I 100% doubt you would have a problem using a sata 2 in a sata 3 slot as far as cables are concerned, they are 100% mechanicaly the same, and 100% electrically the same from ALL the I have read on this very question.

I got mine from here
http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/227962/Mod_Smart/SC3_6_BL/
or you can get them through NCIX as well, many colors and lengths as well.
 
Spare-Flair said:
The cable quality might be sufficient, I'm using some grey enterprise SATA cables I took from a server because I needed really long ones. I'll run some benchmarks.
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If they're really long, they could be out of spec. It's 1m max for SATA and 2m for eSATA, I think.
 
I just rad on this, and yes you are correct on the "spec" length for sata/esata being 1m/2m or 3.3feet+ which is well, quite long :p, I had to get 24inch+ for my raven 3 just to make sure they would fit, I got the 30 inch and 2 24 inchers and I got way more length then I need, but they blend in real good :)
 
Do I need to use new cables or will my old SATA cables be fine?
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No, you do not need new cables. Also you can easily check if your cable is causing you any slowdown at all. Use a program like CrystalDiskInfo that displays the raw SMART data then look at "UltraDMA CRC Error Count" This attribute will contain the total # of retransmissions a drive needed to do as a result of a signaling problem from the SATA controller to the drive and vise versa. If the value in the RAW column for this attribute is near 0 there is no cabling problem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.
 
My motherboard came with both sata 2 and sata 3 cables. They also look different. Are you all saying that they aren't actually different?

The sata 3 cables are much thicker and more heavy duty. I just assumed that the thin sata 2 cables wouldn't be able to reliably transport data at the 500-600MB/s that my SSD does.
 
Are you all saying that they aren't actually different?
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They may be a little different but I am not sure that is necessary. And I have not noticed SATA III cables being any bigger than SATA I although some SATA II / SAS cables were much thinner.
 
All SATA cables from 1.5-6.0 that were correctly manufactured to the SATA spec are capable of operating at full speed mode in any of the specs. Differences in thicker/thinner insulation/jacket etc are wholly irrelevant as long as they were manufactured properly and inline with specs. The clips that started showing up around SATA2 make the cable mating more secure.
 
It's a specification for a reason, so that we don't have to argue over things like this. I myself read the specification, which any of you are also free to do, as it's publicly available. This is the actual published spec from SATA-IO group. Not the opinion of anyone, not something I read on a forum or heard from a saleman at Best Buy.

They say the cables didn't change for SATA 6Gbps. SATA uses differential signalling, shielding isn't important. Thicker cables aren't better except being more durable. The clips are neat, but not required. There is NO such thing as a SATA3 cable, or a SATA 6Gbps cable. There are only SATA cables. And it doesn't matter what colour they are.
 
jojo69 said:
I thought you had to use the red ones




sorry...couldn't help it, we had a whole long sarc thread going on on this very subject a couple weeks ago
Click to expand...

And it goes on and on and on and.............LOL!
 
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