Latching Sata Cables FTW!

Whoa! Now I certainly wouldn't mind getting my hands on a few of those for my drives. The SATA cables I'm using right now have the same annoying tendency to disconnect themselves whenever I'm trying to do a cable management job inside my case.
 
Latching sata cables are awesome. I bought a whole bunch about 2 years ago for my gaming PC build. I love them because nothing wiggles loose when you travel with your computer to lan parties.
 
yeah i moved to them as well, too much of that pulling sata cables out slightly while tinkering with other things in my case.
 
now that's awesome. They need to do the same with HDMI cables too. Those newer cables are nice in the way of being small and singular, but ffs they fall out all the time.

Hey Kyle, you should've demonstrated the latch cables by twirling the harddrive over your head like a sling shot ;-)
 
Azhar said:
now that's awesome. They need to do the same with HDMI cables too. Those newer cables are nice in the way of being small and singular, but ffs they fall out all the time. ...
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I would almost kill for latching HDMI cables. No joke. I have a heavy gauge cable that runs 40 feet from my computer to my HDTV, and it is a serious pain in the butt to have to brace it and tape it down to hold it in place without damaging my ports or falling out. Does such a thing even exist though?
 
I got a pack of 4 about a year and a half ago with a motherboard and I have been hooked ever since...heh...get it? Hooked?
 
You guys are just discovering latching cables NOW?!? You just felt like making a video, or what? This was news, what, like 3 years ago?

Incidentally, latching cables aren't really "all that." The latches tend to be cheap, and often won't disconnect from the drive or motherboard without breaking the plastic on either the drive or motherboard connector or on the cable itself. Also, the SATA cable will connect to my WD 640 GB HDD, but it won't latch. Doesn't affect the function of the drive, it is just mildly irritating.
 
Spectrum17 said:
You guys are just discovering latching cables NOW?!? You just felt like making a video, or what? This was news, what, like 3 years ago?

Incidentally, latching cables aren't really "all that." The latches tend to be cheap, and often won't disconnect from the drive or motherboard without breaking the plastic on either the drive or motherboard connector or on the cable itself. Also, the SATA cable will connect to my WD 640 GB HDD, but it won't latch. Doesn't affect the function of the drive, it is just mildly irritating.
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Hey quiet. Most of us benefited from the videos :p

I would've otherwise been skeptical buying cables with latches on it for an extra couple bucks thinking they're merely gimmicks. Kyle proved they weren't.
 
Love these cables.

But kyle, you are a terribly mean person for using that intel SSD. Here we are, poor, penniless [H] readers and you have to go and show off your goodies. So cruel.
 
haha. did u really have to plug the non-latching cable onto that drive that many times to demonstrate how loose the connection can be? i think we got the point after the 2nd time...
 
I have a feeling kyle wanted to subliminally tease us with that Intel ssd.
 
Spectrum17 said:
You guys are just discovering latching cables NOW?!? You just felt like making a video, or what? This was news, what, like 3 years ago?
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More about Kyle showing his gym-worked forearms, if you ask me ;) BTW, Kyle, nice gym-worked forearms :D
 
woot.. already going to buy me 20 of these bad boys.. thanks Kyle!!!!


by the way.. keep the video reviews coming.. they are so much more interesting then reading 10 pages of information.. would be nice to see a couple gfx card or board reviews done on video.. even though i know its probably harder since it takes a lot more time to do those reviews.. i think the videos a nice touch.. especially for us visual learners.. :p
 
Yes, I LOVE my locking cables that came with my Gigabyte board. Its little touches like that that get my attention when I open my box of new hardware.
 
Sometimes the little things make a BIG differance.
I like how easy it is to use SATA cables but at the same time I feel more thought should have gone into there design. The way they stick out and there stiffness and how little plastic hold them onto the drives can cause problems. I have one drive where the SATA power adapter has cracked, luckily it was an early SATA drive that has lagecy power as well. I also take great care when working with these drives now.

I do have 90deg cables on all my drives but I have yet to find any SATA power plugs that are 90deg.
And who the hell thought it was a good idea to put 90deg ports on the edge of the motherboard, you know how had it is to plug the cable in on some cases!
 
I have to say I'm surprised you guys haven't seen these before. Gigabyte boards have been coming with these for at least since P35, and I would bet earlier. I personally find them irritating. I haven't really had any issues with non-latching cables coming loose unless you're just ham-handed, and the latching ones can be REALLY effing annoying to get loose if you're trying to disconnect them in a small case or a setup with a lot of ports in use.

However, if extra cable security makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, then I agree these are definitely nice. Big selling point for Gigabyte boards if you are building for someone else.
 
Sabrewulf165 said:
I have to say I'm surprised you guys haven't seen these before. Gigabyte boards have been coming with these for at least since P35, and I would bet earlier. I personally find them irritating. I haven't really had any issues with non-latching cables coming loose unless you're just ham-handed, and the latching ones can be REALLY effing annoying to get loose if you're trying to disconnect them in a small case or a setup with a lot of ports in use.

However, if extra cable security makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, then I agree these are definitely nice. Big selling point for Gigabyte boards if you are building for someone else.
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Roger, bout a year ago I built my brother a system.. and his gigabyte board came with them.. and I was like ooh.. I like.
 
My Biostar TP45 HP came with some... I just wish they were 90* on one side but man they are great.
 
Latching cables rock. I won't use anything else and haven't for at least the last year.
 
Thanks kyle for teasing us with the SSD drive.
Like we all didn't know about latching cables YEARS ago.

GRRR SSD drives.
 
Juggafat said:
My Biostar TP45 HP came with some... I just wish they were 90* on one side but man they are great.
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The last few motherboards I have bought (no biostar), have came with one or two 90s and 1 or 2 straight.
 
Great video Mr. Bennett.
Monoprice has cables listed for SATA and SATA II. Is there a big difference between the two? (different speed or connector type?) Sorry I seem to have missed that "class".

Thanks,

Philip
 
The interesting thing is that my mobo comes w/latching cables, but they don't latch very well to the motherboard at all... but they latch amazingly to the hard drives (and yeah, the cables came w/the mobo, not the HDD's...).
 
I didn't know these were new. My EVGA 750i FTW comes with 4 of these. I think they're great. I have more problem with them pulling away from the motherboard though, especially the sata ports that face forward.
 
fairlane said:
Great video Mr. Bennett.
Monoprice has cables listed for SATA and SATA II. Is there a big difference between the two? (different speed or connector type?) Sorry I seem to have missed that "class".

Thanks,

Philip
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I was wondering about that too. I didn't know there were different SATA cables, just drives.
 
P.S.

Incidentally, on the other side of things, having a loose sata cable might be worth it when trying to unplug them. I can see it being a pain if you have big hands and fat fingers trying to unclasp one of those cables from a tight mobo, no? Not speaking from experience (I haven't come across them yet), maybe Mr. Bennett can comment?
 
bigdogchris said:
I didn't know these were new. My EVGA 750i FTW comes with 4 of these. I think they're great. I have more problem with them pulling away from the motherboard though, especially the sata ports that face forward.
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QFT we're both in the same boat there, xD
 
Azhar,
Maybe this should help us. From Wikipedia:

SATA II Misnomer

The 3.0 Gbit/s specification has been widely referred to as "Serial ATA II" ("SATA II" or "SATA2"), contrary to the wishes of the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) which defines the standard. SATA II was originally the name of a committee defining updated SATA standards, of which the 3 Gbit/s standard was just one. However since it was among the most prominent features defined by the former SATA II committee, the name SATA II became synonymous with the 3 Gbit/s standard, so the group has since changed names to the Serial ATA International Organization, or SATA-IO, to avoid further confusion.

[edit] SATA 6.0 Gbit/s

SATA-IO has already come up with the draft specification of 6 Gbit/s physical layer in July 2008[7], and had ratified its physical layer specification on August 18, 2008. The full 3.0 standard is expected to be available before the end of 2008.[8] While even the fastest conventional hard disk drives can barely saturate the original SATA 1.5 Gbit/s bandwidth, Intel's Solid State Disk drives are close to saturating the SATA 3 Gb/s limit at 250 MB/s net read speed, and other new drives including Super Talent and Samsung ones are close to that too. Ten channels of fast flash can actually reach well over 500 MB/s with new ONFI dies, so a move from SATA 3 Gb/s to SATA 6 Gb/s would benefit the flash read speeds. As for the standard hard disks, the reads from their built-in DRAM cache will end up faster across the new interface.[9]

The new specification will include a handful of extensions to its command set, especially in the area of data and command queuing. The enhancements are generally aimed at improving quality of service for video streaming and high priority interrupts. In addition, the standard will continue to support distances up to a meter. The new speeds may require higher power consumption for supporting chips, factors that new process technologies and power management techniques are expected to mitigate. The new specification can use existing SATA cables and connectors, although some OEMs are expected to upgrade host connectors for the higher speeds.[10] Also, the new standard is backwards compatible with SATA 3.0 Gbit/s.[11]

In order to avoid repetition of the common "SATA II" misnomer, the SATA International Organization has compiled a set of marketing guidelines for the new specification. The specification should be called "Serial ATA International Organization: Serial ATA Revision 3.0", and the technology itself is to be referred to as "SATA 6Gb/s." A product using this standard should be called the "SATA 6Gb/s [product name]." The terms "SATA III" or "SATA 3.0", that are considered to cause confusion among consumers, should not be used.[12]
 
Ive had these latching cables for about 2 years... i only use them unless i want some UV reactiveness(like the ones i have now). I believe that all EVGA motherboards come with them, so ive become pretty spoiled and almost consider them standard.
 
RussianHAXOR said:
Ive had these latching cables for about 2 years... i only use them unless i want some UV reactiveness(like the ones i have now). I believe that all EVGA motherboards come with them, so ive become pretty spoiled and almost consider them standard.
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Just to edit... i think that there are alot of top notch board makers that use these now including intel who includes blue ones with their bonetrail boards. :D
 
My EVGA board came with a bundle of these and they work great. Only thing is, the SATA power cables from my Corsair PSU slide out very easily so I wouldn't mind seeing a latching system on those.
 
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