Mid-decade SATA data cable quality examination ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

[nomdeplume]

The gist of it is all of my functional and manageable length SATA cables have been slowly installed into other PC. Mostly, I have sufficiently large numbers of new in bag cables with plug angles I can't use to be annoying.

Want to avoid junk that internally severs if bent past 45° or typifies any other failure mode at install or any point beyond. Once I'm happy with option below I can begin collecting assortment of spares.

8" or 20cm (cable length without connector preferably). Generous length 6" also applicable.
Straight (180°) connectors or #1 straight #2 left angle/upwards.
Thick, stiff, low memory cables of high quality are acceptable.
Agnostic on coloring or sightliness.
Can be SATA II if unrestrictive in use with modern SATA III drives.

 

[Harlow]

Are you asking for recommendations for specific manufacturers' cables you'd like to buy?

8" or 20cm (cable length without connector preferably). Generous length 6" also applicable.

I have to use 90cm cables in some of my Lian Li V2000 cases, to reach the lowest drives in the bottom half of the case which holds 12 hard disks. They're a long way away from the SATA ports at the top of the motherboards and 60cm leads are too short. Not ideal but I haven't had had any problems with longer SATA leads.

I've also use 100cm SFF-8087 SAS forward breakout cables on server drives (6Gb/s) with no problems, but I prefer 50cm SAS leads when practical.

Can be SATA II if unrestrictive in use with modern SATA III drives.

I stopped buying SATA III cables after reading several test reports which showed no difference using SATA II cables at SATA III speeds. I just buy good quality SATA II cables and use them on SATA hard disks and SSDs alike. I don't have any hard disks that run faster than 250MB/s transfer rate. The SATA II leads appear to work fine up to 550MB/s on SSDs too.

Some SATA III cables might be constructed with better quality cable with reduced crosstalk, but you're unlikely to tell the difference without stripping off the insulation or checking performance in a lab. I suspect some suppliers sell the same cables at marked up prices, when they describe them as SATA III. Snake oil anyone?

In critical applications and for peace of mind, by all means invest in expensive SATA III cables. It's your decision.

 

[_roman_]

Would you not see issues in the kernel dmesg buffer when you are using bad SATA cables?

I just bought of 4 different coloured SATA cables from amazon.de. Cheap stuff which looks kinda like a decent cable with colour.

6.04€ in 2021.
JeoPoom SATA III Data Cable [Pack of 4], Straight Connection Cable, Motherboard HDD SSD Hard Drive, Supports SATA 3.0 6 Gbps, Backward Compatible with SATA I/II, 50 cm

they were several times connected and disconnected with different pc cases and different mainboard, different hdd and different sata ssds.

--

Can you please tell me your initial question please?

 

[nomdeplume]

Are you asking for recommendations for specific manufacturers' cables you'd like to buy?

To a large amount, without seeding potential responses outside of listed parameters, this was the driving force. A cable is going to be bought with aid of any purchase advice posted. Appreciate you intuiting what was being asked beyond this.

Location of SATA banks on motherboard and four drive mounts inside of case line up with cable routing points to create a short direct line. This is less about clean cable management than strain of bending a cable back over itself multiple times in --> SATA 1/2 on board has less than 2" including connector before passing through to rear chamber. Drive port on first mount sits around 2" beyond with second located around 2" further. Third and fourth are 2.5" only mounts with nearly identical, but more tenable to extend, logical cable routing paths from SATA 3/4.

I stopped buying SATA III cables after reading several test reports which showed no difference using SATA II cables at SATA III speeds.

What I've never seen or tested myself is error rate within transmissions that typically use around half 6gbps bandwidth. Irrespective of SATA standard there are enough reasons to believe construction (AWG/number of grounding wires/etc) don't factor into consumer desktop speed those tests stop at measuring. Correctly you surmised SAS is the place to store critical data if one is being serious.

I'm casually looking at all of this afresh with drives having more complex firmware and OS dictated behaviors. One by one you sorted through a list of things I avoided directly engaging with while leaving room for dismissing delving into them. I do recognize being suspiciously close to that territory.

Would you not see issues in the kernel dmesg buffer when you are using bad SATA cables?

If I had a bad cable on hand, possibly.

More specifically I have reasonable doubts. There is a trend towards omitting access to consumers where they might attempt it. Someone more technically knowledgeable with a lifetime of professional experience might be able to comment directly on aspects dealing with error detection and/or correction. Safe to say OS and firmware are growing increasingly capable of handling issues in real time without interrupting ongoing tasks.

Can you please tell me your initial question please?

I need something that isn't stocked locally or very common elsewhere. The question was if any of the cables I might look at stand out for one reason or another.

 

[Harlow]

SATA 1/2 on board has less than 2" including connector before passing through to rear chamber.

In my latest build, the SATA ports along the front edge of the motherboard were only 1" (25mm) away from a metal drive cage. To avoid extreme bends on SATA cables and to get them to fit with the motherboard installed, I purchased some special cables from Delock. I used their right-angle and left-angle exits, to fit two adjacent side-by-side SATA ports (not stacked in the normal way, one above the other).

https://www.delock.com/produkte/G_785_SATA---eSATA/2.html

I need something that isn't stocked locally or very common elsewhere. The question was if any of the cables I might look at stand out for one reason or another.

If you live in the USA you probably won't find any local stockist for Delock and will have to order them from Europe. Is that sufficiently rare and uncommon for you? I bought my Delock cables on my local eBay web site, instead of my stockist.

Here is a small selection of Delock cables with different cable exit orientations from the SATA connectors. You should be able to find most combination of lengths and orientations required to fit into cramped locations.

https://www.delock.com/produkt/82492/merkmale.html?g=785

https://bilder.tragant.de/bild.php?folder=orig&file=5f1ff33f4788a4.31330014.jpg&nav=0

https://www.delock.com/produkt/82496/merkmale.html?g=785

https://www.delock.com/produkt/82470/merkmale.html?g=785

https://www.delock.com/produkt/82469/merkmale.html?g=785

https://www.delock.com/produkt/82804/merkmale.html?g=785

 

[nomdeplume]

If you live in the USA you probably won't find any local stockist for Delock and will have to order them from Europe.

We appear to have very similar ideas on where this was leading.

What's your latest tech purchase?

Testing a brand new RX 7800 XT. It's been a pleasant experience so far :) Had to upgrade a PSU though. Switched from XFX TS550 to a Gigabyte UD750GM. Even though, you should find the other connector for one of the other 8-pin plugs. (on another cord provided)

www.techpowerup.com

 

[nageme]

Never heard of SATA cable versions. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but it sounds totally unfamiliar.
Any references to official, non-marketing, standards or tech specs?

 

[LabRat 891]

Never heard of SATA cable versions. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but it sounds totally unfamiliar.
Any references to official, non-marketing, standards or tech specs?

There might be some difference between the very first SATA cables and SATA II cables, but I've repeatedly read non-anecdotal evidence over the years that SATA II and SATA III cables are both functionally and marketed-as interchangeable / Identical.

Mind you, this all was before SSDs that could exceed HDD R/W speeds were commonplace.
It's not impossible there are "supposed to be" differences between 3.0Gbps SATA cables and 6.0Gbps SATA cables.

If you live in the USA you probably won't find any local stockist for Delock and will have to order them from Europe.

While clearly not stocked in the US (by shipping times)
Amazon US does list quite a few of their products:

Amazon.com : Delock

To a large amount, without seeding potential responses outside of listed parameters, this was the driving force. A cable is going to be bought with aid of any purchase advice posted. Appreciate you intuiting what was being asked beyond this.

Location of SATA banks on motherboard and four drive mounts inside of case line up with cable routing points to create a short direct line. This is less about clean cable management than strain of bending a cable back over itself multiple times in --> SATA 1/2 on board has less than 2" including connector before passing through to rear chamber. Drive port on first mount sits around 2" beyond with second located around 2" further. Third and fourth are 2.5" only mounts with nearly identical, but more tenable to extend, logical cable routing paths from SATA 3/4.

Understood. Over the years, I've had more than half a dozen SATA cables 'go bad' from being cable managed too tightly.

*Once* I found a bad SATA cable in a Gateway AIO PC, never opened, warranty seals intact.
My boss was upset w/ me that I even took the time to open the unit, but I ended up fixing their AIO w/ a SATA cable out of the partsbin, *and* sold them a new setup.
*shrug*

What I've never seen or tested myself is error rate within transmissions that typically use around half 6gbps bandwidth. Irrespective of SATA standard there are enough reasons to believe construction (AWG/number of grounding wires/etc) don't factor into consumer desktop speed those tests stop at measuring. Correctly you surmised SAS is the place to store critical data if one is being serious.

AFAIK, most SATA Cables are nothing more than Bonded Dual 'Twinax' 100ohm RF cable.

'Coaxial Cable' does have limits to its bend radius, but as you've alluded to,
the most-common trouble are the terminations, and how they endure bends/strain.

If I had a bad cable on hand, possibly.

Make a few.
Grab the chintziest looking SATA cable(s) you can find, and give 'em The Bends

More specifically I have reasonable doubts. There is a trend towards omitting access to consumers where they might attempt it. Someone more technically knowledgeable with a lifetime of professional experience might be able to comment directly on aspects dealing with error detection and/or correction. Safe to say OS and firmware are growing increasingly capable of handling issues in real time without interrupting ongoing tasks.

@lexluthermiester @Solaris17

I need something that isn't stocked locally or very common elsewhere. The question was if any of the cables I might look at stand out for one reason or another.

Are you looking for such, as a point of personal style or value(s)?
Personally, I do quite enjoy knowing I have and use something 'rare' or of 'uncommonly high quality'.
Or, are you looking to find some genuinely primo (and uniquely identifiable) SATA cables that you can purchase in quantity, for putting into 'a product'?


Personally, when I've had to seek out and buy Internal cables, I search for Foxconn, Lotes, Molex, 3M, etc.
-the common OEM/ODM brands that supply servers, workstations, and industrial computers.

On that note:
You might want to see if there are any "Industrial Spec" SATA cables, and what exactly they offer over 'bog standard' cables.
Typically, 'industrial computing' -anything, will have better Shielding/EMI mitigations, a wider thermal tolerance, and more implicit durability.

 

[Solaris17]

Some sata cable is better than others. Some minimal differences are as follows

- EMI shielding
- Copper vs aluminum
- Solid core vs strand

In all cases the attempt is to stop CRC error rates.

Most people assume its just electricity going through a cable, but you can think of every BUS in your machine as a "network". Data for physical media is transmitted as "packets" (data grams) with varying names depending on protocol. These "packets" for data transfer contain checksums that are decoded by controllers and compared to a known agreed (which may be hard coded or decided by the two devices on init in some cases.) number. If the number is different then the CRC fails and the "packet" is either dropped (data corruption/loss) or the "packet" is requested again (latency). CRC error rates are almost always caused by a communicative failure. This doesn't necessarily mean it is the cable, it can be the sata controller, north bridge, drive controller or in some cases another device on a shared BUS interrupting data transfer (USB vs. Audio is a constant example).

The error rates themselves can be 1 way. Think transmit or receive on a radio where one person might hear you, but the other does not. This means that the CRC error rates can either be recorded on the controller of the device itself, or upstream to the device that is controlling the bus (northbridge, superIO, sata controller etc). This also means that simply checking 1 side of the connection might not give you the whole picture of the failure as its not a guarantee that both sides will match. For example a CRC error rate of 2 on your nvme drive that you just pushed 400gb over doesnt seem bad, until you ask the PCH and it tells you there was 5000. However, it should be noted, that some devices even upstream controllers might not even record CRC data, so you might only get 1 side of the story at any given time.

Finally; speaking of sata and nvme, most of these controllers sit under the PCH. The PCH itself is given a hard reservation of pcie lanes from the CPU. This bus is called "DMI" and usually hangs directly off the CPU pins. With modern systems some errors dont trickle down or use protocols not understood by the device that may be malfunctioning. In the case of physical storage, we are talking about CRC (though there are a few others) however, these devices are stupid. They are not fast enough or connected enough to care, about things like pcie lanes. As you might have guessed utilizes its own standard for communication integrity (FBER/BER). Which poses a problem in that errors on DMI because of a bad board, overclock, voltage a myriad of issues etc may cause "silent" failures. If the DMI errors climb and the controllers under it experience communication issues, this may not manifest as CRC issues or they can; and have nothing to do with the link between device and controller.

Exposing issues this deep as you can see in this watered down explanation, is complex and few users rarely dig this far. There are many variables that play into in this case specifically storage failure; to put it all simply though:

- Buy a good sata cable
- Try moving ports first
- Replace the cable

Finally; no. It isnt possible with the current protocols nor is it a good idea to integrate even more into these simple controllers. Sometimes monolithic bus systems are not ideal and in the case of controller and drive offers no benefit other than complexity and cost, for which there is already a lot of I didnt even cover here.

 

[Dr. Dro]

The SATA cable I use on my internal HDD came with my Gigabyte X99 motherboard, so it's about 10 years old? Works fine. Most newer cables should be SATA III (6Gb/s) compliant at this point in time, since SATA Express flopped, this standard has pretty much become obsolete and "frozen in time" despite its continued usage, just like USB 2.0.

All in all as long as the cable has "Serial ATA 6 Gb/s" written somewhere on it, it'll work with pretty much any HDD out there. If you're looking for something different, then this cable is probably the most unique SATA data cable I have ever seen

Silverstone SST-CP11B-300 (if there is an affiliate link, it was added directly by TPU)

 

[nomdeplume]

Never heard of SATA cable versions. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but it sounds totally unfamiliar.
Any references to official, non-marketing, standards or tech specs?

Fairly sure you can pull up your preferred search engine to find the official standard established before SATA I - SATA III were in production.

More relevant to this topic is that cables listed as SATA II 3gbps continue to be made. Made and often shipped with internal optical CD/DVD drives. BD almost certainly come with SATA III. As was suggested directly above, the cables are very likely to be similar or identical internally. Tests referred to further above dissected equal numbers of 3gbps/6gbps cables after they completed testing. Which showed margin of error or less differences between working grade examples. Effectively it comes down to construction quality and QC.

Make a few.
Grab the chintziest looking SATA cable(s) you have, and give 'em The Bends

I've unintentionally made a few over the years. My sense of something being every so slightly off with one in use currently kept nagging at me. When a cold storage drive showed CRC errors with one cable and not with another the decision was made.

Are you looking for such, as a point of personal style or value(s)?

Phrasing could've been more direct there. OP was correct in stating function over form. I was concerned 6" would be tip to tip or 8" would be closer to 1'. Cables that short are certainly less common to start with. That is all.

I spent more than a week casually looking at everything else remaining from 15 year old well used server cables to ones not worth shipping costs. By chance I came across a browser favorites folder with computer stuff that had Delink in it. Seemed a good fit even if a little gratuitous of a purchase.

---

I see Solaris17 just added a fairly robust post handling nearly everything that could still be asked. With my appreciation.

 

[LabRat 891]

Phrasing could've been more direct there. OP was correct in stating function over form. I was concerned 6" would be tip to tip or 8" would be closer to 1'.
Cables that short are certainly less common to start with. That is all.

edit 3:
at least 3M, measures tip-to-tip/end-to-end.

I spent more than a week casually looking at everything else remaining from 15 year old well used server cables to ones not worth shipping costs. By chance I came across a browser favorites folder with computer stuff that had Delink in it. Seemed a good fit even if a little gratuitous of a purchase.

I see.
So it's a case of "Buy once, cry once"?
-you already have to seek out an uncommon cable (length), mightaswell make it the best cable you can get, right?

I have found the length of SATA cable you're talking about in eWaste. Usually, (u)SFF PC Towers and old 3.5" SATA-USB HDD enclosures.
I haven't seen one come out of a pre-built PC not marked Foxconn, or another 'reliable' OEM cable provider.

Regarding Brand New cables:
Specifically and directly addressing your needs and concerns, there are these 3M Industrial SATA cables over @ Mouser.

https://www.mouser.com/c/wire-cable/cable-assemblies/computer-cables/?m=3M&series=5602

200mm (7.87in) - Backorder, >600 on-order.

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/3M-Electronic-Solutions-Division/5602-44-0142A-200?qs=%252BOpBnWnxi5J6%252BZV8a6FRGA%3D%3D

Here's the datasheet for the 3M 5602 Industrial SATA cable series:

https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/1/f207cdbc8efffd945a09186f4e44f9ef3b99d872-2951832.pdf

At least from the datasheet, the 3M SATA cables appear to be very well-certified, with tight tolerances all-around.


Edit 1:
Lot of 6 200mm (7.87in) straight-to-straight 3M SATA cables - $39.99

3M 5602-44-0142A-200 7 POSITION SATA RECEPTACLE TO RECEPTACLE 0.656 (LOT OF 6) | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 3M 5602-44-0142A-200 7 POSITION SATA RECEPTACLE TO RECEPTACLE 0.656 (LOT OF 6) at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Edit 2:
Here's what Digikey offers, in-stock, for ~200mm Shielded SATA cables/

https://www.digikey.com/en/products...ARXn4ANglpOUhFFQ1tPRAAWhs-ExUAVwsQsl5BAXEdaqA

 

[nomdeplume]

I see.
So it's a case of "Buy once, cry once"?
-you already have to seek out an uncommon cable (length), mightaswell make it the best cable you can get, right?

Prices seemed high at retail. A trend that continued into used. Typically I'd scrounge something up and be done with it. Difference in cost was minimal for one cable where I'd bothered looking before mostly coming up dry trying to scrounge a deal. The final straw was an open box cable that cost twice what identical full retail did after shipping was added.

Luckily I found Delock link before Mouser that I know was also lurking in that folder. Getting out cheap and that M word don't equate any better than the N word associated with "The More You Buy, The More You Save!"

 

[A Computer Guy]

The SATA cable I use on my internal HDD came with my Gigabyte X99 motherboard, so it's about 10 years old? Works fine. Most newer cables should be SATA III (6Gb/s) compliant at this point in time, since SATA Express flopped, this standard has pretty much become obsolete and "frozen in time" despite its continued usage, just like USB 2.0.

All in all as long as the cable has "Serial ATA 6 Gb/s" written somewhere on it, it'll work with pretty much any HDD out there. If you're looking for something different, then this cable is probably the most unique SATA data cable I have ever seen

This thread got me curious so I broke out my SATA cable collection and started looking at each cable type more closely. (see picture below)

These days I tend to use the ones marked specifically for 6Gb/s with SSD's but I've also used some of the older red ones as well and didn't notice any problems however I didn't measure any speeds either to see if maybe there was an issue using the older cables of which some go back at least about 16 years.

• Starting a the lower right is a internal mini-SAS SFF-8087 to 4x SATA forward breakout cable but nowhere on the bag does it indicate the supported SATA speed.
  • On the wire it says AWM Style 20744 80c 30v 30AWG.
• Going to the left one the blue cables came with my WD Blue 320GB models ending in AAKS for a period of time being sold in 2009.
  • On the wire it says E74020-C AWM Style 20276 80c 30v
  • These cables were great and snapped into the drive SATA port snugly. Unfortunately they have a little plastic block built into the end connector which not all drives have an insert for. I'm guessing the function of the plastic block is to help prevent the drive connector from breaking in case of hard angled pull stress or just a nice way to help the user plug in the connector making sure it's aligned.
• Going to the left again these are about 3 foot cables came with a SATA II ARECA RAID card (ARC-1120, 64-bit PCI-X) (from around 2009)
  • On the wire it says E119932-T AWM 2725 80c 30v Serial ATA Cable 26AWG
• Going back up to the right are packaged StarTech cables that I snagged when my company was tossing old inventory since core duo days.
  • On the wire it says 2725 E209323 AWM 80c 30v VW-1 Serial ATA 26AWG
  • On the wire it says 2725 E74020-C AWM Style 2725 80c 30v VW-1 Serial ATA 26AWG
• Going up again to a box of mixed black cables from newer motherboard purchases since at least 2019 (they explicitly say they are SATA 6Gbps cables)
  • On the wire it says SATA 6Gb/s AWM E320444 Style 21149 VW-1 80c 30v Serial ATA 6G
  • On the wire it says SATA 6Gb/s AWM E209329 Style 21149 80c 30v VW-1 Serial ATA 6G 26AWG
• At the top are cables pulled from various Dell systems
  • The black ones are SATA 6Gb/s
  • The blue one is not stated
• To the left of the box on the lid is a collection of tightly bundled cables that may have also come with motherboards or HDD purchases or DVD Drive purchases however they are not explicitly labeled for SATA 6Gb/s.
  • On the wire it says Serial ATA 30AWG E326508 AWM 2725 30v 80c VW-1 CSA AWM I/II A 30v 80c FT-1
• The other red ones on the left are various cables I scavenged from various systems but I'm too exhausted now to list the wire specs of the 6 or so different manufacturers of those.

 

[Dr. Dro]

This thread got me curious so I broke out my SATA cable collection and started looking at each cable type more closely. (see picture below)

These days I tend to use the ones marked specifically for 6Gb/s with SSD's but I've also used some of the older red ones as well and didn't notice any problems however I didn't measure any speeds either to see if maybe there was an issue using the older cables of which some go back at least about 16 years.

• Starting a the lower right is a internal mini-SAS SFF-8087 to 4x SATA forward breakout cable but nowhere on the bag does it indicate the supported SATA speed.
  • On the wire it says AWM Style 20744 80c 30v 30AWG.
• Going to the left one the blue cables came with my WD Blue 320GB models ending in AAKS for a period of time being sold in 2009.
  • On the wire it says E74020-C AWM Style 20276 80c 30v
  • These cables were great and snapped into the drive SATA port snugly. Unfortunately they have a little plastic block built into the end connector which not all drives have an insert for. I'm guessing the function of the plastic block is to help prevent the drive connector from breaking in case of hard angled pull stress or just a nice way to help the user plug in the connector making sure it's aligned.
• Going to the left again these are about 3 foot cables came with a SATA II ARECA RAID card (ARC-1120, 64-bit PCI-X) (from around 2009)
  • On the wire it says E119932-T AWM 2725 80c 30v Serial ATA Cable 26AWG
• Going back up to the right are packaged StarTech cables that I snagged when my company was tossing old inventory since core duo days.
  • On the wire it says 2725 E209323 AWM 80c 30v VW-1 Serial ATA 26AWG
  • On the wire it says 2725 E74020-C AWM Style 2725 80c 30v VW-1 Serial ATA 26AWG
• Going up again to a box of mixed black cables from newer motherboard purchases since at least 2019 (they explicitly say they are SATA 6Gbps cables)
  • On the wire it says SATA 6Gb/s AWM E320444 Style 21149 VW-1 80c 30v Serial ATA 6G
  • On the wire it says SATA 6Gb/s AWM E209329 Style 21149 80c 30v VW-1 Serial ATA 6G 26AWG
• At the top are cables pulled from various Dell systems
  • The black ones are SATA 6Gb/s
  • The blue one is not stated
• To the left of the box on the lid is a collection of tightly bundled cables that may have also come with motherboards or HDD purchases or DVD Drive purchases however they are not explicitly labeled for SATA 6Gb/s.
  • On the wire it says Serial ATA 30AWG E326508 AWM 2725 30v 80c VW-1 CSA AWM I/II A 30v 80c FT-1
• The other red ones on the left are various cables I scavenged from various systems but I'm too exhausted now to list the wire specs.

View attachment 390286

I did some quick googling on a few numbers I noticed, the numbers that start with E seem to be UL certification codes, the rest didn't look too meaningful to me. That's a pretty large selection, it'd be cool if you could try some of the oldest cables you have that are not explicitly marked 6Gb/s and see if it still negotiates that link speed.

 

[A Computer Guy]

I did some quick googling on a few numbers I noticed, the numbers that start with E seem to be UL certification codes, the rest didn't look too meaningful to me. That's a pretty large selection, it'd be cool if you could try some of the oldest cables you have that are not explicitly marked 6Gb/s and see if it still negotiates that link speed.

It's perfect timing actually because I had to teardown my NR200P system and pack things away so everything is easily accessible at the moment to switch up hardware. I'll see if I can try it out sometime this week.

 

[nomdeplume]

The other red ones on the left are various cables I scavenged from various systems but I'm too exhausted now to list the wire specs of the 6 or so different manufacturers of those.

Good call.

Have a slightly smaller project wiping a pile of HDD in preparation of a full format party. So many 2.5", so little desire to own USB external cases for each of them.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Good call.

Have a slightly smaller project wiping a pile of HDD in preparation of a full format party. So many 2.5", so little desire to own USB external cases for each of them.

Why not get a dock instead of a bunch of external cases? Effectively turns any number of HDDs into fancy USB storage. They make docks with 2-3 bays that are quite affordable

 

[nomdeplume]

I did some quick googling on a few numbers I noticed, the numbers that start with E seem to be UL certification codes, the rest didn't look too meaningful to me. That's a pretty large selection, it'd be cool if you could try some of the oldest cables you have that are not explicitly marked 6Gb/s and see if it still negotiates that link speed.

Surprised with your collection of 10K HDD you don't own some decades old server cables that passed a few PB of data in their working life. I'll admit $15 each was a bit steep for my interest level. Ebay always has it's share of long term opportunists. Might look again and try to catch someone selling a gnarled up handful of them for nothing.

Why not get a dock instead of a bunch of external cases? Effectively turns any number of HDDs into fancy USB storage. They make docks with 2-3 bays that are quite affordable

Two words: magic smoke.

Actually had decent luck last few years with a multi-plug dongle USB 3.1 adapter. I knew the end was in the cards when plugging it in was a larger pyrotechnic event every time. Anyways these 2.5" are all old and probably better off recycled.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Surprised with your collection of 10K HDD you don't own some decades old server cables that passed a few PB of data in their working life. I'll admit $15 each was a bit steep for my interest level. Ebay always has it's share of long term opportunists. Might look again and try to catch someone selling a gnarled up handful of them for nothing.

Two words: magic smoke.

Actually had decent luck last few years with a multi-plug dongle USB 3.1 adapter. I knew the end was in the cards when plugging it in was a larger pyrotechnic event every time. Anyways these 2.5" are all old and probably better off recycled.

Well I got them only relatively recently and they're probably unused spares, so that makes sense... that's rough though. I'm fortunate I never really had any magic smoke incident with them

 

[A Computer Guy]

Good call.

Have a slightly smaller project wiping a pile of HDD in preparation of a full format party. So many 2.5", so little desire to own USB external cases for each of them.

I still have 3 x 2.5in Seagate 320GB 7200rpm and 3 x 2.5in Western Digital 500GB 5400rpm drives back from my daily laptop using days. Sometimes I ponder throwing them into a Synology Slim NAS but the cost for the capacity isn't worth it. Occasionally I break them out as USB drives when I don't have any USB sticks available.

 

[lexluthermiester]

More specifically I have reasonable doubts. There is a trend towards omitting access to consumers where they might attempt it. Someone more technically knowledgeable with a lifetime of professional experience might be able to comment directly on aspects dealing with error detection and/or correction. Safe to say OS and firmware are growing increasingly capable of handling issues in real time without interrupting ongoing tasks.

I'll go along with that, but with a caveat: Errors from signal degradation due to poor cable construction, conductor damage or conductor metal fatigue(different kind of damage) can not be corrected.

All in all as long as the cable has "Serial ATA 6 Gb/s" written somewhere on it, it'll work with pretty much any HDD out there.

Or SSDs.

A thought, just for the sake of debate: By the strict physics, SATA cables and signalling should be able to sustain upto 36Gbps as is. With improvements to cable construction, up to 84Gbps should be possible. This would make large form(3.5"/5.25") SSD's viable..

 

[nomdeplume]

Magic smoke might be a little too dramatic. Soft fail. That dongle into a power strip was an arms length adventure though.

I plan to get down to exactly as many external USB 3.1 for 2.5" drives as I have SATA SSD that aren't in a system. General Spring cleaning to make room for my own shoe box sized collection of SATA cables.

 

[nageme]

There might be some difference between the very first SATA cables and SATA II cables, but I've repeatedly read non-anecdotal evidence over the years that SATA II and SATA III cables are both functionally and marketed-as interchangeable / Identical.
...
It's not impossible there are "supposed to be" differences between 3.0Gbps SATA cables and 6.0Gbps SATA cables.

... cables listed as SATA II 3gbps continue to be made. ... As was suggested directly above, the cables are very likely to be similar or identical internally. ... Effectively it comes down to construction quality and QC.

Poorly made cables are a possibility, but I don't recall much/any talk about cable grades. Particularly, no indication in articles or product literature that there is such as a thing as official cable versions or grades.
Anecdotally, I myself never paid attention to cable-claimed versions. The ones I use or used are all randoms, old or new, selected only based on superficial physical properties like length, connector shape/type, or color (to be able to tell them apart).

So my impression is that claimed cable versions are mainly marketing fluff.
In stuff like Ethernet or HDMI it does matter and it is official (less sure about HDMI, but probably), because we're talking external cables, long distances, high data rates, and relatively big differences in data rates throughout the years.

Anyway, it made me curious. I dug into the SATA standard specs. It does briefly mention cables. As far as I can tell there were no changes in cable specs across SATA revisions.
There is one added spec related to multi-lane cables, which were introduced in v2.6. But that's not the discussion here. I've never seen or used such cables.

So the cable specs, unchanged at least between standard revisions 1.0a up to v3.1 (years 2003 to 2011), seem to be only:

In the spec documents it's under:
v1.0a (2003): table 4, page 60.
v2.5 (2005): table 10, page 104. v2.6 (2007): table 16, page 144.
v3.0 (2009): table 18, page 165. v3.1 (2011): table 20, page 176.

Mind you, this all was before SSDs that could exceed HDD R/W speeds were commonplace.

It's logical to expect that maxed transfer speeds would make encountering problems more likely.
But can anyone report having encountered speed problems in practice?
That weren't caused by a broken cable, and that were fixed by switching to a better one.

Tests referred to further above dissected equal numbers of 3gbps/6gbps cables after they completed testing.

This thread has become long-winded pretty quickly. Which tests do you mean?

 

[Epaminombas]

Yes, there are SATA2 and SATA3 cables certified for 6Gb/s transfer.

People with SATA SSDs using SATA2 cables have performance issues.