SATA cables and plugs

[BonzaiDuck]

Is there really any difference between an SATA cable that was bundled with an SATA-II-era motherboard and an SATA-"III" cable?

I thought at one time I'd ordered some SATA cables that were labeled "SATA-III." I can't remember if there was ever a real difference. Anyone know? Is there a difference in shielding, or some other factor?

 

[Soundmanred]

No.
I tested my SSD with different cables when I got it. I thought maybe some would be better than the others and I'd use the "best one". Nope, they all tested around the same speed.

 

[john3850]

No difference with the bundled flat lead cables.
I now only use only the rounded SATA cables that have braided shielding from monoprice.com.
I did see a small difference on my benched scores on As-ssd over the flat lead cables.
One poster here claimed there was a big difference with raid with 6 to 8 drives using shielded cables over flat.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

No difference with the bundled flat lead cables.
I now only use only the rounded SATA cables that have braided shielding from monoprice.com.
I did see a small difference on my benched scores on As-ssd over the flat lead cables.
One poster here claimed there was a big difference with raid with 6 to 8 drives using shielded cables over flat.

I figured such was the case. I think it's about time I purge all the IDE ribbon cables from my parts locker. Even if I do that, there will still be quite a handful of unused SATA spares -- some in shrink-wrap.

My biggest problem so far with SATA and SATA cables: It doesn't take much when fiddling around with big hands inside my case to move those plugs in their ports so that the system doesn't recognize this or that drive on bootup. I had quite a scare the other night: two of my pooled HDDs didn't show up in BIOS!! After replacing the power cable from the PSU a closer look at the plugs in the mobo SATA ports prompted me to reseat the connections.