Warning. Do not use a old SATA cable for your new drive.

[tweakboy]

I was using a SATA I cable from 6 years ago. I got SATA II cable and here is the Crystal Mark before and after. You'll be shocked. Both inside safe mode.

 

[jez006]

How can i tell if my cables are sata 1 or 2?

 

[tweakboy]

Jez006 the problem is you cant tell. There is no software that does that. Look at the cable it will probably just say SATA on it, But you dont know still. How old are your cables ??? If they came from a older rig you just might be using older SATA I cables. No way to find out sorry about that. You can read on the cable see what it says thats your last hope, other then that your not gonna know. Thanks and gl,

 

[razel]

Great find. Curious if you tried plugging the old cable back to see if you get the same results. Maybe the old cable was borderline 'broken.' Simply moving or wiggling it reconnected a broken wire. Regardless, if that's the case, don't use it.

 

[tweakboy]

Hey wat up razel, the cable was in perfect condition and I tried plugging and replugging it few times it was nice connection and I used a strong light soo I didnt do anything stupid. Nicely connected and that Crystal mark before and after. Well the before I was using it on that SATA I cable for almost a month. Soo I know if I plug it in again I will get same results.

ALSO FYI,, I tried 2 different SATA cables at first. I knew something was wrong with my Crystal Mark.. Soo I went to Fry's got 'specifically SATA II uv blue cable for 4.99 and plugged her in and went to safe mode ran that Crystal Mark.

 

[capeconsultant]

Hmmmm, this is an amazing find and may explain many weird anomalies that adopters of SSD's have been having. So simple, I NEVER would have thought of it.

I have no idea what type of SATA cable I am using. I suspect it is OK but OTOH I may have just grabbed a cable from the shelf.

Is a BLUE SATA cable always SATA !!? Thanks, Dave

 

[tweakboy]

No a blue one is not, cuz I have a old blue one from my Seagate 80GB it was a 2005 cable
It said SATA on it but thats it. The one I bought which is this... Except I got lucky mine was 19 inches at the store not 18 inches and it was only 4.99 I bought two. My cage is on the top of full case soo I needed it to be long but not 3 feet long lol which is mroe expensive... Ya man I was happy when I saw those results that my hunch was correct. I was content as long as the one I bought said SATA II UV Blue specifically and not SATA I lol, soo ya it made the difference. I had tried 2 SATA old cables with it and tried diff sata input still same crystal mark until I changed to SATA II cable. Thanks

http://www.frys.com/product/5222757?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Says SATA II UV cable specifically it says SATA II.

 

[Slacker]

I can has cables?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Sequential Read : 57.494 MB/s
Sequential Write : 56.827 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 25.981 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 33.024 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.364 MB/s [ 88.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 1.017 MB/s [ 248.4 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 0.586 MB/s [ 143.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 1.030 MB/s [ 251.4 IOPS]

OS : Windows 7 Home Premium Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

 

[poohbear]

so u hafta get sata2 cables to get sata2 speeds? wouldnt hdd & ssd manufacterers emphasize someting so simple? I'm guessing it was just a broken cable, nothing to do w/ sata1 or 2.

 

[0roo0roo]

<- skeptical
what are the electrical differences between the cables anyways..

 

[0roo0roo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA#SATA_Revision_2.0_.28SATA_3_Gbit.2Fs.29
yea u just had a bad cable

 

[tweakboy]

both cables were fine that I used poohbear. Its the SATA II cable that made the difference.

I tried 2 perfect condition but old cables and I tried 2 different SATA slots,, same things I go score 74 read...now its 113 alto Im told it should be higher. It is the cable dont be stuborn. I bet your cable on your SSD is 1 year old,, well thats a SATA II cable,, old SATA I before SATAII ,, is different cable. I put it back on SATA 0 all ports work fine

 

[tweakboy]

I tried 2 cables that worked fine before,,, and 4 SATA inputs and same Crystal Mark
Once I got the SATA II UV BLUE cable the scores went up to 113 read the first one. Once again these before and after do not lie.

 

[tcsenter]

How can i tell if my cables are sata 1 or 2?

There is no such thing, same with USB. There are only cheap inferior cables and good superior cables. Nothing to do with SATA I or III or VII.

 

[Voo]

both cables were fine that I used poohbear.

You just showed us benchmarks that prove the contrary. There isn't such a thing as SATA1 or 2 cables, every cable meeting the SATA spec is rated for the 3gbit/s, shocking fact isn't it?

 

[Blain]

Yellow are the best by far.

 

[Soundmanred]

There is no such thing as SATAI or SATAII cables, only ones that work right, and ones that don't. Like others have said, it's like USB 1.0 and 2.0, the cables are the same, it's just marketing to get you to buy new cables.
My mind is blown, I can't believe the OP made an erroneous discovery. He's like an anti-scientist.

 

[Blain]

My mind is blown, I can't believe the OP made an erroneous discovery. He's like an anti-scientist.

How dare you denigrate his months of painstaking, purely objective and scientific research.

 

[tweakboy]

I changed to SATA 3 input and now look at Crystal Mark all connections fit.

 

[Idontcare]

both cables were fine that I used poohbear. Its the SATA II cable that made the difference.

I tried 2 perfect condition but old cables and I tried 2 different SATA slots,, same things I go score 74 read...now its 113 alto Im told it should be higher. It is the cable dont be stuborn. I bet your cable on your SSD is 1 year old,, well thats a SATA II cable,, old SATA I before SATAII ,, is different cable.

The point, tweakboy, is that if the cables were fine then you would have not seen a performance difference between them since there is no such thing as a non-SataII cable. All SATA cables are SATAII cables by spec definition.

If you test cables and notice a performance difference among them it is not because of their label or color, it is because there was something wrong with the lower-performing cables.

And yes, you can have more than one bad cable.

 

[Emulex]

the correct thing to say is don't use crusty old cables or CHEAP cables. those cheapie 50 cent ones - no thank you- i've had issues with ecc error between the controller and drive with long ones. snatched a long one from a hp workstation and booya no errors.

 

[poohbear]

Yellow are the best by far.

ROFL sorry this was too funny.

OP ppl are skeptical for a reason, no offense but if something as simple as a cable change creates these enormous gains in speeds it would be emphasized by every manufacterer and every hardware site, but i've read before SATA1 or 2 cables make no difference unless one of em is broken.

I did read that SATA3 are a little different, any truth to that?

 

[Old Hippie]

Yellow are the best by far.

I'll second that emotion.

I always buy the yellow ones! :biggrin:

 

[Edrick]

I did read that SATA3 are a little different, any truth to that?

Newegg is selling SATA3 cables. So maybe there is a slight difference.

But I never heard of a difference between SATA1 and SATA2.

 

[capeconsultant]

Pink cables for this month, please!