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Which cable do I need?

Z

zinsae

Junior Member
I'm building a HTPC and my mobo is "ASRock A780GXH/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard". My HDD is "Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EACS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive" and it's an OEM so it doesn't come with any cable. What cable and which type cable do I need?

Thanks
 
EDIT: Yeah, what jandlecack said.


Well, er, 3.0Gb/s is commonly referred to as SATA II. So, you should use a SATA II cable. I don't even think there are SATA I cables that do not work with SATA II though, so any SATA cable should be fine.
 
Yeah, there's no deeper differentiation for SATA cable types, they aren't limited to only support SATA 1 or 2, and I don't think it wouldn't support SATA 3 in the future either, since it's just a digital interface. The end devices are the limitations.
 
Originally posted by: jandlecack
Yeah, there's no deeper differentiation for SATA cable types, they aren't limited to only support SATA 1 or 2, and I don't think it wouldn't support SATA 3 in the future either, since it's just a digital interface. The end devices are the limitations.
Click to expand...

It is most certainly possible for an under-designed cable to be a limiting factor for a digital link. Otherwise there would be no such thing as CAT 6 cable.

In the case of SATA, the original SATA cable was specified well enough (and no dramatic changes in requirements were made for the cable, other than dealing with a faster symbol rate) that any SATA cable should be fine for use with "SATA 2" devices, and probably with SATA 3.0 as well. But you cannot generalize that to every digital communications link.
 
Network cables are in no way similar to SATA cables, and by the way, CAT6 is not a speed standard. You can have 1000BASE-T on CAT5e.

CAT6, CAT5 etc. specify how often the pairs of wires are twisted per metre, thus while making them harder to use/bend, also giving a more durable voltage rate and allowing higher speeds.
 
Originally posted by: jandlecack
Network cables are in no way similar to SATA cables, and by the way, CAT6 is not a speed standard.
Click to expand...

You implied that the cable was completely unimportant in terms of the speed of a digital link. This is false. I did not intend to suggest that CAT 6 was a speed standard; it is a physical cable standard that impacts the usable speed of the communications link.

Network cables are in numerous ways similar to SATA cables.

You can have 1000BASE-T on CAT5e.
Click to expand...

Or on CAT 5, with no guarantees. But you would have little luck with CAT 3.

CAT6, CAT5 etc. specify how often the pairs of wires are twisted per metre, thus while making them harder to use/bend, also giving a more durable voltage rate and allowing higher speeds.
Click to expand...

The standards specify more than that. I do not know what "a more durable voltage rate" means.
 
I didn't mean it was completely unimportant, but SATA cables support fast enough speed to cater to SATA 1, 2, and I think even 3. I don't know its exact limitations, but they aren't on the end devices at the moment, especially considering you don't operate at interface speed due to the fact.

In terms of voltage on CAT6, it's simply more consistent, more stable, more durable, lasts longer. This is due to the tighter twisted cabling inside, it can carry the signal farther and at higher sustained speeds.
 
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