SATA 2 cable on SATA 3 HDD - problem?

[Giraffe]

Just been looking through me box o' bits and found a couple of unopened SATA 2 cables.
I'm getting a SATA 3 HDD, so will these cables be a restriction? If so, I'll order some new ones.

Cheers.

[kalniel]

Not in the slightest.

[ik9000]

you'll probably be fine. In theory, if they're cheap and nasty they may not deliver the full speed, but suck it and see. If it delivers the right speed you're fine. If it doesn't buy a sata3 cable.

[Giraffe]

OK, thanks for the reassurances.
My two thoughts were that either 'it's a bit of wire' so no problem or it could be like HDMI specs and suitable cables.
The quality should be OK: nearly a fiver from Scan; Silverstone admittedly, but seem to be the same spec. as Akasa, so not 99p jobs!

[peterb]

I tried to find the cable specs on the SATA-IO website (the organisation responsible for the SATA design, specification and standards).

Difficult, but I did find this

http://www.maximumpc.com/is-your-sat...-investigates/

which implies that a properly made quality SATA 2 cable will transfer data at SATA 3 speeds. ASATA 3 cable should guarantee maximum data transfer, a SATA 2 cable may give maximum data transfer speeds.

[kalniel]

Do you know of any HDDs that max out the SATA 2 speeds? Even if it's limited to SATA 2 speeds that's still way more than it needs. SSDs are another story (but arguably the most noticeable gain is the improvement in random response time, so unaffected by being limited to SATA 2 - I run an 850 Evo on SATA2 and the intel controller makes a better difference than using the marvel SATA 3 with higher theoretical speeds).

[peterb]

Do you know of any HDDs that max out the SATA 2 speeds? Even if it's limited to SATA 2 speeds that's still way more than it needs. SSDs are another story (but arguably the most noticeable gain is the improvement in random response time, so unaffected by being limited to SATA 2 - I run an 850 Evo on SATA2 and the intel controller makes a better difference than using the marvel SATA 3 with higher theoretical speeds).

It depends what you mean by 'max out'.

There may be other factors that affect average throughput, although cable type may affect instantaneous or burst output. An analogy might be comparing it with printer speed and time to first page.

A printer with a slow output in terms of pages per minute, but a fast time to first page may out-perform a printer with a faster page per minute, but longer time to first page for a single page document, but fall behind when printing multiple page documents.

So a low SATA 2 cable might affect the initial data transfer, but make little difference to the overall throughput. However, as the reference stated, they found no difference between the cables until they used very long lengths.

That said, I'm not sure how rigorous the tests were in terms of absolute measurement. I'd rather have seen some definitive measurements measuring bandwidth, transmission characteristics etc.

[Bonebreaker777]

Not sure about that. I just recycled 4x red and old school SATA cables from a HP PC (old stuff, with IDE and SATA on the board together). And the cables are not holding back the SSD the slightest. But after reading this post I did checked them comparing the results to a modern SATA cable.

[Giraffe]

Looking better and better. Soon find out (fsvo soon) as the delivery is due in 20 mins. Mind, the RAM won't be here for another 3h at best.

[Sean473]

Looking better and better. Soon find out (fsvo soon) as the delivery is due in 20 mins. Mind, the RAM won't be here for another 3h at best.

What happened in the end?

[khanmein]

no different, important is the sata port itself.

[peterb]

OK, thanks for the reassurances.
My two thoughts were that either 'it's a bit of wire' so no problem or it could be like HDMI specs and suitable cables.
The quality should be OK: nearly a fiver from Scan; Silverstone admittedly, but seem to be the same spec. as Akasa, so not 99p jobs!

As this old thread has been resurrected, I'd just point out that at the transfer speeds concerned, the cable is acting like a transmission line, so not "just a bit of wire"!

no different, important is the sata port itself.

It would be helpful if you could back up these assertions with facts or a reasoned explanation, so the OP can make an informed opinion. This thread is three months old, and the original question was answered some weeks ago.

[Giraffe]

So far as I can see, the cable didn't slow down the PC. I changed to a SATA 3 when I had the confidence to take one from the 'old' PC and there was no change of speed. 'It's only a bit of wire, just like HDMI'