SATA cables or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment cables are cables or connections that abide by the IDE standard of connecting devices within a computer.
Do Motherboards Come with SATA Cables
A little about SATA Cables
When you start building your computer, you will come across this term quite often. This is why we thought it was important for you to understand what it means. SATA cables are thin and long. They have 7 pins. They are also easy to recognize because they are flat and have a 90-degree angle. They are manufactured in such a way to help easy storage.
SATA cables are easily affordable and come with the ability to hot swap whenever required. A hot swap is defined as the choice to swap cables without having to shut the whole system down.
The only downside of SATA cables is that you won’t be able to connect external hard drives. Even if you can connect them with a SATA connection, you can only transfer data. Power will not transmit in these cases.
Do Motherboards come with SATA Cables?
One of the most common questions we have heard is whether motherboards already have SATA cables or whether we should buy them separately. The answer is sort of ambiguous. This is because a few motherboards come with cables, and a few others don’t. So, we really cannot be sure. The only thing we can say with certainty is that good or expensive motherboards often have 2 or 4 SATA cables. Cheap options may only come with one cable or none at all.
Before purchasing your motherboard, you should actually make sure you check this so that you know if you need to spend more money. This will save you hassle later on when you sit down to build your computer.
Understand the SATA Type
This is an extremely important point, especially if you are buying SATA cables separately. This is why we decided to speak about it in this article itself. There are 2 main types of SATA cables, namely SATA 2 and SATA 3. SATA 2 offers 3 Gbps data transfer while SATA 3 offers 6 Gbps. Your drive and the motherboard must support the same SATA cable for the computer to function well. While, sometimes, you can use them interchangeably, it is not always possible, and you cannot expect high speed when you do this.
These days, though, almost all motherboards and devices support SATA 3. So, picking out is definitely easier, but crosschecking will help you avoid problems later.
What’s the bottom line? Whether motherboards come with SATA cables is a question you can only ask the manufacturers. Even the number of cables you get varies with the type you choose! So, be careful while purchasing and avoid hassle during the assembly process. All the best!