Everything You Need to Know About SATA Connection Standards and SATA Power Cables

Introduction

Whenever you need to connect a storage device to a computer motherboard, you must have seen a bunch of ribbon or flat like cables being used for the purpose. Different kinds of peripherals and motherboards require a different kind of cables, but all these falls under one major classification: SATA cables. They come up in various types such as AWM 20624 ribbon flex cable, micro SATA cables, Intel NUC SATA cables and so on. But before we dive deep into those SATA cable classifications, we need to have a look at what SATA actually means.

SATA Cables: The Industry Standard for Connecting Storage Devices

SATA stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment and is a standard attachment standard that is widely used for connecting various peripherals such as hard disks, optical drives and solid-state drives to a computer motherboard. What makes them perfect for mass storage devices is the fact that SATA cables and connectors can transmit both data at high speeds and power the peripheral device.

SATA was introduced in 2001 as a replacement for PATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment), which was the dominant connector standard back then. SATA was introduced to be much faster and adaptable to a wide range of devices and motherboards. SATA cables are a lot more compact than PATA cables while transmitting more than double the amount of data. They use different pins for transmitting and receiving data, making them fast and dependent. SATA cables are also plug-and-play, so all you need to do is plug a peripheral and it will work right away.

SATA Cables: Applications & Types

There are many variations such as Intel NUC SATA cable, Micro SATA cable and regular SATA power cables. Their main use is connecting storage devices with the computer monitor, either internally or externally via the use of SATA cable adapters. But their applications are not limited to only those; they are also used in computer server hardware, like connectors for multimedia peripherals and compact computers.

SATA cable connectors have two major components; the power cable connector and data cable connector. Depending on the variant of the cable, both of them are either joined together to form a single ribbon cable or available in separate configurations as needed. Other types of SATA cables are as follows:

  • Micro SATA: Micro SATA is generally used for internal computer connections, and primarily in compact computers such as laptops and Intel NUC computers.
  • SATA Bridge: This SATA cable variant is used to connect an ATA device to a SATA supported motherboard or to a PCI express card.
  • E-SATA: These are generally used for external SATA connections. Their only issue is that they don’t have power transfer capability like regular SATA cables, so a separate power source may be required to power the devices connected at the other end of the e-SATA cable.
  • Low Profile SATA: Low profile SATA cables usually are used for highly intensive workstations with multiple graphic cards because they take up less space than conventional SATA cables but more space than Micro SATA cables.
  • SATA Adapter Cables: SATA adapter cables are meant to connect older, incompatible devices with newer hardware. For example, one can connect a PATA hardware or PATA motherboard to a new SATA supported device/motherboard by use of a PATA to SATA converter cable. It can also convert different power and data transmission standards that make devices incompatible based on connections.
  • SATA to USB Cables: These are primarily used for converting internal hard disks into external hard disks. Because many computers don’t have an external SATA port, and not many internal hard disks and SSDs support USB cables, a SATA to USB converter cable can be a lifesaver if you want to connect an internal hard disk to a computer externally via USB connection points.

SATA Cables: Slowly Being Replaced by New Standards

SATA is not a new standard; it will be roughly two decades old since its introduction to the cable world. As manufacturers design newer and faster connection options such as PCI Express and NVMe for connecting storage devices, SATA has slowly declined in popularity today, unlike how popular it was in the early 2000s. New connection standards are primarily used in high-end servers that handle large amounts of traffic.

But that does not mean SATA is no longer relevant; in fact, the main factor that still makes SATA the most popular connection standard for storage devices is the fact that they are a whole lot cheaper than other standards, and are no slouch when it comes to data transfer speeds. That makes SATA the perfect choice for low to mid-end servers and for personal use in devices such as laptops and computers.

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