If you have ever seen a PC inside or bought a motherboard, you will have noticed that the SATA cables that come are almost always flat and elongated , unlike other system cables. In this article, we are going to tell you why SATA cables have this design so different from other cables, although it can sometimes be strange.
Whether you have purchased a pre-assembled PC, or if you have ever purchased a motherboard, you will see that a handful of SATA data cables always comes. These are generally black, red or orange, but their design is always common: they are flat and elongated. It is true that there are cables that are not, generally related to modding, but we can say without fear of being wrong that 95% of cables have this design that we are talking about, and we will explain why below.
Why are SATA cables flat?
The first reason these cables are made this way is because of design and ease of manufacture. Since the SATA connector is elongated, it is much easier to manufacture a cable with the internal cables in parallel, thus having a much more homogeneous structure than if the cables had to go in a circular conduit, intersecting each other.
What we see “flattened” of the cable is nothing but an insulating plastic cover, but inside we find more cables, one for each connector of the 8 internal ones it has. By doing it this way, since the internal cables will always run in parallel, the manufacturer saves a lot of insulating material (when you manufacture these cables by the thousands, it is quite a lot). This is a SATA cable inside:
So the main reason SATA cables are flat is for ease of manufacturing and cost savings by doing so, but it is not the only reason why they remain that way today.
Design, channeling and user-friendliness
The manufacturers realized that with this design of flat cables they achieved an additional advantage, and that is that they are channeled very easily in PC cases, especially in those too narrow that have little space for channeling at the rear.
Being flat and thin, they can enter through small holes without problems and also stick parallel to the metal plate on the back of the PC case. Furthermore, due to their shape, they fold and rotate very easily, allowing easy channeling in any type of PC case.
Likewise, with this structure with the internal cables in parallel it is achieved that they have a high resistance to friction and traction, so even if they slide and rub against the metal plates of the PC case, it is difficult to damage them.
Finally, to highlight another aspect that is less important, but it should also be mentioned that the manufacturers realized that with this flat design the cables differ much better in a mounted PC, especially when it has not been carefully and carefully mounted. to correctly channel the cables to favor a good internal air flow or, in short, to have a presentable interior.
What more types are there?
As we have said before, although almost all the SATA cables that exist are flat, there are also other forms, although it is true that they are almost always linked to modding. For example, there are several manufacturers that sell them with rounded shape and meshes in nylon thread, as if they were power supply cables.
In fact, a long time ago the manufacturer Silverstone launched very short and thin SATA cables, specially designed for small form factor systems, and which had no performance loss in the SATA 3 standard (but which were quite prone to damage due to to the cable structure without meshing).
As we mentioned before, around 95% of the SATA cables on the market are flat, and of the remaining 5%, almost all are rounded and meshed specially designed for modding. There are some additional variants but so marginal that it is almost impossible to find them for sale.