SATA II vs SATA III cables?

[Skippman]

I'm still trying to get my machine up and running. After running memtest86 for 10 hours last night I think I can rule out my memory.

Someone suggested the problem might be my SATA cable. I've never had a SATA cable fail on me so I'm not sure if it would cause a BSOD like I'm getting. Is this possible? I'm new to the whole SSD thing. Also, is there a difference between SATA II and SATA III cables? Or are they interchangable?

[FZ1]

All SATA cables are not made equal. However, a quality "SATA II" cable will work just fine with SATA III and offer all of the same bandwidth. Some cables provided with some motherboard mfgs are cheap and may inhibit performance - even on SATA II. For my SSD reviews, I have been using the (labeled) SATA III cables provided by Intel as I trust their component quality. I would assume cables that come with SSDs would be of sufficient quality from mainstream manufacturers. I don't think there is really a design difference in what are labeled as SATA II and SATA III cables, they just have better materials (kinda like binned NAND or processors, same design, different possible speeds).

[Skippman]

I've been using what I assumed where the SATA III cables from my eVGA motherboard to try and get my OCZ Agility III SSD to work. These cables are round, as opposed to the traditional flat SATA cables. They manual does not label them, nor are they labeled themselves. My SSD did not include any cables nor a mounting bracket. I'm attempting to determin if the cable or the drive is defective.

[Major_A]

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subde ... id=1022602

[Apoptosis]

very strange, but you have another SATA cable around don't you?

[Skippman]

Yeah. I've been fighting with my new rig for a while now. At first I thought it was a memory issue but now it's looking more and more like an issue with the SSD as the RAM passed 10 passes of Memtest86. I can't think of anything else in the machine that would cause BSOD's like I'm getting.

When I'd go to install Win7 a few times I got write errors and the drive would disappear from the install manager leaving my RAID0 array there. This even happened with the mechanical HDD's disconnected. A co-worker mentioned it might be a SATA cable issue. I plan to try a different cable tonight. If that doesn't work, I'll pull the SSD and install Windows on the RAID array and see if I still get BSOD's. If I don't then the drive must be bad I suppose.

Reading on NewEgg this Agility drive seems to get a lot of poor reviews for this very issue and apparently OCZ's been very poor at responding to people. But then again, this is the internet so people complain a lot if they don't get instant satisfaction. Hopefully MicroCenter will take the drive back and exchange it if it's defective.

[Major_A]

Did you ever run the firmware update? If you get Windows installed on the RAID array plug in the SSD and run the firmware update. Then try to install Windows on it again.

[Skippman]

The drive is running 2.15 which is the latest firmware from OCZ. I'm now typing this from Warmachine 3.0 using my twin WD Black drives in RAID0 without the SSD connected any everythings working excellently. It's obvious the SSD is the cause of the trouble.

[Major_A]

Don't tell me that. Santa has that exact drive in his workshop waiting for me come the 25th.

[Skippman]

Don't tell me that. Santa has that exact drive in his workshop waiting for me come the 25th.

I can't say this is indicitive of all the OCZ Agility III drives, and it may just be some wierd issue between it and the Z68 platform. The boys here at LR didn't seem to have these issues with the one they tested. I'm going to try swapping it out today if they'll exchange it and see if that helps.

[FZ1]

I think Nate has the Agility drive I tested...far as I know it's doing well.

[Skippman]

It was the drive.

I must have just been unlucky and got a defective one. Swapped for new at Micro Center today and everythings running great. I went ahead and sprang for the $20 warrenty just in case though. I don't want to get 45 days down the road and not be able to replace it if I have a problem. I don't want ANY problems actually!