Basic Computer Cables Question (for new build)

syrianrue

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Apr 17, 2010
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Hi,

I just ordered the parts for my new build, but since my old computer was about 8 years old, all of the cables from my previous motherboard were rather old. Sata/Sata II

Now, this new motherboard supports SATA III and has 6 sata 6 gb/s ports... but the motherboard came with just 2 sata III 6 gb/s cables... so i need to get a few more of these sata III 6 gb/s cables right? or do hard drives need to be able to support sata III in order to utilize these sata 6 gb/s cables? because all of the sata cables i have from my previous computer were these:
(these are sata II cables that are not 6 gb/s i think) from 8 years ago
Serial ATA E162747 (red)
Serial ATA E209329 Lian Feng (yellow)

My new motherboard: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87A/specifications/

My other question is... is there a cleaner and more efficient way of connecting my internal hard drives? it will be 1 SSD drive, a WD caviar black 1tb, and a hitachi HD...

the ssd is a new addition, but in the past all of my internal hard drives were connected with the Serial ATA sata cables i described earlier.. 1 cable for each drive from the HD to one of the sata port on the motherboard + these ATA internal Power cable for Sata
http://cdn.shopclues.com/images/detailed/611/ATAInternalPowerCableforSATAHardDiskDrive_1370607098.jpg

but because these ATA serial sata cables, as well as these ATA internal power cables' connector need to be facing the right direction (sometimes they need to be flipped around) in order for their connector to connect properly... there's a lot of cable twistings and bending since they are pretty close to the side panel of the case, so there's not much room there... on top of that, having so many of these ATA serial sata cables, as well as ATA internal power cables connecting from one source to another (for example,one internal power cable might be connecting the CDrom drive to one of the HD to the power supply, etc etc that it really makes a mess within the system.. 'cuz there's cables running all over the place...

is there a more efficient way of connecting cables? are there any cables i can use other than these ATA Internal Power cables? or a way to connect multiple internal hdd ?

i've seen a type of cable that basically is 1 sata cable connector at one end, and splits up into 3-4 sata cable connector... would this be a better way ? so i can have 1 sata cable connecting all the internal drive and then to just 1 sata port on the motherboard? or would that effect the transfer speed (throughput) ?