6GB SATA and 3GB SATA cables and components

[Seezer]

I have a 1TB HDD, and a 120G SSD, along with optical drive with a Sabertooth Z77 mobo. Which Sata cables go to which components and which slots on mobo does each go?

[MasterNewbie]

Barring damage/corrosion, any SATA cable will work for any of your devices for any speed. You will definitely want to connect your SSD, and probably your HDD, to the SATA III ports on your motherboard. Since there are still SATA III ports left, might as well connect your ODD to one, too. I can't seem to find pictures of that side of your particular motherboard, so look at your manuals to see which ports are SATA III. Supposedly the ports on the far sides are SATA III, and the inside ones are SATA II.

[Masark]

For cables, barring the original SATA cables with the non-locking connectors (avoid those like the plague. They have a nasty tendency to come loose, resulting in BSODs and potentially corruption), they're all the same.

As for which ports, plug the hard drive and optical drive into the brown ports. Those are the 6Gbps ones. The optical drive will be happy on a 3Gbps port, which are black.

[Deleted]

Either cable works, there is no performance difference. SSD in SATA III, HDD in SATA II (or III). HDD have no benefit going from SATA II to III.