The SATA cables come in several colors, not just blue and red. Often they are black, yellow or even orange. Some may even glow in the dark. The difference between the colors of the SATA cables depends on the hardware configuration and the type of connector on the cable end.

Motherboard

The SATA red wires are not different from the blue. If your computer uses red to connect existing SATA devices, but your new hard drive includes a blue one instead, or vice versa, there should be no difference. Some motherboard manufacturers have a habit of color coding slots or ports thereof. But unlike sound cards and peripheral ports, which use a standard color code, most internal ports on the motherboard vary in color depending on the manufacturer. Thus, while a manufacturer may have red SATA ports and use red SATA cables, another may have used blue blue ports and cables.

Cables

The SATA hard drives require a power cable and a data cable. Both cables connect to the back of the hard drive. SATA drives use 15-pin cables feeding, which can be connected to the power supply (PSU) and data cables 7 legs, which are usually included with the unit. The data cable connects the hard drive to the SATA slot on the motherboard. Most of these are numbered from SATA0 on.

Settings

A mixture of red and blue SATA cables could indicate that the SATA devices connected to the computer does not use the same bus. If a motherboard has SATA ports insufficient to meet the needs of a user, the user can add additional ports through a PCI card. However, the SATA ports on the PCI card does not use the same bus as the SATA ports on the motherboard. Some manufacturers of PC products may designate different buses with different colored wires.

eSATA

Some cables are designed for external SATA (eSATA). These devices are like USB and FireWire drives; Hard disk drives are connected to the computer externally via an eSATA port. However, eSATA cables are not compatible with those designed for internal hard drives; although they may appear identical cables, connectors are different.