Back in the bad old days of IDE (and SCSI for show-offs TBH), we had to accommodate cables a bit like roller-towels made of stiff plastic. Even if you could attach two drives they were a pain. Then there were versions with the individual wires bundled into tubes. Better but still awkward. Then there was SATA (and SAS if you're into that). Much better.  These days, most home builds probably have an NVME drive straight on the motherboard, and if there's a cable at all, it's probably just one for a big HDD.

I've got eight HDDs and an old style case, so even the skinny SATA cables are a bit of a pain.

I read online that SATA cables are available in a wide variety of lengths and styles. This is true in a way, but not necessarily in a way that I find ideal. Ideally, I would like five lightweight SATA cables, with clips, with right-angle connector at one end, 20cm long. Then I'd like three more, matching if possible, straight, 30cm. The "three more" are easy. I've got plenty already. The five lightweight, right-angle, 20cm ones are more of an issue.

I assumed this would be simple when I started searching, but not only are shorter cables pretty rare, they also tend to be more expensive. Similarly, lightweight (i.e. narrow, flexible, round cable rather than flat, stiff, plastic) is rare. Doesn't help that Seagate appears to have circulated some misleading advice that SATA cables under 30cm are prone to interference, crosstalk, and timing issues. This is the case for SAS cables but not SATA.

Anybody know of a good supplier?

Edit: just ordered a big handful of super-cheap 20cm cables on AliExpress for very little. Will they work? Who knows?
Edit (part 2): Well, they won't work yet. I thought I'd ordered, but apparently it didn't go through because AliExpress had no shipping address and their add new address form is one of those "joke" ones where the "confirm" button can't be pressed for some reason.
Edit (part 3): Switching to Firefox got my address registered, but also told me that the cables aren't available to ship to the UK. And of course, no 20cm cables are available.

I used these guys in the past, I can't tell if they ship to the uk. Nowadays I make do with whatever's at the local computer store (not that I need that many).

https://www.cablesnmore.com/

Thanks for the link. Looks like they only do 50cm (although they may stock more - just not on the website).

I've just ordered from Moddiy which is a USian store, so the airmail is about $8 on top. But it still works out cheaper than the best UK deal. I found a site that sells one right angle 20cm plus one straight 20cm as a pair, which is sort or weird. I'd have to buy five packs at nearly £5 each an then have a load of short straight to straight cables I don't need.

It's a bit frustrating. I'm not wild about cable management, but I like to have the case so I can actually get at stuff when I need to. Also, with that many big HDDs, it's important to have some cable-free space for air flow. But this side of the pond even ebay is a let down.  

Ahh, I'm not the only one with a big case full of disks then (5 HDDs and one NVME SSD in mine). To be honest, one of my biggest bugbears with modern motherboards are the side-mounted SATA sockets. Makes plugging in the cables a royal shit when you're crouched over your case with about 1" of room to spare between the motherboard and other parts of the case... 

It's really tough on these microatx boards.

Absolutely! My last case was too small really, but one "feature" was the rolled lip on the plate the mobo mounted on. Saved cut fingers but just overlapped the stupid side mounted SATA sockets. They could be fitted but what a struggle when you can't get your hands in and the cable's too long anyway.