Would you give us some to compare? If you just mean one round cable to another(assuming IDE) there's really no difference. Length, MAYBE interface, but most all should be ATA133...
Hehe I was just looking at newegg for some IDE cable for my Optical Drive then a whole bunch of cables with numbers came up. Does the numbers mean anything? Is there a difference?
EDIT: Also what tools will I need to do everything with my first build.