Talk to me about cable discs please

Gents, I know nothing about cable discs other than they are essentially not quite as good as hydraulics.

To be a bit more specific about my issue, I'm going to be building a mtb based 700c wheeled rigid for a road / trainer bike and the frame & wheels I've found are disc compatible.

I e got a pair of pretty much unused sd7 brake levers and figured that because the bike isn't really going to be seeing much mud cable discs could be a good option to look at BUT, which ones? Or should I just sacrifice the levers and buy half decent second hand hydraulics and save any messing about?

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Had some on my RX9 and from the limited amount of time I spent on it I wasn't impressed.

Can't see why anyone would bother tbh when you can get the well received Clarks new or second had Deore for not very much.

in my opinion its all about the pads cheap cable an some hydro brakes have rock hard round shape pads an these aren't very good

if you look at at avid bb these take the square shape pads that also fit avid juicy hydros so these should work feel a lot better
there is more than one type of bb caliper some of them have a adjuster on one side of the caliper others have one each side this is good you can move the pads in / out to compensate for warpped discs

also a lot of hydro brakes these days seem to have very short levers or strange looking levers that sit miles away from the bars clarks sketatol for example

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So you have the levers? Just need some calipers then.
I found cheap calipers to be about as good as good v-brakes.
The Avid BB5 or BB7 or the TRP Spyre etc are certainly a lot better, almost into the realms of the lower end hydraulic discs. If you're saying the bike won't see mud then it may be all you need.
Tbh though something like Shimano Deore hydraulic discs are simple, work very well, and in my experience need only occasional pad changes.
If you can afford It, I'd go hydro-disc

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I had some avid bb5s that came stock on my airnimal Joey (well up front at least). I bought a new rear to try out how it would work with the bikes fold. I was quite impressed by them, they were better than the v brake rear for sure and worked well overall. As my plan was to fit hydraulics if they worked with the fold (which they did), I moved to way more expensive formula hydraulics (as part of the overall customisation of the bike so almost that was left of the original bike was the folding frame and telescopic seat post). I don't regret the change, as I wanted to commute in style and baking, but I'd have been more than happy sticking with the avids if I wasn't pimping my ride.

Cable brakes will be much easier to maintain and fettle, but it's easy to learn how to bleed and service most hydraulic brakes, and bleed kits are pretty cheap.

In conclusion, if you want easy maintenance and pretty good performance, a good cable disc will suit your needs. If you want better performance, go hydraulic, but choose wisely as some are better than others, in fact deore brakes are better than some of the much more expensive non shimano offerings imho.

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I had cable discs for a few weeks before swapping to Hydraulic. The cable to the rear is loooong, if you have full length outer it feels terrible!

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best cable discs I've found are avid BB7s. They actually impreessed me and I'm used to hydraulics. Alternatively you can get clarks and shimano hydraulics from as little as £40 a set brand new . I got a set of clarks and first impressions are very good (good enough to get my trance standing on it's nose (and me landing on my nose after going over the bars

Another option is cable actuated hydraulics. My Gravel bike has TRP hy:rd brakes, normal drop brake levers which pull a cable which operates the piston on the hydraulic caliper.
Pretty damn good tbh.

I use TRP Spyke brakes on my Fat Bike... and I love em!! Dual piston and self centering as well. Powerful enough and easy to maintain.

I have a pair of nearly new promax cable disc calipers with 30 miles on them you can have for £15 posted if you want to try them out. They were from a mid range diamondback 29er so not too bad but ideal for light use with a lighter rider than I. Might have some discs if you need them.