3gb/s vs 1.5gb/s performance

[swgod98]

Quick question about harddrives. I am putting together a new system and have a Seagate 7200.11 500gb model that has a jumper for 1.5gb/s performance or (if removed) 3gb/s performance. It was defaulted to 1.5gb/s, but I don't know why anyone would want that. Is that to guarantee compatibility with more controllers/motherboards?

I have an Asus P5E motherboard, so I'm guessing I should remove the jumper to get the 3gb/s performance...right?

I guess I just haven't done enough reading on harddrive technology lately...there's just so much to research when building your own system. Answers are appreciated! Thank you!

 

[DrMaV]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/169596-28-sata-sata

 

[Can Not]

3.0Gb/s is faster.

 

[SirCrono]

Think of it this way, if the WD raptors (10k RPM) use sataI (1.5Gb/s) then your seagate will by no means be bottlenecked by it, the jumper is probably a feature to allow compatibility with older mobos.

Bottom line: if you have a new mobo that supports Sata II use either setting, if you've an old mobo which suports SATA I only leave the jumper on.

 

[darkguset]

Yes it is there for compatibility issues. If you do not have such then leave it on 3Gb/s. It will be a little bit faster.

 

[starcraftfanatic]

3.0Gb/s is faster.

no it's not *sarcasm*
sorry just had to put that in there

 

[Scotteq]

Think of it this way, if the WD raptors (10k RPM) use sataI (1.5Gb/s) then your seagate will by no means be bottlenecked by it, the jumper is probably a feature to allow compatibility with older mobos.

Bottom line: if you have a new mobo that supports Sata II use either setting, if you've an old mobo which suports SATA I only leave the jumper on.

Quoted for Truth. Plug it in. Cycle the On/Off button. If it works, then there's no reason to screw with it.


Regarding 1.5GB/s or 3 GB/s?? 3 is *only* faster if you have devices which can transfer information faster than 1.5GB/s. Now: Your 7200.11 maxes out at about 100 MB/s - I know this because I have the 1TB version and have benchmarked it. Yes, this is very very fast for a 7200 RPM hard drive. Yet with the absolute best case scenario, on a 1.5GB/s SATA connection your disc will never even use more than 10% of the available bandwidth. Switching to a pipe where you only use 5% of the available bandwidth nets you no gain at all because your device is teh bottleneck. Not what you have it plugged into.

 

[jt001]

Quoted for Truth. Plug it in. Cycle the On/Off button. If it works, then there's no reason to screw with it.


Regarding 1.5GB/s or 3 GB/s?? 3 is *only* faster if you have devices which can transfer information faster than 1.5GB/s. Now: Your 7200.11 maxes out at about 100 MB/s - I know this because I have the 1TB version and have benchmarked it. Yes, this is very very fast for a 7200 RPM hard drive. Yet with the absolute best case scenario, on a 1.5GB/s SATA connection your disc will never even use more than 10% of the available bandwidth. Switching to a pipe where you only use 5% of the available bandwidth nets you no gain at all because your device is teh bottleneck. Not what you have it plugged into.

True for the most part, except for your percentages. 100MB/s out of 150MB/s is not 10% 😉

SATA is 1.5Gb and 3Gb/s (notice the lower case "b", it's gigabits per second, not gigabytes), since SATA uses 8/10 encoding, only 80% of that bandwidth is used for data transfer, resulting in 150MB/s and 300MB/s max transfer rates. Just wanted to clear that up.

To the OP, look at it this way: if you have a car that tops out at 45mph, and you're choosing between the road that has the speed limit of 45mph or the one that has a limit of 65mph, it doesn't matter either way because you still can't exceed 45mph.

 

[Scotteq]

/stands_corrected

 

[rodney_ws]

The only time the faster interface will benefit you is when the hard drive uses its integrated cache.

 

[jitpublisher]

If your motherboard has SATA II, then you can remove it.
If your motherboard has only SATA I, then you should leave it on.
On, off, SATA I, SATA II, you won't notice any difference at all.

 

[swgod98]

Thanks for all the responses guys. Very much appreciated!!