Can't tell what sata port is sata 1 or sata 2. Please help.

[Matt_100]

Hi, I'm Matt.
Whoops. Sorry about that.
I can't tell what version of sata port I'm using. Maybe I missed something. Here are the manuals for my computer.

http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_vostro_desktop/vostro-260_owner%27s%20manual_en-us.pdf

and

http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_vostro_desktop/vostro-260_setup%20guide_en-us.pdf

I'm really at a loss here.
Thanks for any help.
Matt


Sorry.

It's a Dell 0gdg8y a00
The chipset is Sandy Bridge
Southbridge h61

I hope this is what you wanted.
Matt

 

[kanewolf]

Since you provided NO information, motherboard make and model, then I can't help you ...

 

[ThomasLeong]

Bottom of Pg 46 of the first manual you pointed to says it is up to 6.0 Gbps so it would be SATA III.

 

[Matt_100]

Bottom of Pg 46 of the first manual you pointed to says it is up to 6.0 Gbps so it would be SATA III.

So all 4 ports are sata III?

 

[USAFRet]

You have 4 SATA III ports
"SATA 1.5/3.0/6.0 Gbps"
pg 46

 

[Matt_100]

That's great!
Thanks for your help.
Matt

 

[Matt_100]

You have 4 SATA III ports
"SATA 1.5/3.0/6.0 Gbps"
pg 46

Sorry to bother you again, but on page 46 above
"SATA 1.5/3.0/6.0 Gbps"
pg 46

"bus type...sata 1.0 and sata 2.0"
Do you know what that means?
Thanks,
Matt.

 

[USAFRet]

You have 4 SATA III ports
"SATA 1.5/3.0/6.0 Gbps"
pg 46

Sorry to bother you again, but on page 46 above
"SATA 1.5/3.0/6.0 Gbps"
pg 46

"bus type...sata 1.0 and sata 2.0"
Do you know what that means?
Thanks,
Matt.

Ah.
Well...that means that the above copied "SATA 1.5/3.0/6.0 Gbps" is actually misleading.

"SATA 1.0 and 2.0" probably means exactly that.
SATA I and SATA II.
A SATA III drive will work no problem, just at reduced speed.
If this is a HDD, you will not see any difference at all.
If an SSD, you may see some performance reduction.

 

[ThomasLeong]

Bottom of Pg 46 of the first manual you pointed to says it is up to 6.0 Gbps so it would be SATA III.

So all 4 ports are sata III?

Think I was wrong re SATA III, 'cos further up the same page, it says SATA 1.0 and SATA 2.0. No mention of SATA 3.0.

Hard to tell from the pix in the manual which is which. The H61 chipset from Intel that your motherboard is based on has only 4 SATA ports available, and only 6 PCIe lanes to distribute. There are 3 PCIe x1 slots on the board, so that would leave 3 PCIe lanes left for SATA, unless the board manufacturer disables 1 or 2 of the PCIe x1 slots when a SATA port is used. This is usually the case for most manufacturers (termed 'sharing of PCIe lanes' where user has choice of one or the other but not both).

There is also some color coding of the SATA ports looking at the pix. I'd make a guess that the blue ports are SATA 2.0? with 6 Gbps (rare; I've only come across SATA 3 with 6 Gbps), and the black or white ports are SATA II or SATA 1 with 3.0 Gbps or 1.5 Gbps.

Terrible specs from Dell. No wonder I don't buy pre-built stuff. Prefer to build my own.

 

[ThomasLeong]

Try CrystalDiskInfo. It should tell you what speed your connected SATA is.

 

[Matt_100]

Bottom of Pg 46 of the first manual you pointed to says it is up to 6.0 Gbps so it would be SATA III.

So all 4 ports are sata III?

Think I was wrong re SATA III, 'cos further up the same page, it says SATA 1.0 and SATA 2.0. No mention of SATA 3.0.

Hard to tell from the pix in the manual which is which. The H61 chipset from Intel that your motherboard is based on has only 4 SATA ports available, and only 6 PCIe lanes to distribute. There are 3 PCIe x1 slots on the board, so that would leave 3 PCIe lanes left for SATA, unless the board manufacturer disables 1 or 2 of the PCIe x1 slots when a SATA port is used. This is usually the case for most manufacturers (termed 'sharing of PCIe lanes' where user has choice of one or the other but not both).

There is also some color coding of the SATA ports looking at the pix. I'd make a guess that the blue ports are SATA 2.0? with 6 Gbps (rare; I've only come across SATA 3 with 6 Gbps), and the black or white ports are SATA II or SATA 1 with 3.0 Gbps or 1.5 Gbps.

Terrible specs from Dell. No wonder I don't buy pre-built stuff. Prefer to build my own.

Thanks a lot for the help.
You confirmed my belief that there was only sata I and sata II ports and the blue one was sata II.

I hate to ask, but do you know how I could find out definitely what the ports are for sure?

I know it's a tough problem. I've been trying to figure it out all yesterday and today.

Thanks so much.
Matt

 

[Matt_100]

Try CrystalDiskInfo. It should tell you what speed your connected SATA is.

Great! I'll try it and let you know how it worked.
Thanks,
Matt

 

[Matt_100]

I tried all four sata ports and got the same results for each of them using CrystalDiskInfo ver. 7.0.0.
Here are the results.
Firmware: jc47
Serial Number: 6vpd8l93
Interface: Serial ata
Transfer Mode: sata/300 | sata/600
Drive Letter: C:
Standard ATA8-acs | ata8-acs version 4

do you understand them?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Matt

 

[ThomasLeong]

The clue is in -
Transfer Mode: sata/300 | sata/600
Drive Letter: C:

...meaning sata at 3 Gbps | sata at 6 Gbps
Drive Letter: C:
but this makes no sense. A drive cannot have 2 speeds rated!

From my laptop, it only says -
Transfer Mode: sata/600
Drive Letter: C:

...so at a guess, the sata/300 in yours could refer to either C: or ?? (optical drive?). Try disconnecting the optical drive and any other drives you have connected (eg. USB), and run CrystalDiskInfo again.

 

[ThomasLeong]

Aha! Just discovered what 'Transfer Mode: sata/300 | sata/600' means.
It means 'current mode | supported mode'.
Hover the mouse over 'sata/300 | sata/600' and a popup will show.

This means your Drive C:'s current mode is sata 3Gbit/s (sata 2.0 speed), and the supported mode of port is sata 6Gbits.s (sata 3.0 speed).

Not sure if this means you can install a sata 3 (6Gbits/s) drive and obtain its full rated speed. Theoretically, it should as it means the port supports 6Gbit/s. At the moment, as I read it, your current SSD or hdd is a 3Gbit/s drive in a 6Gbit/s port.

 

[Matt_100]

Sweet. Thanks a lot man.
You spent a lot of time on me and I greatly appreciate it.
Many thanks again.
Matt