How to determine whether motherboard SATA ports are G2 / SATA300 or G3 / SATA600

[skloss]

Looking at the motherboard, I have

(1) blue "SATA0" port,
(2) white SATA ports ("SATA1" & "SATA2"),
(1) black "eSATA" port.

How can I determine which motherboard ports support G3 / SATA600? Would I need to get additional SATA data cable for getting G3 / SATA600? If I get an internal SSD that is G3 / SATA600, how do I make certain that the SSD will be getting the G3 / SATA600 motherboard port?

I would like to put in a bootable 250 GB SSD (G3 / SATA600) and a larger 3 TB HDD (G3 / SATA600) for internal storage. Do I have two motherboard SATA ports that will support two internal drives at G3 / SATA600?

My PC -
HP Compaq 6200 Pro SFF (ENERGY STAR qualification)
Intel Core i5-2500 (3.30 GHz, 6MB cache, 4 cores),
16 GB RAM,
250 GB HDD,
Integrated Intel HD,

Information that I found on my PC using HWiNFO64 program -
Motherboard Model: Hewlett-Packard 1497
Motherboard Chipset: Intel Q65 (Cougar Point) [B3]
BIOS Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
BIOS Date: 03/24/2015
BIOS Version: J01 v02.28
UEFI BIOS: Capable
SATA Port 0 6 Gb/s: Supported
SATA Port 1 6 Gb/s: Not Supported (Is this "Not Supported" due to nothing being plugged into this port?)
SATA Ports 2 and 3: Supported

Specs. webpage from HP -
http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c02779493

 

[glamdringfh]

Here's a good reference from the HP website, look at page 2 under 'System Board': http://h20566.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?sp4ts.oid=5037900&docId=emr_na-c02741920&docLocale=en_US

1) You only have one SATA III port on the motherboard, it's the blue "SATA 0" port

2) The other 2 ports labeled "SATA1" and "SATA2" are both SATA II ports, which run at 3Gb/s

You honestly won't see a huge decrease in performance by plugging the HDD into one of the SATA II ports. Best thing to do is to plug the SSD into the 'SATA0' blue port and the HDD into the 'SATA1' port, you'll be able to use both drives just fine.

 

[skloss]

Here's a good reference from the HP website, look at page 2 under 'System Board': http://h20566.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?sp4ts.oid=5037900&docId=emr_na-c02741920&docLocale=en_US

1) You only have one SATA III port on the motherboard, it's the blue "SATA 0" port

2) The other 2 ports labeled "SATA1" and "SATA2" are both SATA II ports, which run at 3Gb/s

You honestly won't see a huge decrease in performance by plugging the HDD into one of the SATA II ports. Best thing to do is to plug the SSD into the 'SATA0' blue port and the HDD into the 'SATA1' port, you'll be able to use both drives just fine.

When installing a new internal storage drive, why or when would you use the SATA PWR1 Hard drive power connector instead of just plugging the drive into an empty female SATA power plug along the cable that connects to the main Main power connector?

 

[glamdringfh]

Always use the SATA power cables directly from the PSU to power your drives.