Novice seeking hardware knowledge

[sundial03]

I currently have a Samsung 3.5" Hard Drive, SATA 3 Gb/S (SATA 1.5 Gb/S mode setting jumper pin placement) 160 GB 7200 RPM etc.
It is very old (2003) but currently functioning well.
I want to replace it with a new Samsung SSD drives (630, I think).
Is this a plug and play situation or am I looking at replacing mother-boards, cpu, memory, etc?
I have since researched and now understand the SATA numbers correspond with allowable data transfer speed, each doubling the one before. I also read that most of the time the SSD will well outrun the data port so not really a big deal.
My concern and reason for asking this question is I want to make sure that based on the hard drive and the interface that I currently have, that I won't screw anything up by popping in a SSD SATA ???? 500 GB, etc.
Do I need to stick with a SATA II or can I go with anything latest that is a SATA-based deal, etc.
Should I just let the motherboard max determine what I should use?
Should I assume that the factory installed hard drive maxed out the motherboard and just go with SATA II?
Any advice is welcomed.
Thanks,
Ian

 

[sub mesa]

Some quick but important pointers:

1. Do NOT buy crap SSDs; Samsung 830/840, Crucial M4 are fine but I recommend the upcoming Crucial M500 because it has more protections allowing it to function more reliably than current generation SSDs. Do not save a few dollars buying a low-grade SSD, it isn't worth it.

2. Always connect your SSD to the REAL chipset SATA controller. Many slightly older generation boards have Intel or AMD chipset which provides SATA/300 ports, but also have SATA/600 ports using an extra chip on the motherboard. Never use these fake ports for your SSD!

3. If you have SATA/300 you are good; SATA/600 does NOT make a big difference at all in user-experience, only in benchmarks. The REAL reason SSDs are fast is due to their fast IOps performance of about ~25MB/s random read, but no manufacturer wants to tell that to their customers because they like BIG numbers!

4. If you have SATA/150 on your motherboard, you are in bad shape. These often have compatiblity issues and are generally more prone to problems. I would not recommend using such old platform - buy a new system instead.

 

[Glenrich]

Samsung 830/840 for you:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/294170-32-samsung-differences-please