samsung 840 EVO ssd on a Sata 2.0 motherboard?

[ryand88]

I was planning on getting an ssd but have hit a snag in my plan ; my motherboard( https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8H61M_LX/#overview ) only has SATA 2.0 ports and I need to know if an SSD will still work fully with this as well as if the speeds would still be very much increased over a HDD

thankyou

 

[ronintexas]

It will work in SATA II mode - which will still be a significant improvement over the HDD.

 

[barto]

Yes it will still work. SATA 3.0 is backwards compatible. There is a performance difference between SATA 3 and SATA 2, but you won't be able to tell. Any SSD is better than a normal HDD.

 

[popatim]

I have an ssd on an h61 board in my bedroom htpc and it sure seems like its quicker than my amd rig with a Samsung 830 on sata3 ports. (both load identical software)

 

[ryand88]

so what you're saying is that to any normal user the difference between sata 2 and sata 3 is minimal?

 

[barto]

Technically there is a significant difference.

The maximum data transfer rate of a SATA 2 port is 3Gb/s (300MB/s).
The maximum data transfer rate of a SATA 3 port is 6Gb/s (600MB/s).

But it's more than transfer rates. You also have to consider the speed of the end device ( HDD vs SSD). The SSD will eclipse the HDD in everything. So while you may only be able to do SATA 2, the speed of boots and loading maps will be ridiculous faster with an SSD than an HDD.

 

[ronintexas]

The biggest "difference maker" in running SATA II vs. SATA III would be if you were transferring very large files (say 10GB+ files). Most of what your computer does is much smaller files, and the drive speed to find the files would be tremendously faster than a spindle drive. Once the file is found, it would then be read to the PC (this would be similar to a "transfer"). Since these files are typically much smaller, you wouldn't notice much of a difference between the two. The larger the file, the more of a difference.

 

[ryand88]

The biggest "difference maker" in running SATA II vs. SATA III would be if you were transferring very large files (say 10GB+ files). Most of what your computer does is much smaller files, and the drive speed to find the files would be tremendously faster than a spindle drive. Once the file is found, it would then be read to the PC (this would be similar to a "transfer"). Since these files are typically much smaller, you wouldn't notice much of a difference between the two. The larger the file, the more of a difference.

so chances are boot times would not be affected significantly nor would loading games?

 

[barto]

Boots will be quick and so will map loading.

 

[ryand88]

Boots will be quick and so will map loading.

I'll just buy one, screw it ; thanks for your help everyone especially barto 😛