SATA 3 HDD on SATA 2 motherboard... What are my options for reaching SATA 3 speed besides replacing the motherboard?.

[legend1011]

Hello,

I'm upgrading the HDD on a P5W DH Deluxe motherboard. The motherboard drive controller only supports SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) speed. Are there any cost-effective solutions (affordable add-on cards, tricks, etc...) to help me speed up this machine's secondary storage? Thanks

 

[Sakkura]

A PCIe SATA controller.

But a mechanical hard drive isn't ever going to be hindered by running on SATA2 instead of SATA3. Only SSDs are that fast.

 

[cklaubur]

There are SATA III (6.0 Gbps) PCI Express add-in cards available. However, unless you are adding a SSD, any hard drive you put in won't run any faster. Hard drives just aren't fast enough to overwhelm a SATA II connection, much less SATA III.

Casey

*EDIT* Sakkura said the same thing I said. I apparently need to learn to type faster...

 

[legend1011]

Ok this makes sense. What is the max speed HDD's can read//write? Unless a new HDD design comes out, I guess it's pretty safe to say that HDD's speeds are maxed out and SSD's are the way of the future? Thanks for the replies guys

 

[Dereck47]

The fastest SATA 3 (6Gb/s) HDDs Read/Write around 210MB/s; which is SATA 2 (3Gb/s) speeds.
HDDs labeled SATA 3 have a cache buffer in them (16MB or 32MB or 64MB) that can transfer its contents at SATA 3 speeds, but that's it.

 

[Sakkura]

A very fast HDD can reach around 200 MB/s at maximum. SATA2 theoretically allows up to 300 MB/s, though realistically you'd probably start to lose performance around 250 MB/s or so.

SSDs are definitely the future. They're already being held back by SATA3, which allows twice as high data rates as SATA2.

 

[snoots]

A PCIe SATA controller.

But a mechanical hard drive isn't ever going to be hindered by running on SATA2 instead of SATA3. Only SSDs are that fast.

Hi,
I'm sorry if this is dumb question but little confused.

I added a SSD to my SATA II system last fall & am very happy the result but are you saying if I add A PCIe SATA III controller that my system will operate at SATA III speeds? That doesn't seem possible.

thank you

 

[Sakkura]

The SATA and PCIe connections are separate. So the system may only have slow SATA2 ports, but it still has fast PCIe slots.

 

[snoots]

The SATA and PCIe connections are separate. So the system may only have slow SATA2 ports, but it still has fast PCIe slots.

Sorry it took me so long to respond & thank you for you response.

This is very Interesting. So if you don't mind one more question. Can I just plug the PCIe SATA III controller in like I would a sound card, plug in the SSD & the system will pick it up? Can't believe with all poking around on forums I haven't come across this before.

thank you

 

[snoots]

I may have found the an answer on Amazon. sounds like Plug-n-Play:

If Windows 7 is already installed on you're SSD, then I don't see why you would need to reinstall windows 7 on you're SSD. All you are doing is changing your controller card.

&

I just plugged in the Syba SD-PEX40049 and connected a couple of SATA III drives. I booted the system and all devices were recognized. A quick trip to Windows 7 Pro Disk Management to format and assign desired drive letters and the upgrade to SATA III was complete. It was not necessary to install any drivers.

Pretty excited :0)

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Please start a new thread instead of posting in one that's 7 months old.

Closing.