SATA 3Gb/s and SATA 6Gb/s HDD's

[BiggieM]

Dereck47 said:
Hard drives can be 6Gb/s "compatible", not 6Gb/s capable.
No hard drive can spin fast enough to saturate a 6Gb/s port.

Hard drives that are labeled 6Gb/s have a cache buffer (64MB with the Caviar Black WD1002FAEX) that can transfer its contents at 6Gb/s speeds, but that it.
Hard drive manufacturers label their drives 6Gb/s mainly for marketing purposes.

SATA 1 (1.5Gb/s) speeds are from 1MB/s to 150MB/s.
SATA 2 (3Gb/s) speeds are from 151MB/s to 300MB/s.
SATA 3 (6Gb/s) speeds are from 301MB/s to 600MB/s.

The data transfer speed of the Caviar Black WD1002FAEX is 126MB/s.

Here's the link for the spec sheet of the drive: http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/287...

So bottom line: You can connect any model hard drive to a SATA 2 port and you will get full Read/Write speeds from the drive.

Hey I read this on another forum post and am looking for some clarification. I'm planning to buy a motherboard and am wondering if I should fuss about a board having a 6Gb/s SATA ports. Are SSDs the only storage devices that can make use of these ports? Is a SATA 3Gb/s port fine for modern HDDs?

 

[zul911]

Nope. Most SSD and HDD nowadays use the 6gb/s port. So, go for SATA 3 mobo since it will be easier for you to do some upgrade in the future

 

[BiggieM]

Nope. Most SSD and HDD nowadays use the 6gb/s port. So, go for SATA 3 mobo since it will be easier for you to do some upgrade in the future

As the original quote posted, I thought HDDs weren't able to spin fast enough to transfer data at 6Gb/s

 

[BiggieM]

To the best of my knowledge, no current hard drive can sustain a transfer rate greater than that of the SATA II interface. That means that while SATA III compatibility is great for motherboards, to handle high-end SSDs and possible future HDDs, right now no HDD will benefit from an SATA III connection, either on the mobo or on the drive.

zackb101 said:
What is the point in 6Gb compatibility if it doesn't come close... I have a lot to learn regarding hard drives.


It's mainly Marketing.

 

[zul911]

He's probably right. But, there is not much difference in price between sata 2 and 3 mobo. But, if you want to build a pc that can last longer without need to change the mobo, sata 3 ftw.

 

[gamer2321]

No present HDD can transfer data at the 6GB/s supported by the SATA 3.0 ports. However buy the motherboard with SATA 3.0 as future SSDs may come that utilize the potential.
Refer to this for more info;
<link removed>

 

[zul911]

i built my pc using sata 2 mobo recently and I kinda regret about it. i can say that my pc is quite great with fast cpu and ram but i don't get the most out of my pc because my slow 7200rpm hdd bottleneck it. it makes me more disappointed when i see the ssd price drops greatly within these few months

 

[gamer2321]

i built my pc using sata 2 mobo recently and I kinda regret about it. i can say that my pc is quite great with fast cpu and ram but i don't get the most out of my pc because my slow 7200rpm hdd bottleneck it. it makes me more disappointed when i see the ssd price drops greatly within these few months

This is not an issue of the SATA port but rather the bottlenecking issue of HDDs.This issue is common with all computers that work on traditional mechanical HDDs.

 

[zul911]

i built my pc using sata 2 mobo recently and I kinda regret about it. i can say that my pc is quite great with fast cpu and ram but i don't get the most out of my pc because my slow 7200rpm hdd bottleneck it. it makes me more disappointed when i see the ssd price drops greatly within these few months

This is not an issue of the SATA port but rather the bottlenecking issue of HDDs.This issue is common with all computers that work on traditional mechanical HDDs.

i know, i just saying that i should go for sata 3 since i will need the ssd and only sata 3 can fully utilize it. ssd will work on sata 2 but not as great as in sata 3