Sata II (3.0Gbps) and Sata III (6.0Gbps) performance difference when using HDD?

[Guest]

I have two different HDD's, one is a Sata II (3.0Gbps) and the other is a Sata III (6.0Gbps).
My mobo supports up to 6.0Gbps, but when benchmarking using Windows Experience Index, they both score the same.
So I tried both HDD's into my other PC with a mobo that only supports up to 3.0Gbps, and the benchmark score is the same.
Both mobo and hdd's with different speeds scored the same!

After doing some reading here (tomshardware.com), many suggested that while Sata II (3.0Gbps) and Sata III (6.0Gbps) speeds may differ on paper/documentation, real-time does not even come close to 3.0Gbps, and some say not even SSD's...

My question is: did I just waste money on buying a mobo and a hard drive that's supposed to have a faster Sata? Is this the industry's way of tricking average/unaware people into buying something (that's supposed to be an upgrade) that they don't need?

 

[herrwizo]

For regular hdds, you wont see even the slightest difference, because hdds are way slower even than sata 1. This only matters with ssd drives, which can actually achieve these speeds.

 

[Amdlova]

put yours hdd on sata 2. and yours ssd on sata 3.

 

[USAFRet]

For spinning hard drives, zero difference.
With a SATA III SSD in a SATA II port....you WILL see a difference.

But no, you did not waste your money. You bought motherboard capabilities for the future.

 

[InvalidError]

For regular hdds, you wont see even the slightest difference, because hdds are way slower even than sata 1.

Actually, modern 7200RPM HDDs can do 120-130MB/s on their outer tracks which is pretty much the maximum attainable rate on SATA1 so SATA2 is becoming sort-of-necessary even for regular HDDs.

SATA2 on the other hand is definitely not going to be a problem for HDDs any time soon since it took 8-10 years for mainstream HDDs to go from 60MB/s to 120MB/s peak.

 

[herrwizo]

120-130, yeah, sequential, and best case scenario, on outer borders of the plates. Random can get way below even 1 MB/s. Man, you gotta love those ssds...

 

[InvalidError]

120-130, yeah, sequential, and best case scenario, on outer borders of the plates. Random can get way below even 1 MB/s.

Thankfully, most software developers dealing with large data sets try to organize their data in sequential chunks much larger than 1MB.

 

[Guest]

Thanks everyone for all the replies.
From what I've gathered so far, many would recommend opting for HDD's mainly for storage (HD Movies, Videos, Pictures, maybe some files/documents), and SSD's for OS and applications since they mainly benefit from the speed of SSD's.

I WANT a SSD now! Too bad they are still costly. I would go with an OS only SSD, but defeats the purpose if I'm going to have games on HDD.
My current usage:
25+GB on OS with updates and drivers only.
116+GB on games only.
I can delete a few and settle with a 128GB for OS and some games because of the cost factor...
What do you guys think of getting a used SSD instead? Since SSD's are supposed to be more reliable, then they should be a good option right?

 

[USAFRet]

I would not buy a used SSD, ever.
How much do you have to spend on it?

 

[Guest]

I would not buy a used SSD, ever.
How much do you have to spend on it?

What would be the downside of buying used SSD's?
My budget is only up to $65. I know that's either for a HDD or a low-end and low-capacity SSD.
Maybe I should just wait for one more year until the 128 and above SSD's go down in price.

 

[USAFRet]

I would not buy a used SSD, ever.
How much do you have to spend on it?

What would be the downside of buying used SSD's?
My budget is only up to $65. I know that's either for a HDD or a low-end and low-capacity SSD.
Maybe I should just wait for one more year until the 128 and above SSD's go down in price.

You have little idea of how the previous owner treated it. He may have been running it at 98% capacity for 6 months. Which will kill the overall lifespan.

Add $20 to your $65, and get this:
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electronics-EVO-Series-2-5-Inch-MZ-7TE120BW