SSD's on Sata II 300 or External HDD?

[zed720]

Hello,

I have this mobo Gigabyte H81M-S2H which has 2 x SATA 3 (600) and 2 x SATA 2 (300)

I've already own 2x 240 SSD's, but I'd like to add more storage. Should I buy another 2 SSD's and use them on SATA 2 300 or it's a waste/bottleneck? Would an external disk serve good as an expansion disk or it's way too slow for gaming?

Later edit: Also, I've checked the main e-shop from my country, and SSD's tend to have only SATA 3 as connectivity in their description - should I be worried or they also work on SATA 2?

Thank you

 

[jeremyj_83]

SATA3 drives can be used on a SATA2 port, but it will only run at SATA2 speeds. The main question is what do you need the storage for? If it is for gaming, then going with the SSD isn't a bad idea. If it is for just movies, pictures, and music then having that on a SSD is a waste as it doesn't need that speed.

 

[zed720]

Mostly gaming and light PS and Premiere. Are the speeds very bad at SATA 2 for SSD's?

Should I switch the expensive ones on SATA 3 and the cheaper SSD's on 2 or it's negligible? I also have a 500 GB laptop drive laying around - should I plug that bad boy in or it's going to be slow as hell and loud? (Got Noctua vents)

 

[jeremyj_83]

What you could do that would limit the bottlenecks the most while gaming is plug the SSD with your OS on it into the SATA2 port. You really won't notice any difference in speed on your OS with the exception of sequential data transfers. Then get a 480+ SSD and put it into the SATA3 port and have your games running on that. For archival, movies, music, photos, documents, downloads, etc... have a 1TB+, I'd go 2+ since the cost is almost the same, HDD plugged into the other SATA2 port as those files don't need the high speed of SSD.