Will SSD work with this older system?

[ojpimpson]

Hi I have an Athlon x2 64 cpu paired with an ECS HT2100 mobo (NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE/nforce 405) with 1st generation SATA. Will a SSD with SATA III work on this setup that I am trying to revive? Thanks for any input.

 

[WyomingKnott]

While the odds are that it will work, two issues.

First, 1st generation SATA controllers often have problem communicating with SATA III devices. Technically, SATA III is backwards compatible. In practice, there are problems.

Second, driving an SSD through a 1.5 Gb/sec link will rob it of its speed. The access times will still be fantastic, but you will be running a 400 MB/Sec device through a 150 MB/sec pipe.

It's not something that I would count on to show a benefit.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

^5 +1 what WyomingKnott said.

 

[ojpimpson]

So you're suggesting that while I will see some improvement, it will be negligible because I won't be realizing the full potential of the SSD's bandwidth?
I read the article here on Tom's about utilizing SSDs on older systems and that's suggesting quite the contrary http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-upgrade-hard-drive,2956.html . Here's a quote: "So long as you're running at least an Athlon 64 X2 or Core processor and at least a couple gigabytes of memory, an SSD could end up being the most significant upgrade available to you."

Thoughts?

 

[WyomingKnott]

All of the systems mentioned in that test have "SATA 3 Gb/s": http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-upgrade-hard-drive,2956-4.html

Another thought: If your motherboard has only SATA I ports, you would probably profit from updating the mobo.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

WyomingKnott is correct.

The Tom's Hardware Article is correct.

For the older pc versions Tom's Hardware used the same motherboard. The motherboard supported SATA 2 3Gb/s ssd's. A motherboard that only supported SATA 1.5Gb/s ssd's was not used in the tests. If Tom's Hardware had used it, then there would have been problems as WyomingKnott explained.

SATA 3 is backwards compatible with SATA 2. The compatability is part of the international SATA 3 standard that was adopted. The compatability became part of the standard because of the problems associated with the change from SATA to SATA 2.

 

[ojpimpson]

I just checked on nvidia's website for NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE/nforce 405, and it confirms that the SATA speed is 3 GB/s. Also, the mobo has udma as well. I have 2 hard drives on the SATA and it's slow as molasses loading/transferring files, and just overall system snappiness. Everything else in the system is fine for what I am doing. I do not play video games, render or encode.

What I might do is go to microcenter and purchase and test drive a ssd and see how that goes. I was more concerned about compatibility and if it would work or not at all before I purchased online for a great deal.

 

[ojpimpson]

WyomingKnott is correct.

The Tom's Hardware Article is correct.

For the older pc versions Tom's Hardware used the same motherboard. The motherboard supported SATA 2 3Gb/s ssd's. A motherboard that only supported SATA 1.5Gb/s ssd's was not used in the tests. If Tom's Hardware had used it, then there would have been problems as WyomingKnott explained.

SATA 3 is backwards compatible with SATA 2. The compatability is part of the international SATA 3 standard that was adopted. The compatability became part of the standard because of the problems associated with the change from SATA to SATA 2.

Oh okay so I'm basically running SATA 2 then, and incorrectly stated that it was SATA 1 initially? I was just looking over the ECS website and it just stated SATA under the specs sheet. So I should be okay then given the SATA 2 status of my mobo?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Could you provide a link to the ECS web page with your motherboard specifications? Just want to double check the specs.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Ahh, that's different. Give it a try. Remember that the OS should be installed to the SSD with no other drives attached, and that almost all games and apps will have to be re-installed on the new drive instead of run off the old drive.

 

[ojpimpson]

Could you provide a link to the ECS web page with your motherboard specifications? Just want to double check the specs.

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Product/Product_Detail.aspx?CategoryID=1&DetailID=685&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=24&LanID=9

google: NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE/nforce 405

Thanks again guys. I think I'm good to go with all the advice given. Now my issue is which SSD gives best bang for the buck in my setup, and if there's really any need to get a faster/fastest SSD given my older system. I'll be using a 128gb SSD as an OS drive.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

AHHHH!

The ECS model number is GeForce6100SM-M (V1.0/1.0A) It's an AM2 motherboard. That's why it isn't in the AMD Motherboard Database. I didn't include the older AM2 socket motherboards in the database.

 

[ojpimpson]

Best answer selected by ojpimpson.