Peter said:
I have a motherboard that supports SATA1 with an exchange rate of 150mb/s,
can
I fit a SATA11 drive, up to 300mb/s, onto this port, do they use the same
connector? I need to know as I intend to change the motherboard in the near
future but need a hard drive
now and would like one that will perform well on the new motherboard, any
help or views would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Peter
Motherboards come in 150MB/sec and 300MB/sec type ports.
Disk drives may also be available in 150MB/sec or 300MB/sec versions.
The connectors are the same. Or I should say, the internal connectors
are all basically the same. Some of the latest connectors have an
option for positive retention (latching), making it harder for the cable
to fall out by accident.
The disk drive has a jumper on it, if you need to force the drive to
operate at 150MB/sec instead of 300MB/sec. Check the disk manufacturer's
web site, to see the jumper setting to use. Most drives ship from the
factory, with the jumper in the 150MB/aec position. You should take
note of where the jumper was installed, when you receive the drive,
in case you ever want to put it back in the "factory" condition.
Using a label maker, you could stick a label on the drive saying
something like "Jumper in, on position 3, for 150MB/sec" or something
similar. (I also stick a label on my drives, with the name of the OS
installed, or the fact the disk is a data disk etc. Makes sorting them
out later a lot easier.)
A 300MB/sec motherboard should be able to work with 150MB/sec or
300MB/sec disks automatically. If you mix a 300MB/sec disk with a
150MB/sec motherboard, that would be a case where you might need to
use the jumper on the disk drive, to change the rate. They don't
seem to have all the rate switching down pat.
AFAIK, the cable is the same for 150MB/sec and 300MB/sec. The intention
of the standards body, was to use the same cable, as otherwise there
would be anarchy if two cable types existed. (Lots of "Monster cable"
type of customer gouging, suckering people into expensive cables etc.)
So just use the cables that came with the motherboard - if the
motherboard has a latching type connector, you might get lucky and
have a latching cable included in the motherboard box.
Paul
