OT: SATA 1.5GB vs 3.0GB

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greg Brown
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Greg Brown

If I have a SATA card that is for 1.5GB connections, can I connect a
SATA 3.0GB hard drive to it? Will it just thottle it down to 1.5GB?
 
Greg said:
If I have a SATA card that is for 1.5GB connections, can I connect a
SATA 3.0GB hard drive to it? Will it just thottle it down to 1.5GB?
Click to expand...
Bingo, the weakest link in the chain.
 
Greg Brown said:
If I have a SATA card that is for 1.5GB connections, can I connect a
SATA 3.0GB hard drive to it? Will it just thottle it down to 1.5GB?
Click to expand...


Greg:
Frankly I wouldn't worry too much about the "throttling down" issue. With
rare exceptions you would see virtually no real-life difference re data
transfer rates between a SATA 1.5 Gb/s drive and a SATA 3.0 Gb/s drive
connected to one of these SATA controller cards - assuming the card works as
advertised.

But what you would have to be concerned about is...

Whether the SATA controller card (regardless of whether it was designed to
support SATA-II HDDs) would even work in a reliable way.

By & large our experience with SATA controller cards (regardless of whether
they were designed to accommodate SATA-I or SATA-II drives) has been quite
negative - to the point where we recommended against their use unless there
was no other viable recourse available to the user. We have simply found
them (we've used a fairly wide variety of these devices) to be erratic and
unreliable on a day-in day-out basis. Drive recognition issues have been an
ongoing nagging problem in our experience.

I fully realize there are users who have found these devices useful and have
experienced no problems using them. But as a general proposition we have
found too many problems to recommend them . Our position has been if the
motherboard does not have built-in SATA capability, then continue to use
PATA HDDs in your system. Or better yet, if feasible, purchase a new
motherboard with SATA capability.

These SATA controller cards - especially the ones that support only the 1.5
Gb/s interface data transfer rate - have dramatically fallen in price over
the past year or two, so I guess that's sort of an incentive for a user to
try them out. (I've seen some of them on sale for as little as $15 from
online vendors). Since you already have one I suppose it's worth a try to
see how it will work with the SATA-II HDD you're contemplating.
Theoretically the SATA-II HDD is backwards compatible with the 1.5 Gb/s
specification so there should there be no drive recognition problem. If
there is such a problem and your SATA-II HDD is equipped with jumpers to
select the 1.5 Gb/s (not all SATA-II HDDs are so equipped), then jumper the
drive accordingly and hope for the best.
Anna
 
Hello Anna, would you know if it is the same case for SATA CD-DVD drives, in terms of
reliability? Connecting on to a SATA controller car that is. I'm about to connect one into
my Nephew's PC, his MoBo has 2 SATA-I connectors that already has 2 HD connected to them,
and wants to connect up his new SATA CD-DVD drive via, his SATA controller card. We'll do it
anyway, just asking if you know from your experience if you have seen the same deal with
optical drives.

Thanks and regards,
- WindPipe
 
My experience of Sata Raid cards is that any issues seem to be in proportion
to the price paid for the card.
I have seen issues with onboard Sata Raid controllers as fitted in low end
boards, but no issues with a card that cost $300+
It is also the case that some cards will not function correctly on some
mobo's for indeterminate reasons (As detailed to me in extensive
conversations with Adpatec)
 
WindPipe said:
Hello Anna, would you know if it is the same case for SATA CD-DVD drives,
in terms of reliability? Connecting on to a SATA controller car that is.
I'm about to connect one into my Nephew's PC, his MoBo has 2 SATA-I
connectors that already has 2 HD connected to them, and wants to connect
up his new SATA CD-DVD drive via, his SATA controller card. We'll do it
anyway, just asking if you know from your experience if you have seen the
same deal with optical drives.

Thanks and regards,
- WindPipe
Click to expand...


WindPipe (I assume you're not the OP?)...
I've had only one (maybe two) experiences re connecting a SATA optical drive
to a SATA controller card (and I can't recall whether the card(s) were
SATA-I or SATA-II devices, should that even matter). I don't recall any
problem resulting from this connection - the optical drive(s) performed just
fine, but again, this is based on only one or two experiences. My guess
would be - but it would be *only* a guess - that a user would be less likely
to experience the kinds of problems we ran into (that I described above)
when using the SATA controller card for a SATA HDD connection. Perhaps other
users coming upon this thread can relate there experiences in this area.

As you say, since your nephew already has both components give it a try and
see how it goes. And please keep us informed of the results. And if you do,
indicate the make/model of both the optical drive and the SATA controller
card.
Anna
 
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