Serial ATA Cable Question

[Don]

I have two Seagate serial ATA disk drives(SATA 300). But the cables are
serial ATA 150. Would there be any performance improvement if I changed
the cables to SATA300?

Thanks,
Don

 

[GT]

I have two Seagate serial ATA disk drives(SATA 300). But the cables are
serial ATA 150. Would there be any performance improvement if I changed
the cables to SATA300?

Not that you would notice. The drives will only manage 60-70MB/s transfer
speed so moving from 150 max to 300 max won't make any difference. The peak
transfer rate will have a higher limit, but in reality you won't notice it
being used. If your drives have NCQ, you might see a slight performance
increase*, but again, you probably won't notice.

Actually i just re-read your question and you said 'cables are SATA150'. I
didn't know the cables are rated, I assumed you were talking about a
different controller - what version is your controller, because if it is
SATA150 (and perhaps the cables came with it?), then new cables won't make
any difference at all.

* I think NCQ is only supported in SATA300, but I stand to be corrected on
this - I read this somewhere and can't find any more information to support
it!

 

[DaveW]

No.

 

[Don]

Not that you would notice. The drives will only manage 60-70MB/s transfer
speed so moving from 150 max to 300 max won't make any difference. The peak
transfer rate will have a higher limit, but in reality you won't notice it
being used. If your drives have NCQ, you might see a slight performance
increase*, but again, you probably won't notice.

Actually i just re-read your question and you said 'cables are SATA150'. I
didn't know the cables are rated, I assumed you were talking about a
different controller - what version is your controller, because if it is
SATA150 (and perhaps the cables came with it?), then new cables won't make
any difference at all.

* I think NCQ is only supported in SATA300, but I stand to be corrected on
this - I read this somewhere and can't find any more information to support
it!

Serial ATA cables are rated. The 300 or SATA 2 cables are thicker. My
motherboard has a SATA 300 bus, but given the nature of the disks(7200
rpm), I suspect there won't be much of a difference, if any. I suppose
this serial ATA thing is really a marketing ploy more than anything
else. There are advantages though, no master/slave, and the cables are
easier to work with.

 

[Pecos]

Not that you would notice. The drives will only manage 60-70MB/s
transfer speed so moving from 150 max to 300 max won't make any
difference. The peak transfer rate will have a higher limit, but in
reality you won't notice it being used. If your drives have NCQ, you
might see a slight performance increase*, but again, you probably
won't notice.

Actually i just re-read your question and you said 'cables are
SATA150'. I didn't know the cables are rated, I assumed you were
talking about a different controller - what version is your
controller, because if it is SATA150 (and perhaps the cables came with
it?), then new cables won't make any difference at all.

* I think NCQ is only supported in SATA300, but I stand to be
corrected on this - I read this somewhere and can't find any more
information to support it!

Hi GT,

I have two Maxtor 6L250S0 drives that are SATA I 1.5 Gb/s that support
NCQ. See '3.5-Inch Storage All-Stars':

http://www.computerpoweruser.com/editorial/article.asp?
article=articles/archive/c0502/30c02/30c02.asp&guid=

Or more specs:

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:
_N_uFVJRkFoJ:www.qnap.com.tw/image/product/HCL/TS-101
_Compatibility_List.pdf+diamondmax+sata+ncq+1.5&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us


I should also mention that the Southbridge (I/O Controller Hub) needs to
support NCQ for you to actually see and use NCQ.

For Intel:
The ICH5, ICH5R, ICH6, ICH7 and ICH8 chipsets *do not* use AHCI (Advanced
Host Controller Interface) which is required for NCQ (Native Command
Queuing).