sata versus sata 2

[donec]

What would be the results of running a sata 2 or sata/300 on a laptop that has sata listed in the specs for the laptop?

[Fred]

donec,

The answer is nothing. The I/O speed is limited by the slowest link in the chain. In this case it would be the sata controller. The disk I/O would not go any faster because of the sata2 interface on the disk. sata2 is backward compatible with sata.

Fred

[rivenought]

Adding to what Fred said, I just recently purchased a desktop Seagate 80GB SATA drive. It is rated for both 150 and 300 speeds. My motherboard will run the 150, but not the 300. Seagate has a tiny jumper that comes already installed that limits the drive to 150. I just plugged it in and loaded Mint. It only took a minute. Now, when I do eventually move this drive to another machine that has 300 support, all I have to do it remove that tiny jumper. Even though I cannot use that 300 speed right now, I have that future capability built-in.

I think I paid $44 for that drive (including shipping). I have not priced the laptop models, but with drive prices as they currently are, you will get a deal no matter which way you go.

[donec]

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking that for most drives the sata I/O speed is really quite a bit faster than most read right speeds can do at this time. Any thoughts?

[lakehousetech]

In comparison to IDE drives yes, very much faster. Although SCSI can be equivalent in speed to SATA, the interface is outdated and expensive. SATA is the way to go.

[Fred]

donec

Absolutely faster than the ability of the drive to keep up. The difference is the catching. The I/O comes in bursts. Then waits for the mechanical part of the drive to catch up. The speed difference in sata and sata2 is mostly in the speed of the I/O bursts.

Hope this helps clarify.

Fred

[Lantesh]

When running a SATA2 drive with an older SATA controller make sure you have the jumper pin set for the slower speed. I have read (wish I could remember the source) that some drives have issues otherwise. Personally I have two SATA2 hard drives in my PC, both set to the slower SATA setting due to my old mother board. With the jumpers set correctly everything works great.

[Fred]

Lantesh,

Good point. Some BIOSs/controllers can self adjust, others can not.

Thanks.

Fred