Will SATA II drive work on SATA 150 mobo?

[johngvo]

I've tried to search for this in the forums but haven't been able to come up with anything. Perhaps I am searching incorrectly as I am sure this topic has come up.

Will an SATA II drive work with an SATA 150 mobo (MSI NeoPlatinum2)? I am looking to purchase a new hard drive to compliment my Raptor 76gb. The SATA II drives are just about the same price as the SATA150s so I was thinking about future-proofing in case I upgrade my mobo in the future.

On another note, I was also deciding between a:

Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L250S0 250GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer
or
Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 250GB Serial ATA II 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer.

I've read good things about both, especially with the Hitachi being very quiet but I don't think I would be able to hear the difference seeing as my work area is pretty high in ambient noise levels.

Any suggestions would be greatly apprecieated. Thanks!

[BillLeeLee]

SATA II drives are backwards compatible with the SATA 150 spec, so you can just slap one in.

Regarding your other question: yeah, I've also read good things about both. The 16MB Maxtor's supposed to be a beast with that extra cache, and the Hitachi 7K250 is also supposed to be a great performer.

I don't have experience with either though, still using Seagate 7200.7s. :)

[mike0219116]

I think that some SATAII drives require changing a few jumpers to achieve backwards compatability on SATA150 MOBOs, but otherwise you should have no problems.

[Slider19]

SATA150 is 1st generation SATA right?

[BillLeeLee]

SATA150 is 1st generation SATA right?

Yes, the first generation that supported the 150 MB/s transfer spec. SATA II (used incorrectly by people, including myself ;) ) defined the new standard, which has 3 Gbps transfers (300 MB/s), and includes support for NCQ and port multiplying. This does not mean, though, that drives are actually approaching 3Gbps speeds or that they have to support NCQ.

Hell, we're not even at 1.5Gbps transfer speeds yet.

I want fast HDs!!!

[Dark Ember]

Yes, the first generation that supported the 150 MB/s transfer spec. SATA II (used incorrectly by people, including myself ;) ) defined the new standard, which has 3 Gbps transfers (300 MB/s), and includes support for NCQ and port multiplying. This does not mean, though, that drives are actually approaching 3Gbps speeds or that they have to support NCQ.

Hell, we're not even at 1.5Gbps transfer speeds yet.

I want fast HDs!!!

Unfortunately, even thats not quite right. SATA II is practically meaningless in terms of comparing drives that say they support SATA II. They may or may not have 3gbps, NCQ, etc. Check out www.sata-io.org for the details on the current status of the "standards"

Also, I'm partial to the Diamondmax10 myself, but either would be a good drive.

[grdh20]

You have to run feature tool boot disk on the hitachi sata2 drives to enable sata300 and if then you wish to go back to sata 150 controllers, you have to re-enable sata150 or it may cause damage to the drive, or so Ftool says.

[Lazn_Work]

As long as it is not a VIA chipset it should work fine:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=932138

==>Lazn

[BillLeeLee]

Unfortunately, even thats not quite right. SATA II is practically meaningless in terms of comparing drives that say they support SATA II. They may or may not have 3gbps, NCQ, etc. Check out www.sata-io.org for the details on the current status of the "standards"

Also, I'm partial to the Diamondmax10 myself, but either would be a good drive.

I probably didn't phrase my reply very well. I didn't mean to say that all drives lableled SATA II would have port multiplying or NCQ or 3Gbps support, just that the spec put forth by the SATA II committee included such features.

[streetkid]

is there such a drive with 16mb buffer, ncq, and sata II?

[BillLeeLee]

The DiamondMax10 listed in this thread has the 16MB buffer and is NCQ ready, but it's SATA 150. Doesn't matter though, transfer speeds still don't break ATA/66

[Dark Ember]

The current DiamondMax10 is exactly what Bill said. Got the buffer, NCQ, no 3gbps though.

Theres a possibility that there may be a new SATA version of that drive out in the semi-near future that might have what you are looking for. Separate from the 500GB drive. Maybe.

Don't quote me on that. ;)