SSD Sata2 vs Sata3

Hi all, I want to update my laptop by putting in a SSD. My laptop's mother board only has sata2 not sata3. I have been noticing lately that when on sale the sata3 SSDs only run a little more than the sata2 SSDs. My question is will the sata3 drive run faster than the sata2 because it will most likely max out the sata2 connection?

really depends on the sata 3 drive you get as to how much performance you will see

You will definitely maximize the available sata 2 speed you can get, and compared to the likely 5400rpm drive you are replacing, you'll be shocked how fast that will boot. SSD's are very nice.

OCZ's premium sata 2 drives(vertex 2) pretty much saturated the sata 2 bandwidth. Even Crucials first gen sata 3 saturated the sata 2 bandwidth.

if you can get a sata 3 drive close to the price of a sata 2, why not? In a year or so, if you upgrade your laptop, you get a boost in disk speed.

I can't say i'd recommend buying a vertex 3 maxiops(I own one of these, and they're darned fast!) for your sata 2 laptop, that would be a waste of money for a performance drive like that, but a more affordable, but still decent performer like Crucials M4 would serve very well!

1 last point, the advertised speed on all these drives dramatically diminishes as you go down in size.
Generally, the "advertised" speed is typically attained on a 240gb size, and by the time you get to a 64gb drive, your speed is often at 50% of it's larger sibling...
As you get smaller, there are less channels for data, so even a premium 64gb sata 3 drive will be only slightly faster than a sata2 connection. the sweet spot for price/performance is in the 128gb size, but if you run these, you'll likely want the regular HDD for bulk data like pictures, mp3's and video(SSD's don't move these types of compressed data very efficiently anyway...)
You do not want to fill an SSD past 50-60% at most - it needs the space to effectively run it's TRIM(defrag). So if you fill it to 90%, your going to notice it slowing down.

If you end up buying a Sata 2 drive, be sure it utilizes TRIM. If not, pass on it. I believe all the new sata 3 drives support it, but look in the specs to be sure.

Another great site to learn on SSD's and see benchmarks and drive comparisons is the ssd review

sorry for the long post!

just read the specs of w/e you get carefully. the drive i have as a boot drive is the 60gb OCZ Solid 3. they list like 520/500 as the speed but what most people don't realize is this is with compressible data so when you fire up crystal disk and use default data type you see "zomg wtf this drive is slow!".

well, yes and no, the drive is quite fast when it can compress the data but raw uncompressable data it really isn't that great.

so the answer is of course, compress the entire C drive and use a vertex3 for your games drive .

You likely won't see any real world practical difference between SATA 2 and SATA 3 with the SSD - it would be noticeable in benchmarks, but that's about it.

I'd stay away from OCZ - too many problems and poor customer service. I'd look for either a Crucial M4 or an Intel 320 (or even a used Intel X-25M).

Thanks a lot guys for your responses. I just built a HTPC with a Crucial M4 that I got of Newegg about a week ago and was really impressed with how fast it was. I pretty much decided right away that my laptops 5400 rpm drive had to go. I plan on removing my optical drive and using my old drive as a storage drive, so I figure a 120gb SSD for os and games would be perfect. Now I just need to find a good deal to jump on.

A buddy of mine is running a 128 m4 as a boot drive in his gaming rig and is very happy with it.

i appear to be one of the lucky few with a flawless Vertex 3

Looks like a new bios just a few days ago 2.15 that OCZ claims fixes all blue screens and the drive disappearing fault. That will be awesome if they have. Too many people with those issues!

enjoy your new hardware!

Forceman said:

You likely won't see any real world practical difference between SATA 2 and SATA 3 with the SSD - it would be noticeable in benchmarks, but that's about it.

I'd stay away from OCZ - too many problems and poor customer service. I'd look for either a Crucial M4 or an Intel 320 (or even a used Intel X-25M).

Click to expand...

I agree 100%.
I saw no difference between my laptop and my desktop of the same drives (SATA3) in real-world daily work usage.

Video Editing and Rendering you probably could tell but I`m not sure how much since I don't do that

I think I am going to try a Vertex 2. They're on sale at New Egg for $120 after rebate. I'll just update the firmware as soon as I get it.