SATA Compatibility Question...

[AnAngelsDeath]

I have this motherboard http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1634 - the MSI Neo-2 FIR, installed in one of my old computers I use just for music/movies and general Mass Storage. Currently its running 2x80GB ATA HDD. Now I would like to upgrade the HDD to this 250GB SATA 3.0GB/s HDD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136113 - I wasn't sure if it would work with the SATA ports I have on the MSI mobo, is this correct or will any SATA HDD work on any mobo that has SATA ports ? I've been told that it will, but I wanna make sure that is true and correct, from my fellow [H]'ers !

 

[drescherjm]

It should. The speed of the bus is supposed to switch to the speed of the slowest device. I have run SATA1 drives in SATA2 ports and vise versa without any issue. Some drives even have a jumper to force the SATA speed to SATA1. If it does not work buy a $14 SATA card to fix the problem.

 

[[LYL]Homer]

$250gb for $45 in a "mass storage" pc, really? Pretty much every drive out there now will be at least SATA2 (3.0gb/s interface, but drives won't come near that speed).

Lots of other much better values out there, check the "Current best value: 3.5" SATA HDD" panel on the left of this page for starters: http://diskcompare.com/ (Currently $48 for a 1tb Seagate.) The [H]ot Deals sub-forum has had 1tb for $40 in the last week.

 

[AnAngelsDeath]

yea, that 1TB HDD is currently unavailable, so not such a good deal when its unavailable now is it

and further more, thats not what I asked, I didn't ask for links to deals or anything, i asked a simple question and wanted a simple answer, lets stay on topic people !

 

[larrymoencurly]

The MSI Neo FIR mobo has 4 SATA ports, 2 controlled by a Promise PDC20375 or PDC20376 chip, another 2 by a VIA VT8237 chip. Both have a speed limit of 150MB/sec, but the Promise chip works fine with 300MB/s hard drives, while the VT8237 absolutely requires drives to be limited to 150MB/s, either through a jumper (Seagate, 3.5" WD) or reflashing (Samsung, Hitachi). The VT8237 was revised several times -- VT8237R, VT8237R+, VT8237A, and VT8237S, but only the VT8237S works with 300MB/s SATA. I have a knockoff Promise PDC20376 card and an Asrock mobo with a VT8237 on it, and that's been my experience. BTW the problem with the VT8237 also exists in PCI cards using the VIA VT6421 or VT6421A chips. So if you have to add a PCI SATA controller, get one based on a Silicon Image chip because they're compatible with everything and, unlike the Promise chips, will handle optical drives as well as HDs.