Upgrading my SSD. Opinions on SATA II or III

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a_kraker99

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I currently have a 80gb Intel X25-m that is running out of space. I am looking to upgrade to the new OCZ Vertex 4 120gb drive. Currently I only have SATA II until I build a new computer. Here are a few questions I have.

1. Is SATA II already limiting the speed I get from my Intel SSD?
2. Will SATA II limit the speed of my OCZ drive? Is so, by how much?
3. Can I get a SATA III pci-e card that will handle the OCZ drive speeds?
 
1. Is SATA II already limiting the speed I get from my Intel SSD?
No, your current SSD is sata2/3Gbps drive like your controller.

2. Will SATA II limit the speed of my OCZ drive? Is so, by how much?
Yes it will. You probably won't notice except for benchmarks though, and some special test conditions. There are tons of threads in the storage forums where people get a brand new sata3/6Gbps drive and connect it to their x58 motherboard and notice the benchmarks aren't as high as on the box. They typically don't have any speed issues, just they cannot verify that what they bought is performing because of the interface.

3. Can I get a SATA III pci-e card that will handle the OCZ drive speeds?
I don't have any experience really with this, but the general consensus is that to get a card that would actually use that speed and show the correct benchmark numbers, you would spend about $450 and for that money you could upgrade your motherboard and cpu to native 6Gbps ports.
 
From what I read here SATA II actually runs at about 300 MB/s
The read speed on the Vertex 4 is supposed to be like 500 MB/s right?
 
B!nd. said:
1. Is SATA II already limiting the speed I get from my Intel SSD?
No it is not. Currently there are no devices that can saturate the 3.0GB/s bandwith.

2. Will SATA II limit the speed of my OCZ drive? Is so, by how much?
No it will not.

3. Can I get a SATA III pci-e card that will handle the OCZ drive speeds?
No need and I heard some mixed reviews about them so I can't really give a suggestion.

As of right now the only need for having SATA III is personal satisfaction. Until a revolutionary drive is announced where it can transfer 6Gb/s there is no real need for SATA III.

Same thing goes for PCIe 3.0, although I think we will see actual use for that before we see it for SATA III.

If I were you (and I will be in the same boat eventually) I would get the second SSD install just your OS on the 80GB drive and use the other for apps and games :) But also be ware that most games do not see benefit from being installed on an SSD.
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Just so you know, Sata is 3Gbit and 6Gbit a second, not GigaByte a second. ALL of the current gen sata III SSD's can more than saturate sata 2 (3Gbit) and nearly saturate sata 3 as well (6Gbit)
 
extide said:
Just so you know, Sata is 3Gbit and 6Gbit a second, not GigaByte a second. ALL of the current gen sata III SSD's can more than saturate sata 2 (3Gbit) and nearly saturate sata 3 as well (6Gbit)
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Doh. Epic fail on my end. Sorry OP.
 
extide said:
Just so you know, Sata is 3Gbit and 6Gbit a second, not GigaByte a second. ALL of the current gen sata III SSD's can more than saturate sata 2 (3Gbit) and nearly saturate sata 3 as well (6Gbit)
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Okay so I guess my question now is if a card like on one HERE would be sufficient for the time being to get the full speed out of a SSD?
 
It would help, a bit on sequential transfers, but wont make much of a difference in real world use.
 
When do you plan on upgrade the whole system? I really wouldn't bother with a SATA III card. Use the new SSD and when you upgrade, transfer it to your new system. As already mentioned, you won't notice the difference.
 
Just use your new SSD on SATA 3 Gbps. Only benchmarks or lots of large writes will show any difference compared to 6 Gbps.
 
Reikon said:
Just use your new SSD on SATA 3 Gbps. Only benchmarks or lots of large writes will show any difference compared to 6 Gbps.
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I don't know about it. I mean yeah sure doubling up on a HDD would seem even that much quicker. But my M4 in my laptop is only getting just over half the read speed it benches at on a Sata III connection. Once I get my new desktop up an running with the 256GB M4 I am throwing in there, I will have a better idea whether I would notice the difference, but still half as fast is half as fast.
 
But my M4 in my laptop is only getting just over half the read speed it benches at on a Sata III connection
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Laptops can be a whole different situation and I have no idea what machine/drive or how you have it set-up.
 
Old Hippie said:
Laptops can be a whole different situation and I have no idea what machine/drive or how you have it set-up.
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Its a sata II C2D laptop. It is benches at the upper range of Sata II (275MB/s). In Theory it would be 300MB/s, but no one is going to see 100% performance. It's why I used it as my example, I have an M4 in Sata II, and it benches at the upper range up Sata II, which in this case is just over half of its rated performance.
 
Its a sata II C2D laptop. It is benches at the upper range of Sata II (275MB/s).
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That's pretty good!

The only reason I mentioned it was because some laptop chipsets don't seem to perform as well as their desktop counterparts.

Good luck with the new M4. :)
 
The important question is: do you need the extra read speed offered by SATA3?
 
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