how do I know if SSD disk can be used with my motherboard

Question

I'm trying to find how to check if particular SSD disc can be used on my motherboard:

Motherboard: Gigabyte EX58-UD3R

SSD: Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE250BW

What do I need to look, or search in order to be sure if I can install SSD drive in my PC.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

All SATA ports are compatible with each other, but in this case, the drive is SATA III (6.0 Gbps) whereas the motherboard only supports SATA II (3.0 Gbps). So the drive will work, but it likely won't be quite as fast as it would be with a newer board supporting SATA III.

(It should still be pretty fast, though. I've tested the 120 GB version of that drive on a SATA II port, and even without the additional speed, it's an enormous improvement over a spinning-platter drive.)