Does it make sense to install a SATA3 SSD in a notebook with SATA2?

I have a notebook with SATA2 interface. Most of the SSD drives have SATA3 and performance about 500 MBps (while SATA2 handles up to 300 MBps). Does it mean it makes little sense to install an SSD drive in my notebook? Or maybe I would still be able to see significant performance? At the moment I have Hitachi HTS727550A9E364 HDD, which according to this site has a 300 MBps transfer.

pmichna

Posted 2014-07-04T17:01:13.507

Reputation: 173

2"I have Hitachi HTS727550A9E364 HDD, which according to this site has a 300 MBps transfer", not quite... The drive's "Interface transfer rate" (SATA2) can support 300 MBps (MegaBYTES), but the drive itself (See: "Media transfer rate") can only do 1247 Mbps (MegaBITS). The SSD will be magnitudes faster, even at SATA2 interface speeds. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-07-04T17:05:24.820

@techie007 Thanks for clarification! – pmichna – 2014-07-04T17:07:37.633

– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-07-04T17:12:23.567

@techie007 generally yes – Aboba – 2014-07-04T17:15:05.120

Answers

As noted before, the hitachi will be hard pressed to go over 100MB/s in practical terms.

All that "SATA3" labeling in HDDs is just affirming compatibility with the technology. The disks are as fast/slow as before.

There are very few SSDs in the affordable range that can fully use the SATA3 6gig bandwidth.

A cheap SSD drive may have a mediocre sequential performance (not very different from an HDD), but still will be a whole lot faster on seeks and random reads.

Sequential is for copying large files etc, but that you will hit a bottleneck somewhere else long before anyway.

The responsiveness and "perceived quickness" of desktop OS usage is mainly due to the random-read performance.

Also, low end SSDs tend to have a non-scaling write performance (they don't write as fast as they read, the speed changes a lot and so on), but in usual notebook that is not a big issue.

Go for the SSD.

Beware, it will feel great at first, but you will get used to it just as fast :)

rogerovo

Posted 2014-07-04T17:01:13.507

Reputation: 406

Don't forget the other benefit is that some day if you get a new laptop with a SATA 3 interface you'll have this drive to put in it. – Jason C – 2014-07-08T03:17:52.147

Yes, you would see a difference. The seek times of a SSD are very low compared to platter drives. Also, that interface transfer rate is not the actual read/write speed, which would be significantly lower (likely less than 100MB/sec)

Aboba

Posted 2014-07-04T17:01:13.507

Reputation: 671

So what parameters should I look at when buying an SSD if not at the transfer? Do you mean it doesn't matter whether one has SATA2 or SATA3 and the SSD drives would have the same performance on both? I mean: is buying a 500 MBps drive an overkill and looking for something cheaper and closer to e.g. 300 MBps is enough? – pmichna – 2014-07-04T17:06:53.677

@pmichna The odds are you're not going to find a "SATA2" SSD drive these days, and even if you did it would not be significantly cheaper. Just get what's current that you can afford, install, and enjoy. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-07-04T17:11:13.987

1300 would be enough unless you plan to move the drive to a new computer in the near (next two years) future. You may have a hard time finding that though, since almost all new models are rated above that. I wouldn't bother getting the top of the line though, almost any SSD (there are a few lemons, do your research) is going to provide you with the performance that you need. Size and price are your biggest factors to pay attention to. – Aboba – 2014-07-04T17:11:39.437

Here is a simple table which shows how the mixing of SATA II and SATA III devices at the same bus results:

SATA 2 + SATA 3 = SATA 2

SATA 3 + SATA 2 = SATA 2

SATA 3 + SATA 3 = SATA 3

So does it have a sense to install SATA 3 SSD on SATA 2 notebook? A bit broad questions because it depends on circumstances. It hardly has a sense from the performance perspective as it will be narrowed down to the slowest SATA2. So if you are considering about buying more expensive SATAIII drive instead of cheaper SATAII you better know that it hardly brings speed benefits. At the same time the price difference is little relatively and if the money doesn't matter so why not to take SATAIII? If the notebook dies or you just have a chance to put it into a device with SATAIII then you will get more advantages with the more modern and, in fact, faster SSD.

Ruslan Gerasimov

Posted 2014-07-04T17:01:13.507

Reputation: 1 974