Question on SATA II, III and pci cards.

[cb600fshornet]

Essentially this is the question.

I'm thinking of getting a SATA III SSD (Agility 3 128GB)

Should I:

1. Get a SATA III PCI Card
2: Use my motherboard's SATA II slots.


I ask this, as I know SATA II is 3GB/S limit.

Would the PCI slot have enough bandwidth/speed to actually justify having a SATA III PCI card?

Thanks in advance

Joe

 

[OhSnapWord]

PCI slot might not have enough bandwidth for SATA III. Most the the PCI SATA cards I've seen are SATA I.

PCI Express would have enough bandwidth. They even sell PCI Express SSDs.

 

[cb600fshornet]

My Graphics Card is in my single PCI-E x16 slot :\

 

[OhSnapWord]

What is your hard drive configuration now? An SSD connected to SATA II would have read/write speeds around 250-300MB/s, compared to the 125MB/s from a conventional hard drive.

FYI there is a difference between 3GB/s and 3Gb/s.

b = bit
B = byte = 8 bits

 

[cb600fshornet]

I know theres a difference, but it's a forum, not a full on technical report, people know which is meant when they hear the context.

I heard a SATA III Card in PCI would be faster than SATA II ports though :\

I have a mechanical hard drive, 7200rpm connected to my SATA II

 

[OhSnapWord]

People don't always know and it's a good habit to use proper nomenclature.

On Newegg, every SATA III controller card is PCI Express. I don't think regular PCI meets the bandwidth requirements for SATA III.

 

[Celegorm]

My Graphics Card is in my single PCI-E x16 slot :\

I'm still willing to bet that you have at least one PCI-E 4x or 1x slot. the card c an work in either of those as well and the ones I have seen are usually designed for the 4x slots.

 

[cb600fshornet]

I have 1 PCI-E x16 slot, one PCI-E x1, and two PCIs.

My PCI-E x1 is blocked by my graphics card :\

I've never seen a PCI-E x4 slot How rare are they?

 

[OhSnapWord]

Some boards have a slot that is physically a PCI-E x16 but electrically a PCI-E x4.