SATA II drive on SATA I PCI controller?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Simon Howson
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Simon Howson

I've nearly run out of storage space and thus am in the process of
finding a new hard disc to buy. I am considering a Western Digital 250
GB SATAII drive for AUD$219 (about US$170)

Currently I am running a WD 200 GB SATAI (first generation SATA 150)
drive on one port of a PCI-SATA(I) controller card. It is based on a
Silicon Image chipset, I think 3112. It is just a standard controller,
no RAID etc, but it works fine. It has one other channel free where I
intend on putting the new drive.

I am wondering if I buy a SATAII drive will it work off of the SATA(I)
PCI controller card?

Are SATA II drives backwards compatible with SATAI controllers? Will the
drive work, but simply be restricted to SATAI speeds (and to the speed
of the PCI bus), or are SATA II drives only mechanically compatible
(i.e. they use the same cables) but are electronically incompatible?
Meaning if I buy a SATAII drive I would also have to buy a new SATAII
PCI controller card?

Basically I was hoping to be able to buy a SATAII drive now, because
towards the end of the year I intend on upgrading to a new nForce 4
based motherboard that will no doubt have a heap of SATAII connectors.
Plus a chipset that can supply the bandwidth required for SATAII. But
for now I was hoping I would be able to use the other channel of the
SATA(I) controller to support a new SATAII drive.

Simon Howson
 
I've nearly run out of storage space and thus am in the process of finding a
new hard disc to buy. I am considering a Western Digital 250 GB SATAII drive
for AUD$219 (about US$170)
Click to expand...
Currently I am running a WD 200 GB SATAI (first generation SATA 150) drive on
one port of a PCI-SATA(I) controller card. It is based on a Silicon Image
chipset, I think 3112. It is just a standard controller, no RAID etc, but it
works fine. It has one other channel free where I intend on putting the new
drive.

I am wondering if I buy a SATAII drive will it work off of the SATA(I) PCI
controller card?

Are SATA II drives backwards compatible with SATAI controllers? Will the drive
work, but simply be restricted to SATAI speeds (and to the speed of the PCI
bus), or are SATA II drives only mechanically compatible (i.e. they use the
same cables) but are electronically incompatible? Meaning if I buy a SATAII
drive I would also have to buy a new SATAII PCI controller card?

Basically I was hoping to be able to buy a SATAII drive now, because towards
the end of the year I intend on upgrading to a new nForce 4 based motherboard
that will no doubt have a heap of SATAII connectors. Plus a chipset that can
supply the bandwidth required for SATAII. But for now I was hoping I would be
able to use the other channel of the SATA(I) controller to support a new
SATAII drive.
Click to expand...

That approach will work fine.
 
Simon Howson said:
I've nearly run out of storage space and thus am in the process of
finding a new hard disc to buy. I am considering a Western Digital 250
GB SATAII drive for AUD$219 (about US$170)

Currently I am running a WD 200 GB SATAI (first generation SATA 150)
drive on one port of a PCI-SATA(I) controller card. It is based on a
Silicon Image chipset, I think 3112. It is just a standard controller,
no RAID etc, but it works fine. It has one other channel free where I
intend on putting the new drive.

I am wondering if I buy a SATAII drive will it work off of the SATA(I)
PCI controller card?
Click to expand...

It'll work fine.
Are SATA II drives backwards compatible with SATAI controllers? Will the
drive work, but simply be restricted to SATAI speeds
Click to expand...


Yes but there is no drive capable of exploiting SATA1 speeds let alone SATA2
speeds yet.
Those are just peak burst rates of the interface and not drive speeds.
(and to the speed
of the PCI bus), or are SATA II drives only mechanically compatible
(i.e. they use the same cables) but are electronically incompatible?
Meaning if I buy a SATAII drive I would also have to buy a new SATAII
PCI controller card?
Nope.

Basically I was hoping to be able to buy a SATAII drive now, because
towards the end of the year I intend on upgrading to a new nForce 4
based motherboard that will no doubt have a heap of SATAII connectors.
Click to expand...

And will contribute nothing to extra performance for your configuration.
 
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