Is sata 3 backwards compatible?

apple_man77 · 11 Apr 2011 at 16:50

Hello,

My new systems arriving tomorrow, just double checking everything And realised I've ordered a seagate barracuda 2tb drive which is sata 3 (6gb/s) whilst my motherboard is only sata 2 (3gb/s)

Will I just get slower speed or won't my new hard drive work at all?

I've tried looking on wiki but it's a little complicated so a straight forward answer on here would be appreciated.

Thanks
Mark

DragonQ · 11 Apr 2011 at 17:00

Yes, it'll work fine.

apple_man77 · 11 Apr 2011 at 17:04

Phew....thank god for that!!

Cheers mate

SparkyG · 11 Apr 2011 at 20:01

The drive will just work at SATA II speeds

apple_man77 · 11 Apr 2011 at 21:01

That's fine should be quick enough for a htpc it was much cheaper for the sata 3 drive than a sata 2 so might get a couple more!!

DIABLO · 12 Apr 2011 at 00:29

sata 3 on a HDD is a gimmick anyway as a HDD can't even max out sata 2 so you're not losing anything.