Sata 3 question please

Daytrader · 23 Feb 2013 at 14:20

Hi, can i put a sata 3 hard drive into my 4 year old asus p5ql pro sata 2 motherboard ? i want to get a sata 3 ready for a upgrade later this year, so i dont really want to get just a sata 2, cheers.

Orcvader · 23 Feb 2013 at 14:27

Yes, all SATA standards are backwards compatible.

You won't notice a difference between SATA 2 and 3 for HDDs anyway, the main thing limiting transfer speeds is still the amount of platters in the HDD and how fast they spin, and it doesn't even reach full SATA 2 speeds.

Daytrader · 23 Feb 2013 at 14:43

Thank you for fast reply, i think you may also be the man to answer my other question if thats ok, with the above motherboard, i want to install, and dont laugh, xp pro with sp3, i know i cant move on, but i still play older games etc, anyway back to my question, i was told that the only way i can install xp pro on this mb useing a sata drive is, by setting in bios the option ide, or is it ide compatable, but the hard drive will be useing the sata port, so by doing this, will i still be getting the benifit from the speed of a sata drive over a pata/ide drive ?, from what i have read on the web is, it will still be running as good as a sata drive but just wont be able to run in AHCI or RAID, is this correct ?, oh and if i did decide to install win 7, am i right in thinking that the right drivers would be installed for the sata drive and would be enable AHCI/RAID if i wanted, cheers

Orcvader · 23 Feb 2013 at 14:50

For HDDs there's not really any difference between IDE and AHCI. If I remember correctly there were some LGA 775 boards that had problems in AHCI mode anyway, so even if you move to 7, might be best to stick with IDE mode.

Daytrader · 23 Feb 2013 at 14:57

Thx again, so to confirm, as long as my sata hard drive is connected to a sata input, it will still run as a sata drive even in xp without sata drivers.

Orcvader · 23 Feb 2013 at 15:49

Yes. Connected via SATA, in IDE mode.

Daytrader · 23 Feb 2013 at 16:52

Thx again for your time.

Daytrader · 25 Feb 2013 at 15:54

If i do install xp pro on this board, and connect sata hard drive to sata port and then set ide in bios, will i need to install sata drivers useing f6 when i do a fresh install of xp inc sp3, as on my motherboars download site the drivers seem to be a exe file only ?

wazza300 · 25 Feb 2013 at 15:56

Daytrader said:
If i do install xp pro on this board, and connect sata hard drive to sata port and then set ide in bios, will i need to install sata drivers useing f6 when i do a fresh install of xp inc sp3, as on my motherboars download site the drivers seem to be a exe file only ?

no,you only need to pre install ahci and raid drivers with xp,ide don't need any as windows xp installs those for you

Daytrader · 25 Feb 2013 at 16:02

Cheers, but if i went the SSD route in xp i would need ahci drivers for sure then thou ? and how would i instal the drivers then useing f6, as i cant find any that are not a exe, also for future proof a sata 3 ssd would still work on my sata 2 mother board would it not ? its just that windows 7 is so exspensive for me, cheers

wazza300 · 25 Feb 2013 at 16:04

you would lose trim support as xp wont support it,and they should be on your motherboards website,the ahci drivers,put them onto a usb stick and install them while your installing xp

Daytrader · 25 Feb 2013 at 16:14

I thought xp can only install drivers at f6 from a floppy thou ? also dont they have to be inf files and not in a exe program run file ? oh i would see benifit from a ssd drive thou still without trim ?, cheers

wazza300 · 25 Feb 2013 at 16:16

yes you might be right on the floppy,its been years since I used xp,and to enable ahci I used a reg tweak which was complicated

not sure on inf files maybe someone else can help you on that,all I know is for ahci or raid youll need to pre install drivers for it before xp is installed

Daytrader · 25 Feb 2013 at 16:18

Yeh, all i know is, like you say, ahci or raid has to be pre installed before xp can even see the drive, guess its pointless useing a ssd drive on xp then.

wazza300 · 25 Feb 2013 at 16:27

it should be ok,you have garbage collection for the drive

but you would lose trim support

can you upgrade to win8? I think its less to upgrade

Daytrader · 25 Feb 2013 at 16:56

My pc is old, really want to stick with xp pro for just my games, then when i do a system update in the future, at least i would have a good hard drive to go in it, i have put a request for win 7 retail thou on the wanted section, cheers