SATA Compatibility?

kicks66 · 28 Sep 2011 at 19:53

Ive got an old motherboard (bought around 05/06) with a SATA controller in it. Will it be able to take newer SATA hard drives? I see terms like 3/6 GB/s but im not sure if this will work with my motherboard?

dfarrall · 28 Sep 2011 at 19:54

Yes its all backward compatible, just it will run at slower speeds.

kicks66 · 28 Sep 2011 at 19:59

So is it worth just getting a non 3/6 Gbits one and saving some money?

Its only going to be used in an HTPC so speed isnt too important.

RJC · 28 Sep 2011 at 20:04

Most drives are 3gb/s or 6gb/s, are you buying new.

What size are you after.

kicks66 · 28 Sep 2011 at 20:16

Yes buying new, looking for 2TB. Guess ill have to take whatever's cheapest and just use it at a slower speed.

panyan · 28 Sep 2011 at 20:33

kicks66 said:
Yes buying new, looking for 2TB. Guess ill have to take whatever's cheapest and just use it at a slower speed.

2tb drives are slow as it is, 3 or 6 it doesnt really matter

Surveyor · 28 Sep 2011 at 21:15

panyan said:
2tb drives are slow as it is, 3 or 6 it doesnt really matter

2TB drives aren't necessarily slow when compared to other HDD's.

If you're comparing to SSD's then that's a different ball game.

I'm sure WD would be upset if you said that their 2TB Black was slow.

And here's a benchmark of the Samsung F4 EcoGreen:

Quite respectable for a HDD.

kicks66 · 28 Sep 2011 at 21:26

On a related question, for an HTPC can anyone recommend a good internal 2TB hard drive?

I was looking at something like the Samsung Spintpoint F4EG but I noticed some comments claiming it was bad for an HTPC as it would spin up/down during playback causing freezes.

Surveyor · 28 Sep 2011 at 22:10

kicks66 said:
On a related question, for an HTPC can anyone recommend a good internal 2TB hard drive?

I was looking at something like the Samsung Spintpoint F4EG but I noticed some comments claiming it was bad for an HTPC as it would spin up/down during playback causing freezes.

Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB!

Quiet and quick (see my post above).

The HDD shouldn't spin down while it's being accessed so I'm not sure where that comes from.

In the advanced power options in Windows you can also set the interval at which HDD's spin down. But as I said they should only do this when idle.