SATA III Vs SSD

paradisiac · 20 Jan 2011 at 10:14

hi, ordering my new mobo today (AsRock 890FX DELUXE3) and was wondering what would be the best hard drive upgrade (taking into accont performance and value for money) a decent sized SATA III or a smallish SSD with a second SATA II drive for apps/games?

Muel · 20 Jan 2011 at 10:18

SATA is the connection type, II or III they've just a type of socket.

There are SATA II and III HDDs and SSDs.

Personally I think SATA III HDDs are pointless, and the ideal setup is a SATA III SSD and a SATA II HDD.

paradisiac · 20 Jan 2011 at 10:19

so a SATA III HDD would be no quicker than a SATA II?

The Halk · 20 Jan 2011 at 10:25

Correct. No quicker.

SATA III is just a higher maximum bandwidth than SATA II. Mechanical drives are nowhere near the capacity of SATA II so the III adds nothing (except a tiny amount when it comes to cache, but it's not noticable and you'd struggle to measure it).

paradisiac · 20 Jan 2011 at 10:28

i didnt know that, i assumed it would have been a quicker system. so the only real difference is the socket, ie, a SATA II HDD wont fit in a SATA III socket?

Muel · 20 Jan 2011 at 10:38

SATA III is backwards compatible, so if you plug a SATA III device into a SATA II socket or vice versa, it'll work fine, just at SATA II speeds.

paradisiac · 20 Jan 2011 at 10:40

oh right, got me paniced there, as the mobo i have ordered only has SATA III sockets.