Sata2 vs Sata3 Controller card

[kristmace]

Posted this in the general hardware section without response. Should have put it here really.

Thinking about getting an SSD in the near future. Problem is, my Mobo (Asrock P55 Pro) only has SataII ports. Should I stick to getting an SSD with read/writes under 300mb/s or wait for the new ones with read/writes of 500mb/s and get a SataIII controller card like this one:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=49&subcat=424

Would this controller card even work with my Mobo and allow the SSD to be bootable? Would it run at full SataIII speed via a PCIe slot?


Loads of questions, I know.... Thanks in advance.

 

[danceforfreedom]

Sata2 can handle upto 3gb/s across all the sata connections on your mobo(or per controller on your mobo). How many devices do you have hooked up?

 

[kristmace]

As far as I understand, the 3Gbps is the theoretical limit, whereas the actual limit is 2.4Gbps. This is Gigabits not gigabytes. Divide by 8 (number of bits in a byte) and you get the SATAII read/write limit of 300MBps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA_2#SATA_Revision_2.0_.28SATA_3_Gbit.2Fs.29

So if i've got this right, one of the new SSDs that read/writes at, say, 500MBps would be throttled back to 300MBps on my mobo without this controller card. (Hence the "Is it worth it" question)

I only have 1 other HDD by the way (standard 1TB mechanical) but I don't think this makes a difference.

Any HDD experts that can help?