SSD 3Gb/s still available?

rtrtrtrt · 1 Jan 2016 at 01:38

Had a good look around and can't find any.

I need one to attach to an old 1.5Gb/s port, that I now know doesn't play well with 6Gb/s discs.

I'm fairly certain it'll be ok with a 3Gb/s and assumed incorrectly i'd have some choice - probably at a good price point. Instead I haven't found anything at all yet :confused:

Any suggestions?

Happy new year too

TheMorningStar · 1 Jan 2016 at 05:32

Second hand auction sights

You have tried swapping the sata cable out though right?

melvis · 1 Jan 2016 at 11:30

Seems a bit of a waste, a sata gen 1 port will max out at ~150 you can reach that with a modern 2.5 hdd for a much cheaper price

TheVoice · 1 Jan 2016 at 11:36

melvis said:
Seems a bit of a waste, a sata gen 1 port will max out at ~150 you can reach that with a modern 2.5 hdd for a much cheaper price

An SSD will still be quicker though.

melvis · 1 Jan 2016 at 18:00

lower seek/response times yes, but quicker? not to any significant degree, it wont cut down load times or boot times significantly compared to a HDD when plugged into a gen1 port

rtrtrtrt · 1 Jan 2016 at 18:12

Thanks for the replies guys.

I did swap the cable, but only for another of the same - to rule out a faulty one.

My thinking at the time was that as the port is 1.5Gb/s, then the link speed should be negotiated down and so there's no need for higher spec cables. Is that right though?

Re the performance - agreed in general, but I'm more interested in the small file random performance, rather than the sustained throughput of larger files though. SSD should as you say still be better here.

I did think about maybe a hybrid drive, but 3Gb/s versions of those are just as hard to find it seems!

I take your point about alternate sources - will have a look there too!

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I'm interested in the point about no significant difference to load/boot times - why is that. I'd assumed that SSD was pretty much always an improvement in those areas?

kayomani · 1 Jan 2016 at 18:16

Might be less hassle to get a cheap pcie to sata adapter?

FreeStream · 1 Jan 2016 at 18:20

melvis said:
lower seek/response times yes, but quicker? not to any significant degree, it wont cut down load times or boot times significantly compared to a HDD when plugged into a gen1 port

Yes it will be. You rarely crack through the 150MB/sec barrier anyway.

I put a crucial M4 in a old laptop (2ghz 1st gen i3) and it now flies. Boots in seconds rather than minutes, chrome opens almost instantly, etc.

Perfect for what it is used for.

Find a Intel X25-M 160GB or a Crucial M4 somewhere, the former is known to be a solid performer.

TheVoice · 2 Jan 2016 at 00:09

melvis said:
lower seek/response times yes, but quicker? not to any significant degree, it wont cut down load times or boot times significantly compared to a HDD when plugged into a gen1 port

Sure it will, the maximum throughput isn't going to matter the majority of the time. The system will feel far quicker with an SSD.

David Bisset · 2 Jan 2016 at 14:14

much quicker exactly where it matters, sequential is basically irrelevant for normal use.

rtrtrtrt · 6 Jan 2016 at 20:05

Picked up an Intel X25M on that auction site - hopefully arrive start next week. Thanks for the recommendations.

On an unrelated project, what would be the shortlist for a SSD boot drive - a new one this time! I say boot because other files would be mostly on other drives - implying that random read is most important. Say top 3 candidates.

Not looking for massive capacity - 60G or 120G should be fine.

It'd go on a 3Gb/s port, but no doubt will end up on a 6Gb/s port down the line - so unless there's a massive price/performance difference I'd assume a 6Gb/s drive would be best?

philo-sofa · 8 Jan 2016 at 15:46

rtrtrtrt said:
Picked up an Intel X25M on that auction site - hopefully arrive start next week. Thanks for the recommendations.

On an unrelated project, what would be the shortlist for a SSD boot drive - a new one this time! I say boot because other files would be mostly on other drives - implying that random read is most important. Say top 3 candidates.

Not looking for massive capacity - 60G or 120G should be fine.

It'd go on a 3Gb/s port, but no doubt will end up on a 6Gb/s port down the line - so unless there's a massive price/performance difference I'd assume a 6Gb/s drive would be best?

TBH we are at a point where the 6Gb/s interface is fairly comprehensively saturated, latency is universally okay and major drives have few bugs. The Samsung 850 and other TLC drives (e.g. the X300) are still a tiny cut above, but the differences are small so it mostly comes down to value. Almost any 550MB/s drive you can find will fit on your shortlist, although I'd still check reviews before committing.

TheVoice said:
Sure it will, the maximum throughput isn't going to matter the majority of the time. The system will feel far quicker with an SSD.

+1 most of the speed improvement of SSDs over platter drives is from the reduced access times, rather than throughput increases.

rtrtrtrt · 9 Jan 2016 at 08:47

philo-sofa said:
TBH we are at a point where the 6Gb/s interface is fairly comprehensively saturated, latency is universally okay and major drives have few bugs. The Samsung 850 and other TLC drives (e.g. the X300) are still a tiny cut above, but the differences are small so it mostly comes down to value. Almost any 550MB/s drive you can find will fit on your shortlist, although I'd still check reviews before committing.

+1 most of the speed improvement of SSDs over platter drives is from the reduced access times, rather than throughput increases.

Thanks will take a look this weekend