Will this drive work OK?

[StevieP]

I am looking at getting the following drive as a replacement for my chugging 120gb SATA drive:

SEAGATE/ST3320620AS BARRACUDA 7200.10 320GB SATAII 3.5IN 8.5MS 7200RPM 16MB

My question is, since my mobo only supports SATA and not SATAII, will it still work OK? (albeit only at SATA speeds)??

Also, I've read about a jumper on the back that needs switching if you want the better speeds?? - Is this just for when its running on a SATAII compatible mobo??

Thanks in advance...

StevieP

 

[rpstewart]

Yes that drive will work fine on a SATA1 board. You won't notice any difference in speed, no SATA2 drive available at the moment can sustain a data transfer rate anywhere near to the SATA1 limit, let alone SATA2. The only difference you'll see is that the burst rate is limited to 150Mb/s but the real world impact of that is minimal to say the least.

The drive will ship with a jumper to limit it to SATA1, this is only really for older SATA implementations which didn't support auto speed negotiation. Since you know that your board only supports SATA1 you might as well leave it on.