Does my laptop support SATA II or SATA III?

I own a Dell Inspiron 15R SE (special edition) 7520. I researched all over the internet and found that some unit support SATA III whereas some only support SATA II. I am trying to figure out which one my Inspiron 7520 supports. I ran HWINFO64 and this is the result:

Motherboard

[Computer]
Computer Brand Name: DELL Inspiron 7520

[Motherboard]
Motherboard Model: DELL Type2 - Board Product Name1
Motherboard Chipset: Intel HM77 (Panther Point)
Motherboard Slots: 6xPCI Express x1, 1xPCI Express x8, 2xPCI Express x16
PCI Express Version Supported: v3.0
USB Version Supported: v3.0

[PCH Features]
USB Port Count: 14 ports
RAID Capability: RAID0/1/5/10 + Smart Response Technology
SATA Ports 2 and 3: Supported
SATA Port 1 6 Gb/s: Supported
SATA Port 0 6 Gb/s: Supported
PCI Interface: Not Supported
PCI Express Ports 5 and 6: Supported
USB Redirect (USBr): Not Supported
Intel Anti-Theft Technology: Not Supported
PCI Express Ports 7 and 8: Supported
PCH Integrated Graphics Support: Supported
Data Center Manageability Interface (DCMI): Supported
Node Manager: Supported


Drives

(S)ATA/ATAPI Drives



WDC WD7500BPKT-75PK4T0

[General Information]
Drive Controller: Serial ATA 3Gb/s @ 3Gb/s
Drive Model: WDC WD7500BPKT-75PK4T0
Drive Revision: 01.01A01
Drive Serial Number: WD-WX11EC113758
World Wide Name: 50014EE6284296F
Drive Capacity: 715,404 MBytes (750 GB)
Drive Capacity [MB]: 715404
Media Rotation Rate: 7200 RPM


I am confused at the results because under motherboard, it says that SATA port 0 and SATA port 1 supports 6 gb/s. But when I look under drives, it says that my drive controller is SATA 3gb/s. Can someone help me?

 

jollypirateking, your HDD does not support SATA3, only SATA2.

 

Your laptop is sata 3 but the drive is only sata 2.

 

Exactly, not that is actually matters, a traditional HDD can't even saturate a SATA 3Gbps connection. Native SATA 6 Gbps support didn't come around until Sandy Bridge (2nd gen core i), so anything older will be 3 Gbps and anything newer will support 6 Gbps on some or all SATA ports.

 

Ah okay. So if I buy a SATA III SSD, I should be able to run it at 6 gb/s correct?

 

If you install it in the main drive bay, yes.

 

Thank you very much. I plan on installing the SSD on the main drive bay and buy a HDD caddy to replace my cd drive with the mechanical drive. Will my mechanical drive run at a slower speed than if it were in the main drive bay?

 

Nope.

/10char

 

I might not be right about this but I do think it will run slower... I know for a fact that in some laptops the optical bay connection is limited to SATA1/2... However, even then, it will hardly make a difference as your hard drive just can't use that much bandwidth..

 

Disagree. The HDD will not be able to saturate the link, so the performance will be the same.

 

wow, I remember having this discussion 3-4 years ago back in the days where SATA3 was actually something to be excited over