The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    SSD on SATA I?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Nathand, Mar 18, 2012.

  1. Nathand

    Nathand Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    256
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    31
    I've been thinking about getting a SSD for a while now and was planning on buying one today or tomorrow, but while checking to see if the Crucial M4 128GB would fit in my Gateway 6860fx's HDD bay I found out that my laptop has SATA I, not SATA II/III. Will a SATA III SSD work on a SATA I mobo? Would I still see a significant performance increase if I switched to using a SSD?
     
    Nathand, Mar 18, 2012
    #1
  2. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    3,905
    Messages:
    6,116
    Likes Received:
    89
    Trophy Points:
    216
    The computer will still feel much snappier on SATA I speeds. (I upgraded my Inspiron 6400 with an Intel X25-M) Just note that the speeds will be capped to about 125MB/s.
     
    namaiki, Mar 18, 2012
    #2
  3. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

    Reputations:
    9,431
    Messages:
    58,189
    Likes Received:
    17,900
    Trophy Points:
    931
    Going from 0.01mb/sec to 40MB/sec random read/write helps a lot ;)
     
    Meaker@Sager, Mar 18, 2012
    #3
  4. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

    Reputations:
    6,668
    Messages:
    8,224
    Likes Received:
    231
    Trophy Points:
    231
    As far as I know, the Gateway 6860fx supports SATA II ( see here, it shipped with SATA II HDDs). Also, since it was released in 2008 (when most notebooks were using SATA II already), I would also assume it has SATA II.

    Might want to confirm with other owners, though.
     
    MidnightSun, Mar 18, 2012
    #4
  5. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

    Reputations:
    5,413
    Messages:
    10,711
    Likes Received:
    1,204
    Trophy Points:
    581
    965 chipset supports full SATA 2 speeds, unless the manufacturer wrote into the BIOS to gimp it to SATA 1. Lenovo was infamous for doing that to _60/61 series ThinkPads, which there is Middleton's BIOS which unlocks it to full SATA 2 speeds.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Mar 18, 2012
    #5
  6. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

    Reputations:
    6,156
    Messages:
    11,214
    Likes Received:
    68
    Trophy Points:
    466
    The 6860fx has a SATAII controller according to spec sheets.

    Regardless, seek times of 1ms and fast transfer speeds will still make a significant performance boost.
     
    flipfire, Mar 19, 2012
    #6
  7. V_Chip

    V_Chip Be about it.

    Reputations:
    677
    Messages:
    926
    Likes Received:
    15
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Can't go wrong with an SSD upgrade.
     
    V_Chip, Mar 19, 2012
    #7
  8. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

    Reputations:
    5,413
    Messages:
    10,711
    Likes Received:
    1,204
    Trophy Points:
    581
    Unless you buy OCZ or SandForce. ;)
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Mar 19, 2012
    #8
  9. yknyong1

    yknyong1 Radiance with Radeon

    Reputations:
    1,191
    Messages:
    2,095
    Likes Received:
    8
    Trophy Points:
    56
    I had the P 6860FX. Any SATA 2 SSD will run at SATA2 speeds.
     
    yknyong1, Mar 19, 2012
    #9
  10. MyDigitalSSD

    MyDigitalSSD Company Representative

    Reputations:
    68
    Messages:
    294
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Been in the SSD biz since 2007 if this was Facebook I would have liked every comment so far. Especially the comment about Random 4K speed :)

    Go for it you will be happy you did.
     
    MyDigitalSSD, Mar 22, 2012
    #10
  11. jclausius

    jclausius Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    6,160
    Messages:
    3,265
    Likes Received:
    2,573
    Trophy Points:
    231
    You can do the same thing here. On the left, see the middle icon. Click it to "add reputation" to the post.
     
    jclausius, Mar 22, 2012
    #11
  12. mtrein

    mtrein Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    121
    Messages:
    214
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Not relevant anymore, I'd say ;)
     
    mtrein, Mar 27, 2012
    #12
  13. jclausius

    jclausius Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    6,160
    Messages:
    3,265
    Likes Received:
    2,573
    Trophy Points:
    231
    jclausius, Mar 27, 2012
    #13
  14. Agent CoolBlue

    Agent CoolBlue Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    619
    Messages:
    1,487
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    56
    I just installed a Crucial C300 for my cousin on his 5+ year old computer. I am pretty sure it was SATA I as the read/write speeds came out to be around 60-70MB, about the same as the HDD he had in it before. However, everything was SO much faster and smoother. Boot time went from 50 seconds-->~20 seconds. Shut down was exponentially quicker. My cousin could see the huge difference in performance instantly. Once you go SSD, you never go back.
     
    Agent CoolBlue, Mar 27, 2012
    #14