Availability of 1.5 Gb/s internal hard drives

[John Gray]

I'm trying to find the largest possible capacity SATA 1.5 Gb/s hard drive to put into an old server which currently has a Western Digital 160 GB drive (WDC1600JD, since you ask). Everyone wants to sell 3 Gb/s drives now.

Does anyone who specialises in this area know what the largest capacity still available is, preferably with the old Molex power connector.

An alternative question: can you use a 3 Gb/s SATA-II drive on a 1.5 Gb/s SATA-I motherboard?

Thanks!

LATER A lot more research seems to indicate that the SATA 300 drives can work on SATA 150-only motherboards, so my question is almost entirely irrelevant!

[BobH]

Although the first link is to a page about a year old, I think the information is still pertinent and remains valid as recommendations. The article doesn't speak to your SATA question but it sounds as if you have already satisfied yourself on that point.

I'm no expert on hard drives, but I've had considerable experience with them including very large RAID arrays going back some 15 years. IME the most reliable were Western Digital. The least reliable were Seagate/Maxtor. Having said that, be advised that as the data density of the media has increased, the drives have been re-engineered and most drive makers have several levels of quality in their offerings. More reliable drives typically cost more, but if you are not using them on high traffic servers, those reliability features might not matter. As for myself, I don't pinch pennies on them because doing so has always cost me dollars.

Disk Drive Specs

HDD wiki

[John Gray]

Thanks, Bob, both articles are very useful. I think I found my answer in a mixture of Wikipedia's article on SATA and in some forums (don't people get worked up?! Large row in Tom's Hardware Forum (for example) about whether or not SATA-II was a valid description.)

[BobArch2]

I'm trying to find the largest possible capacity SATA 1.5 Gb/s hard drive to put into an old server which currently has a Western Digital 160 GB drive (WDC1600JD, since you ask). Everyone wants to sell 3 Gb/s drives now.

Does anyone who specialises in this area know what the largest capacity still available is, preferably with the old Molex power connector.

An alternative question: can you use a 3 Gb/s SATA-II drive on a 1.5 Gb/s SATA-I motherboard?

LATER A lot more research seems to indicate that the SATA 300 drives can work on SATA 150-only motherboards, so my question is almost entirely irrelevant!

Hi John,

I can confirm that with Western Digital drives there are jumper switches that can reduce the transfer speed to match motherboards.

My wife's PC can handle SATA II (3Gbits/s) and I added a WD 1TB Caviar Black rated as SATA 3 (6Gbits/s). I used the jumper switches to reduce the transfer rate to 3Gbits/s and the system is working fine.

On one of my older PCs I have two WD Caviar Blue rated as 3Gbit/s reduced to 1.5Gbits/s to match the motherboard. They are also working without any hitches.

It has been my observation that you can, through jumper switches on the WD drives, reduce the transfer speed by one level, but not two levels. That is, a SATA 3 cannot be set to a SATA 1 level.

You might ask why I installed higher rated drives than could be handled by the motherboard. Two reasons... 1) future expansion and 2) the drives were on sale!

Regarding the MOLEX power connectors... some of the WD drives have two power ports... the special SATA connector and the MOLEX. You can use one or the other... not both.

[Edited to correct grammar]

[John Gray]

Thanks, Bob - I had a look at the WD drive of which I spoke previously, and yes, as you say, it has a Molex connector (unused) and a SATA power connector (used). I presume that the SATA data and power cables are the same for both the 1.5 Gb/s and 3 Gb/s variants. I'm looking at the Samsung F3 EcoGreen 2 TB, since it is about the cheapest here (£85 inc VAT), and not too noisy. It has about the best reviews, too...

[BobArch2]

Thanks, Bob - I had a look at the WD drive of which I spoke previously, and yes, as you say, it has a Molex connector (unused) and a SATA power connector (used). I presume that the SATA data and power cables are the same for both the 1.5 Gb/s and 3 Gb/s variants. I'm looking at the Samsung F3 EcoGreen 2 TB, since it is about the cheapest here (£85 inc VAT), and not too noisy. It has about the best reviews, too...

Your presumption about SATA data and power cables for the 1.5 and 3 being the same are correct.

I researched your Samsung selection and cannot see if it has jumper switches to reduce the 3Gbits/s transfer rate to 1.5Gbits/s to match your motherboard. It was also hard to tell from the image if it has a Molex connector. You might want to check that out.

In my experience, Samsung have always had good products. I have one of their 46" HDTVs, 7 of their PC monitors (spread out over the years) and two of their hard drives. Never a problem.

[BobH]

I learn something almost every time I read a thread posted here.

The discussion about matching the data transfer rate of the hard drive to the motherboard provides me with yet another learning opportunity.

If one were to be experiencing a hard drive speed mismatched with the mobo speed, how would the discrepancy be manifested? I presume that as long as the HDD is slower, one would notice it mostly in waits for disk I/O. What would be the effect for the reverse situation - HDD rates faster than the mobo?

How does one go about determining the data transfer speed of a mobo? An HDD? Is it a matter of reading specs for the particular devices or is there a software tool for measuring both that should be used to tune them?

I'm using a 2-1/2 yo HP laptop that I just put a new HDD into for capacity. It didn't occur to me to check beforehand to see if I would be introducing a data transfer incompatibility. I realize that the exchange between John and Bob referred to physically different devices than the HDD I installed on the LT, but I'm curious nonetheless to know how I might determine and evaluate this same issue for the smaller drives.

TIA

[John Gray]

Just a summary of what happened with my Samsung F3 Spinpoint EcoGreen 2 TB SATA-II 3 Gbps hard drive!

Having obtained the necessary Molex/LP4-> SATA power cable and an interesting variety of straight and right-angled SATA data cables, and found that Samsung, on one of their websites, does a bootable utility (for both diskette - yes! - and CD) to force the data rate to be 1.5 Gbps... I connected all the cables up and powered the server on and, viola*, the disk was recognised, and just needed a bit of initialising and formatting to join the club. No utility necessary, and no need to try setting one of the two jumpers.

* yes, I know - but compared with the violin, the viola hardly gets a look-in...

[John Gray]

How does one go about determining the data transfer speed of a mobo? An HDD? Is it a matter of reading specs for the particular devices or is there a software tool for measuring both that should be used to tune them?

Hi Bob

Just noticed your post! HWINFO32 tells you at least an order of magnitude more than you ever might want to know about your PC/laptop, so I'd look there first. Probably the specs of the motherboard might be good, too.

[HansV]

* yes, I know - but compared with the violin, the viola hardly gets a look-in...

How about giving the baryton or the arpeggione a chance?

[John Gray]

How about the theorbo? (Played by the leader of l'Arpeggiata)

[HansV]

It's a fascinating instrument!