Best SSD for a motherboard with no SATAIII support?

[JDrew]

Hi everyone,
Quick question - a check of the SSD sticky and Google did not answer my question, so I thought I would run this by you...

I currently have an Intel 320 Series 80GB SSD bought mid-2011 running via SATA II on a Gigabyte EP45-UD3R motherboard. While I know that I am capped as far as transfer speeds at ~ 300mb on SATAII, I am wondering if there are other SSD's out there that might have features that would allow them to perform better on my motherboard as-is even if it does not have SATAIII. One I am looking at that I can buy locally is this one:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=179_1088&item_id=053765

Other than the extra 40GB of usable space (I use my SSD as an OS and main applications drive and have a 640GB WD Black for games/storage) - would this provide any noticeable benefit for me? (running Win7 x64)

Thanks!
Drew

 

[razel]

The Intel 320 contains the best revision of one of the best SSD controllers, especially for SATA II, out there. In my opinion even Intel's enterprise SSD the DC3700 is *probably* a 4th revision.

You will not notice any difference in speed between the Samsung 840 and Intel 320. I own and have lived with both in my SATA II primary system. I saw, felt no difference. If you need the space, definitely get the larger 840. That is the best reason to upgrade your SSD. Remember though that the 840 is not as full throttle write performance wise as the 840 pro, but you will not notice any difference.

Don't get too caught up on the big sequential numbers. Latency is more important. And latency is now dependent on the controller which itself is it's own computer. Just because you are capped at 300 MB/s it doesn't mean that when you need 100MB of data that it will get to in half the time with a 600 MB/s system.

Imagine two delivery trucks. Sequential means one truck has max capacity of carrying 300 boxes, the other 600 boxes. Latency is the time it takes for that truck to get to you. Luckily for 90% of home/office (non-pro) computing, we don't need 300 boxes on every delivery.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, stick with Intel 320 or X25-M G2 for SATA2 rigs. They are among, if not "the", best SSDs for SATA2.

 

[gpse]

My computer is limited to SATA II also, however I went from a Crucial M4 to a Samsung 840 PRO and I noticed a difference. I say get the Samsung 840 you listed, because it's fast and if you get a new computer that has SATA III you will be set.

 

[kbp]

I would buy another 80G and RAID them. I assume the drive is getting a bit short on space, thus you are looking to expand. This will almost be your best "bang for your buck" and will improve performance a bit to boot. The 320 series is a very good SSD.

 

[Marcolou]

yea if price is around the same get sata3 drive for when upgrade mobo or get a sata3 pcie card