does sata work in sata2 connections?

[Seregil]

I'm deciding what parts to buy in an upgrade soon, but i have a concern regarding the hard drive i'm using currently. Right now my primary drive is a 74GB WD Raptor drive which is sata 1.5Gb/s. Most of the boards that are new are only the sata 3Gb/s connections. I want to know (and make sure) whether or not it is supposed to be as simple as pluggint eh sata cord from the raptor drive to the newer connection and it working....? or will i be forced to buy a motherboard that specifically supports sata 1.5Gb/s?

I appreciate any advice given

-Seregil

 

[DigitalCancer]

Check your boards specs, but it should just down it to a 1.5Gb connection. I've personally never messed with this, but i've read some reviews on it in the past and my understanding is that it should work w/o you doing anything special. ^_^

 

[Fraggable]

I'm pretty sure you can do it either way, a SATA2 drive will work on SATA150, and vice versa. Sort of like USB1.1 and USB2.

 

[Seregil]

I appreciate the response

i was just wondering though, does anyone happen to have a specs listing on a motherboard anywhere that specifically states this? or an article/review that does?

it would just be a nice confirmation before i buy things

if it helps, i'm thinking about buying the A8N-SLI Premium motherboard and, hopefully, hooking up a raptor 74GB drive to one of the sata 3Gb/s connections

thanks again for any reponse

-Seregil

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

SATA 2 specs are something of a misnomer. The bus does not actually run at 3Gb/s it has the capability of running at 3Gb/s. This means that your 74 GB Raptor drive which has the capability of running at 1.5 Gb/s will function just fine plugged into the SATA 2 connection. SATA drives typically do not function at 1.5 Gb/s even at peak and there are NO SATA 2 drives that function any faster. It's a situation of the bus having more headroom than any current drives can use and the industry pushing a spec that currently means nothing.

 

[Grumpy642]

While everything you say is true, with the new perpendicular drives in RAID 0, they are getting real close to needing the 3Gb/s. And they are getting much faster quickly.

 

[Seregil]

Thanks for the reponse everyone
i feel much happier now that i know, and can buy my new parts