Doubt on SATA III compatibility in notebook chipset

[JasonBourne]

Hello guys. Feels good to be back after a long time. For quite some time I'm using a Samsung laptop and now it feels a bit slow especially when I have a desktop with an SSD. So I was wondering of dropping in a Samsung EVO 250 gb ssd as an upgrade. The laptop I have is samsung series 5 NP550P5C. It has

Core i5-3210M
Intel chipset B75 Express/HM76 Express
6 GB DDR3 RAM
HDD 1 TB 5400 rpm
2 GB Nvidia GeForce GT 650M
Operating System Windows 8 64 bit

The problem is in the specifications of the chipset and the HDD cut my HDD is sata II. So I need to be sure that my notebook chipset is fully sata III compatible to unleash the full capacity of the ssd I'm gonna buy.

Any input is highly appreciated

 

[postmortemIA]

even if it is SATA II, it would be way faster than any HDD.
But chipset supports SATA III, so you don't have to worry
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/chipsets/business-chipsets/b75-express-chipset.html
per diagram, it says S ATA is up to 6Gbps, which is SATA iii standard. Basically you get up to 600MB/s transfer rate from SSD.

 

[JasonBourne]

But chipset supports SATA III, so you don't have to worry
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/chipsets/business-chipsets/b75-express-chipset.html
per diagram, it says S ATA is up to 6Gbps, which is SATA iii standard. Basically you get up to 600MB/s transfer rate from SSD.

But the thing is my specification states "Intel chipset B75 Express/HM76 Express"
Now that's what confuses me cuz when I Googled it up it says B75 & HM76 are two different boards. Could you clear that out please ?

 

[postmortemIA]

yeah they are different, but probably driver is the same, hence the the "/". really having sata ii or iii ssd does not matter when compared to HDD.

 

[Wall Street]

Both B75 and HM76 chipsets have at least some SATA 3 ports, so you should be good.

 

[JasonBourne]

Thanks guys for the fast response. There is another option I'm looking at is moving the internal HDD to the sata II port of ODD in a caddy and putting in the ssd in the existing sata III port of the HDD. Will it cause any possible power inefficiency issue..?

 

[JasonBourne]

Moreover if I do it on my own, am I voiding warranty ?

 

[Enigmoid]

Thanks guys for the fast response. There is another option I'm looking at is moving the internal HDD to the sata II port of ODD in a caddy and putting in the ssd in the existing sata III port of the HDD. Will it cause any possible power inefficiency issue..?

Obviously power consumption will go up by about half a watt and you may lose a small amount of battery life but this should be unnoticeable.

I something similar in my laptop except I installed a Msata drive. It was completely worth it to have fast storage and a large HDD.

As for Sata II vs. Sata III the difference will be pretty unnoticeable in daily usage unless you are copying large files.

Edit: for warranty it depends on the manufacturer. Look in the owner's manual.

 

[JasonBourne]

So to play it safe I should drop in the ssd and I might use the internal HDD as usb plug and play external kinda drive. Am I right to say this ?

 

[Enigmoid]

So to play it safe I should drop in the ssd and I might use the internal HDD as usb plug and play external kinda drive. Am I right to say this ?

This is the easiest route otherwise you have to buy a Optical disk -> HDD adapter. However, you lose out on having a lot more storage available.

How much storage are you using now and do you need more than 200 GB (ssd should never be more than 80-85% full and 250 GB is less after formatting).

Power consumption changes very little with a SSD + HDD setup, maybe equivalent to 1 or 2 brightness settings (0.5W), it should not be a factor.

 

[JasonBourne]

This is the easiest route otherwise you have to buy a Optical disk -> HDD adapter. However, you lose out on having a lot more storage available.

Are you suggesting a caddy ?

How much storage are you using now and need more than 200 GB (ssd should never be more than 80-85% full and 250 GB is less after formatting).

My usage is very limited to programming, matlab, movies and little bursts of hardcore gaming. The thing is I thought 5400 rpm hdd will be fine but now it's not enough. And I would personally go with ssd rather than mSATA. So for me I think 120 gigs tastes good enough though 250 gigs smells better.

 

[Enigmoid]

Are you suggesting a caddy ?

My usage is very limited to programming, matlab, movies and little bursts of hardcore gaming. The thing is I thought 5400 rpm hdd will be fine but now it's not enough. And I would personally go with ssd rather than mSATA. So for me I think 120 gigs tastes good enough though 250 gigs smells better.

I'm not sure on your notebook though I've always heard that a caddy/adapter is required.

In that case pure SSD may be a good choice. If you have a msata slot then that may be the best bet. Performance is pretty much the same but it saves space and is very easy to install and clone the drive.

A 120 GB drive is about 110-115 GB formatted. Matlab + Games and movies may take up a lot of space and you need about 20% of a ssd empty. 250 GB seems ideal in your case.

 

[JasonBourne]

Yeah that is right. The 250 gigs is the one. And as far games are concerned I don't install more than 1 at a time. Now as for in my budget I was thinking between SAMSUNG EVO and Crucial. I would rather go with the Samsung one to get better compatibility. Though both of them offer nearly same specs.

 

[Enigmoid]

Yeah that is right. The 250 gigs is the one. And as far games are concerned I don't install more than 1 at a time. Now as for in my budget I was thinking between SAMSUNG EVO and Crucial. I would rather go with the Samsung one to get better compatibility. Though both of them offer nearly same specs.

At the same price the evo is the better option.

 

[s44]

Note than the M500 is under $220 for 500gb at Amazon. There are a number of drives at or under $100 for 250gb. At this point 120gb is an unnecessary compromise.

 

[JasonBourne]

Yes 250 GB seems a more future proof option than 120 GB. Though I understand there's nothing as "future proof" in hardware