Will SATA I work with SATA II HD?

funkygal · Mar 18, 2006, 09:57 AM

Hi,

I am considering buying a new hard disk drive, I have an Abit NF7 motherboard which supports SATA I. I have searched for SATA I drives but they seem very rare, SATA II seems to be the only drives I can find in the SATA range.

What I would like to know is, will my Abit NF7 motherboard support a SATA II drive?

I would appreciate any advise thanks!

funkygal!

swimtech · Mar 18, 2006, 01:10 PM

Welcome!

Yes, but your throughput will be limited to SATA I specifications because of your mainboard's controller at this point. No worries though, because consistent throughput from the drives themselves at speeds above the older SATA I specification are not yet widely available.

funkygal · Mar 18, 2006, 01:23 PM

Thankyou for the quick response!

So would you suggest getting a SATA II then?

The reason I am purchasing a new HDD is because my current IBM deskstar just bust. I have heard that Seagate are the best drives to rely upon. I have the choice of Maxtor, Samsung, WD, or Seagate. What would you suggest getting?

Many thanks,
funkygal!

mkk · Mar 18, 2006, 01:32 PM

Pretty much all new drives are made for SATA2 today, so it's just as well to get one. Samsungs are a safe bet for low noise operation, and they aren't slow either. The 250GB P120 model seems the one to get with todays prices, as smaller ones aren't that much cheaper.

Judas · Mar 18, 2006, 02:58 PM

Be forwared, if you have a nvidia chipset.... even if the sata2 drive is set to sata1 mode.... your going to have absalutely nothing but issues.... nvidia is "saposed" to be trying to solve this issue.. and frankly i'm not sure how most of anyone hasn't heard about this issue.

SATA2 + Nvidia Chipset = NO GO!

Necrosis · Mar 18, 2006, 03:48 PM

No problems with SATA2 here Judas.

Judas · Mar 18, 2006, 07:46 PM

i've got 4DFI boards here, 2 MSI, 5 Gigabyte, 4 Asus boards... all Nforce 4 ultra (and 2 x32 SLI).... all fail with Sata2 Seagates,Maxtors,Western Digitals.....

Nvidia even has a support page on it somewhere.. and all the Hardrive manufacturers home pages, if doing a capability search.... show nforce 4 capability issues..

I've got like 12 difference size/makes/models of hardrives that are sata2... not a single one of them will work correctly with my nforce boards..

And the ones that "appear" to work, work excessively slowly, occasionally lock up, occasionally don't boot correctly.... have disappearing HD syndromes....

swimtech · Mar 18, 2006, 08:31 PM

Is that problem primarily dealing with Raid issues - or straight drive operation? Thanks Judas.

EDIT: Whoa! Doesn't look like the NF-7 (straight NF-7) even supports SATA at all! Gotta get an IDE drive unless you have added a SATA card! Is that your complete model number funkygal?

Judas · Mar 18, 2006, 11:40 PM

I've had issues with both raid and typical drive operation in a single mode..... It's very intermittent on some models.. (maxtor)... and almost impossible to get anywhere on others.. (seagate and WD) where as the samsung produces speratic results, sometimes not even allowing one to install windows one minute, to installing windows in record time another.... Transfering data very very very fast another and transfering so slow you'd swear you were using PIO mode 1

Necrosis · Mar 19, 2006, 12:58 AM

I haven't had a lick of problems with my Samsung.

funkygal · Mar 19, 2006, 04:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swimtech

Is that problem primarily dealing with Raid issues - or straight drive operation? Thanks Judas.

EDIT: Whoa! Doesn't look like the NF-7 (straight NF-7) even supports SATA at all! Gotta get an IDE drive unless you have added a SATA card! Is that your complete model number funkygal?

Swimtech: My motherboard is this one -
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/...es=1&model=124 - Abit NF7 -S rev.2

I presume that this is it because I have just had a look at my motherboard, it says - NF7 v.2.0. Thats the only v.2.0 that Abit do. Plus I have seen on the motherboard two labels - SATA 1 and SATA 2.

swimtech · Mar 19, 2006, 04:14 PM

Okey dokey - Yeah, if you have labels on the connectors that say SATA 1 and 2, then you definitely have the ability use SATA drives - great. The NF-7 S does have SATA capability.

Those were some of the first mainboards from Abit that allowed use of SATA drives, using the Silicon Image controllers added on the mainboard - might be some compatibility issues as Judas suggests - but with SATA drives in general, not just because of the type of SATA designation. You may not have issues at all, especially if you have updated the bios to the latest...

I like Seagate drives because of their reliability and warranty, but folks get good performance from other branded drives too - Samsung as Necrosis suggests. I have had good luck with the Maxtor in my home system below.

**Asmoday** · Mar 19, 2006, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Necrosis

I haven't had a lick of problems with my Samsung.

I have two Samsung SATA2 disks, haven't had any problems whatsoever with them...

edit: and I'm currently on a DFI sli-dr

funkygal · Mar 19, 2006, 04:21 PM

I will be gutted if i do have conflicts I need to be up and running asap cause it was my primary HDD and at the moment Im having to use my dad's pc.

Is there much of a difference in performance between SATA and IDE? - cause at least with IDE I definately know it will work!!

Thanks
funkygal!

swimtech · Mar 19, 2006, 05:03 PM

Frankly, the latest IDE drives perform very close to SATA 1 drives (your onboard controller support).

The Seagate 7200.9 series is nice (8Mb cache model - 160Gig), as is the Samsung 200Gig (with 8Mb cache) for about $80.00. Western Digital has nice drives in that range too (with 8Mb cache). 250Gig drives are about 10.00 more...

Good place to compare is Storage Review at

Storage Review
This page, via the sort drop down menu, compares a mix of SCSI, SATA, and IDE drives together so you can see the relative performance differences in different operation scenarios along with basic performance criteria - I love this site for drive comparisons...

***temeteus82*** · Mar 19, 2006, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Necrosis

No problems with SATA2 here Judas.

Ditto that here...

funkygal · Mar 19, 2006, 05:09 PM

I have just been reading here - http://forum.abit-usa.com/archive/in...p/t-91598.html and other sources and find that abit off putting. Although I am tempted to get a SATA2 drive because I will be upgrading my cor system components in a few months time I think for the moment it would probably be wise to stick with IDE from researching!!

Judas · Mar 19, 2006, 05:46 PM

Nvidia Chipsets and Sata2 thread related issues and what i've discovered..

How long does it take to NVraid...