SATA I or II detection?

[damian5000]

I've read an old thread (2012) saying it's not possible to show the rate at which the computer is capable of (SATA I/SATA II), but only what the drive is capable of. In the detailed information, there's nothing but info for the drive.

There is however this:

SATA 3Gb/s @ 1.5Gb/s. Does that mean it's running at 1.5Gb/s?

I have Asus K42 laptop with HM55. I know that this chipset is capable of SATA II, but not sure if the laptop could somehow be "crippled" down to 1.5 (SATA I)... Or is it always the case that if a computer has HM55, then it is SATA II capable...??

Thanks. Hope this all makes sense. I need to buy a new HD, but don't want to spend the money on SSD if only SATA I.

 

[Martin]

Yes, that was an old thread. Meanwhile it is possible to determine the actual rate in many cases (either in the drive properties, or PCI bus tree under particular SATA controller).
Yes, in your case the drive runs at 1.5Gb/s.
You might also look under the PCI bus tree, locate the SATA controller and check detailed properties, which include the maximum SATA controller transfer rate.

 

[damian5000]

Yes, that was an old thread. Meanwhile it is possible to determine the actual rate in many cases (either in the drive properties, or PCI bus tree under particular SATA controller).
Yes, in your case the drive runs at 1.5Gb/s.
You might also look under the PCI bus tree, locate the SATA controller and check detailed properties, which include the maximum SATA controller transfer rate.

Thanks for your reply.

In drive properties it says 3.0Gb/s @ 1.5Gb/s

Under PCI Sata it says

Port #0 Gen [email protected] Phy communication not established
Port #1 Gen [email protected] Phy communication not established

I assume Port #0 is HD and Port #1 is DVD-ROM.

But why does it say 3.0Gb/s @1.5Gb/s. I mean, if the port is capable and the drive is capable, why is it running @1.5...?

 

[Martin]

There seems to be indeed an inconsistency. According to the SATA controller information, your HDD is running at 3.0Gb/s, but drive information shows different (this might be a driver bug).
I need to check this in more detail, so please attach the HWiNFO Report File and Debug File.

 

[damian5000]

There seems to be indeed an inconsistency. According to the SATA controller information, your HDD is running at 3.0Gb/s, but drive information shows different (this might be a driver bug).
I need to check this in more detail, so please attach the HWiNFO Report File and Debug File.

Okay. Done. Thanks for your time.

 

[Martin]

I think this is a bug in the storage driver. I see you're using Intel RST driver version 9.5.6.1001, so please try to upgrade to a newer version if that fixes it.
I believe the SATA information in the PCI bus tree is correct - your SATA controller is 3.0Gb/s capable and your SATA disk runs at 3.0Gb/s.

 

[damian5000]

Hmm... I tried to update with Intel's software, but after installing and resetting, my computer is bricked. When rebooting gets stuck at "Starting Windows". Need to reboot and F8 and "Use last known good configuration". Have tried it twice now. Each time updating the driver, the computer is bricked when resetting.

 

[Martin]

I'm sorry for that. Unfortunately Intel RST drivers are often buggy. I had a similar experience on several machines.. And if they seem to work, they often return invalid information as you have seen in this case, or cause severe performance degradation when for example asking them for temperature.
So better stick with an older version and trust that your SATA is 3.0Gb/s.

 

[damian5000]

Okay, but do you think an SSD on SATA II on my system (I mean, because of the older 2009 driver) will provide significant improvement over my HDD? Here are my current scores on CrystalMark. I know there's no guarantee, but what's your opinion?

 

[Martin]

I'm not sure, but is there any reason for considering a SATA I device, since today all SATA devices are the 2nd or 3rd generation.

 

[sgtsixpack]

I put an x300 Sandisk 128Gb into a Sony Vaio 945gm chipset with Sata-I controller and it makes the thing fly, especially as it only has 2Gb ram. It used to take 5min to desktop.





Its the access time which makes the difference between HD & SSD