Which SSD SATA 3 features/specs are lost when using SATA 2.0 interface?

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voland1935

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Aug 16, 2016
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I would like to upgrade my desktop to an SSD drive. It's an older model Dell Studio XPS 8100, so it only supports a SATA 2.0 interface. Should I just look for the best price for the desired capacity from one of the mainstream manufacturers (Samsung, Crucial, Kingston, etc) or are there features and specs besides capacity and warranty that would still matter even with the limitation of the SATA 2.0 interface?
 
Solution
lxgoldsmith


Yes. Try to choose the most reliable brands, like Samsung and Crucial.

The next difference would be in capacity. Smaller ssd wear out faster in the same number of writes (because of electrical limitations), so choose one that can hold at least 1.5x what you need it to hold.

Once you try the ssd, you don't really go back :)
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basroil

basroil

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Oct 19, 2013
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Yes, plenty of speed loss and some minor features won't work. However, everything is fairly minor in the long run and as long as you are uisng Windows 8+ or have dedicated software for the drive it won't matter too much (other than limit to ~250MB/s)
 
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lxgoldsmith

lxgoldsmith

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For practical use, the biggest/only difference you'll see will be the drive's latency, meaning the time between command and action. The sata2 interface just has a lower bandwidth than sata3, so larger file transfers would be slightly slower on a sata2 interface.

SSD give improvements in boot, starting programs, and cache responsiveness because they don't have to spin a disc to retrieve a file.

The older sata version doesn't really matter that much when upgrading from hdd to ssd. A ssd on sata 1 still boots faster than a sata3 7200 rpm hdd.
 
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voland1935

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Aug 16, 2016
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Thank you for the reply. So if I understand the implications of your answer correctly, if I am picking between 2 SSD drives, e.g. Samsung 850 EVO and Crucial MX300, I could just go with the one that is cheaper at the moment, since I cannot take advantage of the top R/W speeds or differences in SSD architecture/technology they may have. With a SATA 2 interface, their performance will be pretty much the same?
 
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lxgoldsmith

lxgoldsmith

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Sep 25, 2012
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Yes. Try to choose the most reliable brands, like Samsung and Crucial.

The next difference would be in capacity. Smaller ssd wear out faster in the same number of writes (because of electrical limitations), so choose one that can hold at least 1.5x what you need it to hold.

Once you try the ssd, you don't really go back :)
 
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voland1935

Commendable
Aug 16, 2016
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Thank you very much. Especially for the note about the capacity selection - was not thinking about that.
 
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