Dell XPS 8300 - Can it's primary bootable storage be converted from SATA 2 to SATA 3?

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rcald2000

rcald2000

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Nov 3, 2009
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Family member's computer:

model: Dell XPS 8300 (build date: June 2011)

specs: i7-2600 / 8GB DDR3 (4GB x 2) / VisionTek 5450 2GB DDR3 / DELL H184K 1.5TB 7200RPM SATA-II

display: Dell 23 Inch Wide ST2320L

Problem: I have a family member who'd like to extend the life of a 6 1/2 year old computer. My obvious suggestion was upgrading from a HDD to a SSD. The problem is that the interface built into the computer is only SATA 2 (3.0 Gbps). Can I add a Samsung SSD, upgrade it to SATA 3 (6.0 Gbps) and have the rig boot off that device?
 
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W
The SATA2 SSD will be much faster than the HDD. The SSD 3 drive might run faster on SATA2 than an SATA2 drive. USB works like that, SATA I'm not sure. You could get a RAID controller card and stripe 2x SATA 2 SSDs for 6 GB/second speed. The SSD is worth doing on SATA2 anyway.
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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If you are talking about adding a SATA3 PCI card, then the answer is probably no. It's highly unlikely that any motherboard that did not come with SATA3 natively would have support for it in the BIOS firmware. You MIGHT be able to find one that WILL work at SATA3 speeds using an add in card, but it will be unlikely to BOOT from that.
 
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william p

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The SATA2 SSD will be much faster than the HDD. The SSD 3 drive might run faster on SATA2 than an SATA2 drive. USB works like that, SATA I'm not sure. You could get a RAID controller card and stripe 2x SATA 2 SSDs for 6 GB/second speed. The SSD is worth doing on SATA2 anyway.
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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Actually William I'm glad you posted this because it made me look at the original post again. I made a mistake with the advice I offered.

That SATA3 drive WILL work and boot from a SATA 2 header, it will only do it at SATA 2 speeds though. It will still be MUCH faster than a HDD though. My mistake was that for some reason I thought he was asking about an M.2 NVME type drive like the Samsung 960 EVO NVME SSD. Not sure why I thought that, not paying close enough attention I guess which is of course my own fault.

rcald2000, yes you can connect a SATA3 SSD to that motherboard and it will boot from it. Just be sure to either clone ALL the existing partitions of the current OS drive to the SSD or do a clean install to the SSD with no other drives attached while installing, and then be sure to remove the existing partitions from the other HDD after installation of the OS on the SSD so there is no confusion to the system when it sees two different boot partitions.

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-3567655/clean-installation-windows.html
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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It won't matter if it's an SSD. It will automatically convert to TRIM. There is nothing wrong with the system performing TRIM operations on a regular basis. It will actually extend the useful life of the drive. Personally, I DO turn of auto EVERYTHING on my system, and do it all manuall when "I" want to do it, but it won't hurt anything if you don't.

I also unselected my answer and selected yours, since my initial reply was wrong.
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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According to what I know, and went and verified since it's been a while since I've faced this question, any current SATA3 drive SHOULD be backwards compatible with SATA2 headers. As to whether a very old system will support the SSD ITSELF is another question and THAT will probably be reliant on the bios firmware of the motherboard, and thus, the manufacturer.

I've seen SSDs added to some pretty old systems though so I'd not be that surprised to see it go either way and the best way to know for sure would be to ask the manufacturer.

My guess though based on past experience is that it will work.
 
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william p

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I'm running an SSD in my Dell Dimension E520 (2005) see my sig. Interestingly enough it boots from the standard Dell RAID BIOS that supports only RAID 1 which is backup only. So booting from a RAID 0 controller isn't a big stretch. It's an SATA2 SSD. But really I would just plug in an SSD and enjoy the performance boost. Try 1 SSDand I think it will do what you want. If you need more speed then try striping 2 drives. 3GB/s is probably several times as fast as the HDD. Obsessing over 6GB/s isn't going to be cost effective for an old computer.
 
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william p

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I looked in the XPS 8300 manual and there is an option in the BIOS for AHCI default, and RAID. With RAID 0 you can stripe 2 SSD dirves 3GB/s each and get 6GB/s. You might see what RAID modes it offers. The workstations like the T3400,T3500 etc.offer native support for RAID 0 on the MB up to 3 SATA2 drives= 9GB/s.. Maybe XPS does too. They mention RAID but don't say what modes it supports.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2365767/feed-your-greed-for-speed-by-installing-ssds-in-raid-0.html
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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Not to be contrary, but RAID is a waste on an SSD, not to mention that in order to gain any speed on it you have to buy twice the hardware.

There is no sensible way to get SATA3 speeds on a SATA2 device. A SATA3 SSD will already be miles faster than the HDD it is using now. The only time you will really notice a difference between SATA2 and 3 speeds anyhow is when the SATAII bus is saturated and that's ONLY going to happen during sequential transfers of large files. For random operations, the bus won't come anywhere near saturation and the ony factor determining speed will be the SSD itself.
 
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william p

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I agree. I said get an SSD and don't obsess about SATA3, but the OP wants it. I'm going to RAID a couple small SSDs in my old Dell T3400 workstation. 128GB are $40 each, and the controller is already there so it can cost almost nothing. But really it won't make any difference once the programs I use load to RAM.
 
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