Help with new WD Caviar SE16 500 GB drive!!!

[ghostwalker]

Basically I bought a new HDD the other day, the WD Caviar SE16 500 GB - WD5000AAKS http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=301&language=en)
and am wondering about a few things now and wondered if anyone could help me out.

The first question is whether or not I can actually run this drive on my current motherboard (ASRock 755 Dual-VSTA) as looking at its SATA interface the M/B uses a 1.5Gb/s interface whereas the new HDD uses 3Gb/s. Would this cause an issue?

The second question I have is to do with installation and cabling. I've never used SATA before some am unsure as to exactly how to install them. I think I have a SATA cable sitting around somewhere but have also seen this and wondered if they are worth getting. What do you think?:

Western Digital Serial ATA with SecureConnect cable
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Serial-ATA-SecureConnect/dp/B00012PSB8/ref=sr_1_14/026-7957021-4590013?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1189588231&sr=1-14

Lastly, if I were to get the above cable, does the drive still need power connecting to it from the PSU?

Also, I'm NOT looking to set up RAID with this.

Thanks.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Yes, it will work. You may need to jumper the necessary pins to put it in 1.5Gb/s mode.

A standard SATA cable is for data only and connects to the mobo. The power will come from the PSU. I've never used the quick connect cable, but it looks like it's data only. Power from the PSU probably attaches to the bracket along side the data cable.

 

[ghostwalker]

Yes, it will work. You may need to jumper the necessary pins to put it in 1.5Gb/s mode.

A standard SATA cable is for data only and connects to the mobo. The power will come from the PSU. I've never used the quick connect cable, but it looks like it's data only. Power from the PSU probably attaches to the bracket along side the data cable.

Sweet. Cheers buddy. Will it make much difference running it in 1.5Gb/s mode?

 

[blashyrkh]

No, it won't make much of a difference. 1.5Gb/s translates to about 180MB/s which is more than the actual output of a typical HDD. And no, you won't have any problems by connecting a SATA II HDD to a SATA I board. I have a SATA I Raptor and a SATA II WD Caviar SE16 500 GB like you do, and they work with no problems at all.

 

[SKyriDe]

I have the same mobo with a 320GB gate 7200.10 drive in 3GBS mode. Should be no issue.

 

[utaka95]

I switch an SE16 500 between 3 machines constantly - 2 are SATA 150, one is SATA 300, and I never even thought about a jumper - it just works.