Booting from a sata3 pci-e card?

[danszczerba]

hi community, got a question:
i am planning to update my pc to Windows 7(currently using XP Pro) along with a ssd(Samsung SSD830). unfortunately, my motherboard(Asus P5Q Pro) only has Sata2.
if, once everything stated above is installed, i install a Sata3 card(Asus U3S6), will i be able to boot my pc with my new ssd connected to this Sata3 card?
if not, is there any other way, besides buying a new motherboard, to use Sata3 with a Sata2 motherboard?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I purchased the ASUS U3S6 two years and tested it. It is not a very good card due to it's performance limitations. It is a PCI-e x1 card. It only uses one channel. It would have been different if it was a PCI-e x4 card and used 4 channels. There are high tech cards available that are terrific but they cost more than an ssd. Prices for the really good ones start at $1,600.00 USD.

I recommend using the Samsung 830 SATA 3 6Gb/s ssd with your current motherboard. SSD's are backward compatible with motherboards that only support SATA 2 Gb/s. In terms of real world performance there is very little performance difference between SATA 2 and SATA 3 ssd's. You won't notice it during typical use. You would have to run synthetic benchmarks that are designed to grossly exaggerate very minor differences among ssd's. Those benchmarks do not accurately reflect real world performance. That is why they are called synthetic benchmarks.

I have a Samsung 470 SATA 2 3Gb/s 256GB ssd in my personal rig. My motherboard only supports SATA 2 3Gb/s. A few months ago I built a new pc for my wife. It has a motherboard that supports SATA 3 6Gb/s and a Samsung 830 SATA 3 6Gb/s 256 GB ssd. The same OS, applications, and utilities are installed on both pc's. I did a few tests. I ran the same applications and did the exact same things on both pc's. I couldn't tell the difference.

Don't Worry! Be Happy! Enjoy your new ssd!

 

[danszczerba]

thanks for the fast response JohnnyLucky. after reading your reply i did some googling-how right you are as far as "noticable" speed differences. i'm only using this ssd for my Windows 7 upgrade, so, as you said, Sata2 will do just fine. thanks again
p.s.-back to my original question though, just to satify my curiousity-is it possible to boot a pc when the ssd/hdd is connected to a card? will bios recognize it and allow the pc to boot?

 

[Dereck47]

p.s.-back to my original question though, just to satify my curiousity-is it possible to boot a pc when the ssd/hdd is connected to a card? will bios recognize it and allow the pc to boot?

I don't think so.
Your motherboard's BIOS only has 3 boot device options: Floppy drive, Hard drive, CD/DVD drive (Page 3-35 of your motherboard manual).

 

[JohnnyLucky]

+1 what Dereck47 said

The general rule of thumb is one cannot boot from an ssd attached to one of the cards.