If I have a SATA 6Gb/s hard drive, can I use it with an older motherboard?

[Juared]

Hello,
I've been browsing Newegg to get some new parts recently, and I'm planning on getting a new hard drive, graphics card, motherboard, and processor. I'm planning on buying the hard drive first since my current hard drive is getting full. The only problem is, my motherboard (ASUS M4A78T-E) doesn't support SATA 6Gb/s drives. My question is, if I get a SATA III hard drive, will I be able to use it with my motherboard with a 3Gb/s cable? Thanks for any input.

 

[ilikehwy40]

It will work.
6Gb/s is only needed on the motherboard and harddrive if you exceed the 3Gb/s and want the more bandwidth.

7200rpm harddrives do not come close, but newer 6Gb/s SSDs can see more performance on 6Gb/s (although 3Gb/s is still very fast and the best part of SSDs is not having random seek latancy, not the bandwidth).

The other differences are stuff like NCQ which enables the adapter to manage the requests (something like QoS).
Stuff you probably wont use.

Same cable, same power, backwards compatible, no problem.

 

[manofchalk]

Yes, all the SATA revisions are backward and forward compatible.

 

[RetiredChief]

As above
Sata III HDDs is a marketing tool. There is ONLY one benefit to running a Sata III HDD on SATA III port vs being on sata II. That is Burst speed, which is very short time. Overall You will not see a difference in normal usage.

 

[netcommercial]

Have you considered an external drive? I ask because I am moving computers right now and am pretty happy I have a 500gb external I can just label a new folder called 11_23_12 move and park folders in there from that computer. And like an old garage, full of crap and a 20,000 car sits outside in the driveway. I can just plug in my external drive and dig through there for what I am looking for IF I EVER need anything out of it. Thereby keeping the new puter cooler and I can do the same to that computer. I do not leave the external drive plugged in when not in use. BTW

 

[coolvap]

Yes, it will work. They are backward compatible. In some cases, you will need to set a jumper to restrict data transfer speed to lower levels from the default 6 GB/s.