SSD, SATA II Controller, i5 SATA III recognition problem. Suggestion?

[christianmagill]

I'm looking to purchase an SSD boot drive to speed my system up.

My motherboard only supports SATA II

I ran across this notice on my manufacturers site.

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=SF11-D0029

In summary...

Intel 5® Series Chipset and Intel® 3400 Series Chipset may not be able to complete SATA Out Of Band (OOB) signaling with SATA 6Gb/s devices and down-shift to SATA 3Gb/s speed.

I am wondering how to detect if my system has this issue and if so, what options are available to me. It seems like the small selection of SATA II drives are more expensive and have worse reviews.

Here are my system specs

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-74577

I have an i5.

I much appreciate any help.

 

[MotherFerJones]

From what i read on the links you posted, its all very vague as to what is supported and what is not. I hate all this MAY work MAY not work BS. In order for you to find out beyond a reasonable doubt, you would have to pony up the dough and just see for yourself, it sucks, but for a concrete answer that seems to be your only option.

 

[Dereck47]

You really can't detect if your system has this issue. On some SATA 3 (6Gb/s) drives you would have a problem and on some you wouldn't.

Probably the best thing to do is to do a Google search with the words "ThinkStation E20" and the model of whatever SSD you intend to buy. See if the results of the search show any problems with that particular model.

If SSD manufacturer has a Support Forum you could also check there to see if their drive works with your system.

Also since your system is a desktop and not a laptop you should go into Control Panel and then into Power Options and set your SSD to never shut down.
That way you eliminate any issues regarding resuming from sleep.

 

[christianmagill]

Thanks!

I couldn't find anything on my specific system. But I ran across a post saying that it was an industry wide problem and some manufacturers were issuing firmware fixes to resolve the issue. This was in 2011, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe purchasing a Samsung 840.

 

[Dereck47]

Yes, you should be ok. Make sure your motherboard's BIOS is on its latest version and make sure your SSD in on its latest firmware version when you get it.