Are there any SATA III PCI (NOT Express) Cards?

[KingOfComputing]

I recently got a cheap Shuttle XPC SG33G5 to use as a media centre type system with possibly some very light gaming too. The first thing I want to do is swap out the mechanical HDD for a SSD, which I am hoping will give this system a new lease of life. Thing is, as a machine dating back to 2007, the SATA ports are only SATA II, which isn't ideal for the modern Crucial MX 300 I have ready to put in it.

I was hoping to add SATA III to it with an add in card but the Shuttle only has a single PCIE 16 slot I wanted to add a GPU to (though finding a decent single slot card is a real headache). It does have an old style PCI (NOT Express) slot, so I thought no problem, I just need a PCI SATA III card, yet a search online seems to bring up none.

Are there no PCI SATA III cards available? Is there any other way I can add SATA III without using the only PCIE slot?

 

[madmatt30]

I believe there were a few sata 3 pci cards released way way back in 2012/2013.

I had one , was a massive hassle getting it to run as a boot device.

I highly doubt youll find one now, sata 3 & pci express have been the standard for 5 years or so now, those cards will have discontinued production years ago & your chance of finding old stock is remote.

Just run the ssd on sata 2 is my advice, yeah it has limits but there's still a boundless difference between an ssd & a mechanical drive even on sata 2.

 

[k1114]

An old pc like that wouldn't even benefit over sata 1. The benefit of an ssd in most uses is not max sequential bandwidth but access times.

 

[COLGeek]

+1 to madmatt30's advice. Just use one of your available SATA II ports. You'll still get great performance without the hassle of adding an adapter that may make little (no) difference due to the limitations of the PCI slot itself.

 

[KingOfComputing]

Thanks, think the advice is pretty conclusive, I'll not bother with it. Don't mind saving some money, can go towards the graphics card, talking of which is there a anywhere near decent graphics card you can still get in single slot form that isn't stupid expensive? Not expecting anything amazing, anything like HD7750 up to maybe GTX 750ti performance would be great but none of them seem to be single slot.

Something like a GTX645 or GTX745 would be great and seem to be single slot designs but the ones on eBay are like £70, which is more than the whole PC cost!

 

[COLGeek]

There are several "workstation class" GPUs that are single slot solutions. Look for quadro, firepro, and firegl variants. These GPUs will also game as well as their consumer-class relatives.

This would meet your needs (but likely not your budget unless you purchased a used one):

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814105071

 

[KingOfComputing]

There are several "workstation class" GPUs that are single slot solutions. Look for quadro, firepro, and firegl variants. These GPUs will also game as well as their consumer-class relatives.

This would meet your needs (but likely not your budget unless you purchased a used one):

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814105071

Thanks, I never thought of workstation GPUs before. Only thing is the Shuttle only has a 250w PSU so I need to be careful not to pick anything too power hungry.

I've never really followed the workstation GPU scene but could you advise, which are decent ones to look out for i.e. that perform say in the HD7700 or GTX750ti bracket but won't overly trouble a 250w PSU? 2GB VRAM would be nice but 1GB would do in a pinch since I'd only use this set up for very casual games...

 

[COLGeek]

The one I linked earlier draws less than 35w. The recommended PSU on the link is massive overkill.

I have used those Shuttle XPCs in the past just fine with similar GPUs. Just don't OC anything.

What CPU do you have installed in this "beast"? Also, what OS do you intend to install?

Something like this would likely work, as well:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/nVidia-Quadro-600-FH-Dual-Display-1024MB-PCI-e-x16-Graphics-Card-DVI-DisplayPort/142703443884?hash=item2139c9bfac:g:f38AAOSwfCpbIUQm

 

[KingOfComputing]

The one I linked earlier draws less than 35w. The recommended PSU on the link is massive overkill.

I have used those Shuttle XPCs in the past just fine with similar GPUs. Just don't OC anything.

What CPU do you have installed in this "beast"?

It's the Quad Core Q9550 2.83GHZ about the best one you can get for S775 I think. Only thing is it probably draws a fair bit of power so less left for the GPU? But still pleased to find a Quad Core in a PC of this age as most were still on dual cores...

 

[COLGeek]

The one I linked earlier draws less than 35w. The recommended PSU on the link is massive overkill.

I have used those Shuttle XPCs in the past just fine with similar GPUs. Just don't OC anything.

What CPU do you have installed in this "beast"?

It's the Quad Core Q9550 2.83GHZ about the best one you can get for S775 I think. Only thing is it probably draws a fair bit of power so less left for the GPU? But still pleased to find a Quad Core in a PC of this age as most were still on dual cores...

See link above (Quadro 600).

Specs here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-quadro-600-us.html

The 250w PSU will handle your needs just fine.

 

[KingOfComputing]

The one I linked earlier draws less than 35w. The recommended PSU on the link is massive overkill.

I have used those Shuttle XPCs in the past just fine with similar GPUs. Just don't OC anything.

What CPU do you have installed in this "beast"?

It's the Quad Core Q9550 2.83GHZ about the best one you can get for S775 I think. Only thing is it probably draws a fair bit of power so less left for the GPU? But still pleased to find a Quad Core in a PC of this age as most were still on dual cores...

See link above (Quadro 600).

Specs here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-quadro-600-us.html

The 250w PSU will handle your needs just fine.

Looks a good option, very cheap and small. Notice the lack of HDMI though, guess that is with it being a workstation GPU. If I put a HDMI adaptor on the DVI will that work or do I need to do something else to get audio?

Can't remember if DVI does audio...

 

[KingOfComputing]

One more thing. If I can stretch to it, would be it worth spending a bit more on say the Quadro K2000 instead? It's specs look quite a bit better and it still seems like a single slot as far as I can tell. Don't want to go mad but want to kind of make it the best PC it can be within the confines of the Shuttles case/psu and sheer age...

 

[COLGeek]

The Quadro K2000 should be okay. Max power draw is 51w.

https://www.nvidia.com/content/PDF/data-sheet/DS_NV_Quadro_K2000_OCT13_NV_US_LR.pdf

 

[geofelt]

Go ahead and install a sata III ssd.
The improvement in quickness will be remarkable.
It will work perfectly fine on a sata II interface.
Random I/O performance will be the same as with sata II.
Sequential performance will still be 2x faster than the best hard drives, but not the 4x speed if you had sata III.

 

[KingOfComputing]

The Quadro K2000 should be okay. Max power draw is 51w.

https://www.nvidia.com/content/PDF/data-sheet/DS_NV_Quadro_K2000_OCT13_NV_US_LR.pdf

Ultimately went with the Quadro 600 due to price as I could get one for £10 delivered, which is really good, where as the cheapest K2000 was well over £30 and I don't think I would have seen 3x better performance, besides I have a gaming PC for high end gaming, I just want this one for casual stuff like 2D point n clicks, visual novels, casual mostly 2D stuff basically, which hopefully a Quadro 600 should do...