If I buy a 1TB hard drive with a SATA 3 Gb/s interface, will my computer be able to use it with it's 1.5 Gb/s SATA interface?
December 28, 2009 4:39 AM Subscribe
Laptop hard drive filter: I'm in the market for a new hard drive for my laptop, and I want to get the best one my computer can handle. My computer seems to have a 1.5 Gb/s SATA interface; will it be able to handle a 3 Gb/s SATA interface hard drive?
A quick question for all you computer hardware junkies out there who'll know more about this kind of stuff than I do: the laptop I currently have is a few years old, and has a hard drive that is no longer large enough for my needs. I'd like to upgrade the hard drive, but I don't know which interface type to get so that the hard drive I buy works with my computer.
I've always had good experiences with Western Digital hard drives, so I've decided to buy one out of their Scorpio Blue line. When I looked at their website, I noticed that the site says that they offer these hard drives in a number of different capacities; the capacity that I'm interested in is the 1TB capacity. They also offer these hard drives in 3 different interface types: SATA 3 Gb/s, SATA 1.5 Gb/s, and PATA.
Now, I own a MacBook running OS X 10.5.8, and I'm somewhat computer literate, so I checked System Profiler to see what interface type my computer has. Under Hardware > Serial-ATA, it says that I've got something called a "Intel ICH8-M AHCI", which has a speed of 1.5 Gigabytes. So far so good.
However, on the Western Digital website, it seems that the hard drives they sell under the SATA 1.5 Gb/s interface only go up to 320 Gb. However, Western Digital does sell 1TB hard drives with the SATA 3 Gb/s interface. Thus, my question ultimately becomes: if I buy the 1TB hard drive with the SATA 3 Gb/s interface, will my computer be able to use it (even if it can only write and read to it at a speed of 1.5 Gb/s)?
Thanks in advance, guys and gals. Be sure to stay tuned for the follow-up question that's undoubtedly sure to follow, where I ask how to format/set up/install operating system on said hard drive.
A quick question for all you computer hardware junkies out there who'll know more about this kind of stuff than I do: the laptop I currently have is a few years old, and has a hard drive that is no longer large enough for my needs. I'd like to upgrade the hard drive, but I don't know which interface type to get so that the hard drive I buy works with my computer.
I've always had good experiences with Western Digital hard drives, so I've decided to buy one out of their Scorpio Blue line. When I looked at their website, I noticed that the site says that they offer these hard drives in a number of different capacities; the capacity that I'm interested in is the 1TB capacity. They also offer these hard drives in 3 different interface types: SATA 3 Gb/s, SATA 1.5 Gb/s, and PATA.
Now, I own a MacBook running OS X 10.5.8, and I'm somewhat computer literate, so I checked System Profiler to see what interface type my computer has. Under Hardware > Serial-ATA, it says that I've got something called a "Intel ICH8-M AHCI", which has a speed of 1.5 Gigabytes. So far so good.
However, on the Western Digital website, it seems that the hard drives they sell under the SATA 1.5 Gb/s interface only go up to 320 Gb. However, Western Digital does sell 1TB hard drives with the SATA 3 Gb/s interface. Thus, my question ultimately becomes: if I buy the 1TB hard drive with the SATA 3 Gb/s interface, will my computer be able to use it (even if it can only write and read to it at a speed of 1.5 Gb/s)?
Thanks in advance, guys and gals. Be sure to stay tuned for the follow-up question that's undoubtedly sure to follow, where I ask how to format/set up/install operating system on said hard drive.
Best answer: The 750GB and 1TB Scorpio Blue drives are larger than standard notebook drives, with a height of 12.5 mm. They will fit in some of the recent unibody MacBooks but there is a very good chance it will be too big for your older MacBook. If you look up your specific model you should be able to find out it it will accommodate these new 12.5 mm drives. Otherwise, you'll be limited to the 640GB capacity drives.
posted by Amaterasu at 5:22 AM on December 28, 2009
posted by Amaterasu at 5:22 AM on December 28, 2009
Response by poster: Amaterasu: My MacBook isn't that old ... it's probably 3 years old at this point ... but you definitely bring up a good point that I need to look into before I make a purchase. Do you know where I can look up whether or not such hard drives will fit into my laptop? I'd appreciate it if you could point me to any sources of such information.
posted by Ephilation at 6:07 AM on December 28, 2009
posted by Ephilation at 6:07 AM on December 28, 2009
According to myservice.com they fit perfectly in all Unibody MacBook Pros, the 13″ MacBook Unibody and the 17″ (Silver Keyboard) MacBook Pro.. So it's not looking good because the non-Pro unibody was only released Oct of 2008.
Also:
how to format/set up/install operating system on said hard drive
Either get a USB adapter cable (approx $15) or a firewire or USB enclosure (approx $30) so that you can have both drives connected so that you can copy over whatever you need from the old one after you install the OS on the new one. The enclosure has the advantage that you can continue to use it as an external HD if you want. The adapter cables are really just meant for short term copying of stuff off drives without having to install them in anything.
posted by Rhomboid at 6:54 AM on December 28, 2009
Also:
how to format/set up/install operating system on said hard drive
Either get a USB adapter cable (approx $15) or a firewire or USB enclosure (approx $30) so that you can have both drives connected so that you can copy over whatever you need from the old one after you install the OS on the new one. The enclosure has the advantage that you can continue to use it as an external HD if you want. The adapter cables are really just meant for short term copying of stuff off drives without having to install them in anything.
posted by Rhomboid at 6:54 AM on December 28, 2009
Do you really need all that space in the laptop itself, or could you deal with offline space?
You say space is an issue - I know I'm not answering your question, but I've been trending towards putting a really fast, but small, SSD in my laptop, and ensuring that the stuff that takes up real space exists on external devices that are both RAID and backed up regularly - with the laptop only synchronizing in/out whatever data I might happen to need that day/week/month.
posted by TravellingDen at 7:20 AM on December 28, 2009
You say space is an issue - I know I'm not answering your question, but I've been trending towards putting a really fast, but small, SSD in my laptop, and ensuring that the stuff that takes up real space exists on external devices that are both RAID and backed up regularly - with the laptop only synchronizing in/out whatever data I might happen to need that day/week/month.
posted by TravellingDen at 7:20 AM on December 28, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
And just to be pedantic: it's 1.5/3.0 gigabits per second, not bytes. And since these interfaces use 10-bit encoding for each 8 bit byte, that means the effective rates are 150 and 300 megabytes per second. On top of that, today's fastest 7200 RPM drives cannot sustain 150 megabytes per second (they're at about 130), and a 2.5" drive at 5400 RPM like the one you're talking about will not even come close. So the 1.5/3.0 distinction in your case is entirely academic and irrelevant.
posted by Rhomboid at 5:13 AM on December 28, 2009