0

As silly as this may be I'm not overly a big hardware junky. I live in the world of Visual Studio and Sublime Text, and never have gotten my hands much dirty with the hardware.

Well here is the deal. I got a failing OEM drive on Dell Inspiron 530S. From what I recall it's a 500gb SATA 3gb/s now since finding 3gb/s in my local BestBuy or Canada Computers seems like no easy task as most 3.5" drives are 6gb/s.

With that said can I run a 6gb/s SATA instead of current 3gb/s and alternatively what SSD can I run if I wen't the route of SSD warrior?

Thanks in advance.

Improve this question

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
2

SATA 3 6Gbps interface is backward-compatible - you can certainly run SATA3 devices through SATA2 interface, and vice-versa too! So you can definitely get a SATA3 Hard-Drive, if you can't get a SATA2 one... but be warned, SATA3 SSDs have crossed the SATA2 speeds, and will surely be bottle-necked by the older SATA interface...

That being said, if you want to get a SATA3 SSD for your SATA2 motherboard, the system will still be significantly faster than a SATA3 hard-drive, even though the SSD loses a massive amount of bandwidth. Here are some links:

Improve this answer
1

A 6gb/s drive will work just fine. They are perfectly compatible.

Most SSDs connect through Sata as well, however they are smaller in size than a typical hard drive (Most hard drives are 3.5 inches while most SSDs are 2.5 inches). You may need an adapter bracket if you get an SSD.

Improve this answer
0

I had an old model 530, specific hardware recommendations are off topic here, but I've had decent luck with very very cheap SSDs and core 2 duos, and it is probably a decent upgrade. Essentially any sata drive should work, and there's no way a spinning rust drive would max out a 6gb/s connection. Essentially any laptop or desktop drive with a sata interface would work.

With the full sized 530, there was a strange way of mounting the drives through the bottom of the drive and the side of the case. You might have trouble mounting a 2.5 inch drive this way if it uses a full sized drive bay. Just use quality mounting tape, or mcgyver a mount.

Improve this answer
2
  • The 530S is a rather nifty machine, mine is still going strong and I had it for well over 7-8 years now, only hardware that went was the PCU and I was pretty pissed it's an ATX PCU and can only be obtained from Dell and costs $130-150 while standard PCU units are $60-70. I believe mine does have a very odd way of mounting hard drives, needing me to remove the hard drive bay since there is no other way to put in a new drive.
    – Random
    Aug 22, 2016 at 1:46
  • that's odd. the 'normal' 530 used a standard ATX PSU. I think I ran it on a 20 dollar PSU since I needed oldschool molex connectors as well. Since its SFF it probably ran a TXF power supply, which is also a (uncommon) standard
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Aug 22, 2016 at 2:20

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .