Windows 7: Questions about upgrading to SSD

I'm ready to upgrade to a SSD. I have read the tutorials and have a few questions.

1 - I know that I will have to have an enclosure going from 2.5" to 3.5", but have NO ideas of what cable(s) I will need. From what I can see from different tutorials and "How To"articles, I need to have a SATA connection. Which bring me to #2.

2 - Do I have have all my hard drives as SATA? If so, what do I need and how do I do it?


Have ordered a Crucial 128GB 2.5" SATA III.
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3



Thanks for ANY help.

Hello crgibson

All you will need is one sata cable to link the SSD to the mobo simple as that, the only other lead to connect to it is the power lead which will be already there attached to PSU (assuming you have the correct power supply unit for sata drives), all your drives do not need to be sata but your new board has 6 x sata ports & 1 IDE port so you if you still have any older ide optical drives etc you will still be able to use them but you can only connect two ide devices to one ide port so bear that in mind, also i notice you have gone for a sata III 6GBs SSD but your mobo only supports sata II 3GBs so you may not be using it to its full potential

Handy tutorial here SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System one thing i dont think it mentions in there is its advisable to have your SSD connected to sata port0 when installing & is safer to have no other drives connected to ensure boot mgr goes on the correct drive, you may want to read up on this first

Hope this helps, there are more handy guides here, have a look through tutorial section http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/

1. you need no enclosure. I use Velcro on all my SSDs

2. it will depend whether you buy a Sata2 or Sata3 SSD. The cables are different beause the mobo ports are different. But check first whether you have Sata3 ports on your mobo before you buy a Sata3 SSD.

Here is an example of a Sata3 cable: Newegg.com - OKGEAR 18" SATA 6 Gbps Cable, Straight to Left Angle W/ Metal Latch, Black, Backward Compatible 3 Gbps and 1.5 Gbps

Thanks guys for the quick response.

Pauly - Thanks for the added guides & info. I'm stuck with a SATA 3 SSD (a gift) and I can't upgrade to a new mobo at this time. I will be glad for any speedup I can get for now.


whs - Thanks for the Velcro idea for the SSD, I will do it. As stated above, I have only SATA 2 ports on the mobo. I have been told that since any backward compatible cable will handle 3 Gbps, the "ends" should also handle the connectors. I like the one you show from Newegg (great company) and am going to order it now.

Thanks again for the help.

Just to be clear, the connectors on 1.5, 3, and 6Gb/s SATA cables (sometimes called SATA 1, 2 and 3) are all physically the same. The controller electronics on the motherboard are different.

Whether a there's any difference between a cable from the 1.5Gb SATA days and the current "SATA 3" cable, I have no idea. I use ones that promise 6Gb, and I haven't experimented with ones that don't.

6Gb SATA SSDs are supposed to be backwards compatible with 3Gb. You shouldn't avoid buying a 6Gb drive if you only have 3Gb controllers.

Can the controller electronics on the motherboard be upgraded to SATA III with an adapter or some other device? My gateway motherboard only supports SATA II. I have an INTEL SATA II SSD and like it very much. My boot time is approx 36 sec. with WIN 7 64 bit 12 g ram.
John

Yes there are PCI-e cards for that. Example: Newegg.com - Biostar SATA III 6G b/s 2 port PCI Express Internal Controller Card Model DCS3A