Can I install My OS on an SSD plugged into a SATA3 PCI Express Card?

[Brds7t7]

Hey all,

I'm looking at buying an SSD for Windows 7 over the next few months. Either A Samsung 830 or Crucial M4. This will just hold the O/S, I'm going to be keeping my Personal Data on my Spinners.

My MOBO doesn't support SATA 3 as it's an older model (I will eventually upgrade it). So, for now I may buy a SATA 3 PCI Card.

Is it wise to install the O/S to this SSD? Or should I plug the SSD straight into the MOBO and just run it at SATA II Speeds?

 

[Dwarf]

Absolutely. This is what I have done on my system with my SSDs and HDDs. The SSDs hold the OSes, and are connected to the PCI-E card. The HDDs, which are used for data, are connected to the motherboard connectors.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

My MOBO doesn't support SATA 3 as it's an older model (I will eventually upgrade it). So, for now I may buy a SATA 3 PCI Card.

Is it wise to install the O/S to this SSD? Or should I plug the SSD straight into the MOBO and just run it at SATA II Speeds?

I'd be interested in what info this thread generates, but I haven't heard of any particular advantage to SATA 3 with an SSD.

I'd avoid spending money on the card and just go direct into a SATA 2 port unless you can get reports of real-world improvements. Even if you did, I might wait until I eventually upgraded the motherboard rather than attempt to use a SATA 3 PCI card.

 

[Brds7t7]

Absolutely. This is what I have done on my system with my SSDs and HDDs. The SSDs hold the OSes, and are connected to the PCI-E card. The HDDs, which are used for data, are connected to the motherboard connectors.

Hi Dwarf,

Will the SATA II PCI cards work right out of the box then? No need to install anything within Windows? Doesn't affect anything like formatting or reinstalling windows at all?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Absolutely. This is what I have done on my system with my SSDs and HDDs. The SSDs hold the OSes, and are connected to the PCI-E card. The HDDs, which are used for data, are connected to the motherboard connectors.

Dwarf:

Do you have any reading on the performance improvement for an SSD via the add-on card versus direct to the SATA 2 mobo ports?

I have no idea and would be interested in what you may have learned.

 

[Brds7t7]

My MOBO doesn't support SATA 3 as it's an older model (I will eventually upgrade it). So, for now I may buy a SATA 3 PCI Card.

Is it wise to install the O/S to this SSD? Or should I plug the SSD straight into the MOBO and just run it at SATA II Speeds?

I'd be interested in what info this thread generates, but I haven't heard of any particular advantage to SATA 3 with an SSD.

I'd avoid spending money on the card and just go direct into a SATA 2 port unless you can get reports of real-world improvements. Even if you did, I might wait until I eventually upgraded the motherboard rather than attempt to use a SATA 3 PCI card.

I was thinking that it may be wiser just to plug it into the Motherboard itself.

Eventually I will replace the whole lot (Mobo with SATA 3, CPU, DDR3 memory and stupidly designed Dell case).

 

[Britton30]

Perhaps you'd get better scores on a SSD benchmark with a SATA III card but nothing in noticeable, real-world performance other then maybe a few seconds shorter boot time. Everything else would seem the same.
Go ahead and get your SSD and use your current SATA II headers and put the money saved toward the new board.

 

[Brds7t7]

When I get the motherboard I'm going to have to go all out and get new cpu, case, psu.

Because it's a weirdly designed Dell case I'm not sure if the mobo will fit a standard case?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

When I get the motherboard I'm going to have to go all out and get new cpu, case, psu.

Because it's a weirdly designed Dell case I'm not sure if the mobo will fit a standard case?

I'm not sure there is an issue with motherboards "fitting" in Dell cases.

But there can be problems regarding power supplies and front panel connectors.

I think the situation is better than it was 10 years ago---Dell may be using more standard parts rather than proprietary.

But it varies from model to model and it can be tough getting accurate info on a particular model. A year or so ago, I tried to Google accurate info on a particular Dell and was never completely successful.

Suggestions:

Try to get a post answered by member Fireberd. He's experienced and spends a lot of time on Dell forums.

Check Dell forums yourself. Mention your model number.

 

[Brds7t7]

Thanks ignatzatsonic,

I'm going to have a browse through the Dell forums and see if I can pick up any info on parts, case, etc

 

[whs]

Save your money for the PCI-e card. The Sata2 ports are just as good for the blocksizes (predominently 4K) that the OS is processing. My M4 has a R/W speed @ 4K blocks as shown below and that is well below the maximum thruput capacitiy of a Sata2 port.

The nums are in MB/sec.

 

[Britton30]

Do these snips accurately show your board and case?



If so they are made with Dell specs. I had a very similar Dell GX280 which was almost identical in construction with only the right side of the case opening. It's not a standard mATX or ATX configuration. As ignatzatsonic said the PSU was an odd size too, smaller than "normal".

 

[Brds7t7]

Do these snips accurately show your board and case?
View attachment 213352View attachment 213353


If so they are made with Dell specs. I had a very similar Dell GX280 which was almost identical in construction with only the right side of the case opening. It's not a standard mATX or ATX configuration. As ignatzatsonic said the PSU was an odd size too, smaller than "normal".

Hi Britton30,

Yes that's exactly how my board and case look.

 

[Britton30]

Unfortunately that is non-standard and that case wouldn't accept a standard board. A very good case can be had for ~$50USD or so though. If you're going to get/want/need a new board a new build would be good.

 

[Brds7t7]

Yes I had a feeling it wasn't the standard type.

I'll have to wait until I'm ready to replace everything.

 

[Britton30]

Yes I had a feeling it wasn't the standard type.

I'll have to wait until I'm ready to replace everything.

In the meantime you can still install a SSD and enjoy the speed until you can get the other components. I spent about 2 months gathering all the parts for my last complete build.

 

[Brds7t7]

Yes looking forward to getting an SSD. I've looked at some comparisons on YouTube and even running on a SATA 2 board it's still much quicker than a spinner.

Only thing that does concern me is people saying that performance can degrade over time and the only thing to do is to completely erase it. Seems like a lot more hard work than defragging a spinner!

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Only thing that does concern me is people saying that performance can degrade over time and the only thing to do is to completely erase it. Seems like a lot more hard work than defragging a spinner!

By all accounts, the "degrade" thing is grossly exaggerated, particularly on recent generation SSDs.

There was a long thread on this forum that referred to another web site that was doing torture tests on a wide variety of SSDs. Really beating them up. I don't remember what that site was, but the results showed that the read and write performance remained intact much longer than anticipated.

My Intel SSD has a toolbox with a graph indicating "estimated life remaining". After 13 months, it still says 100%. I have written 1.8 Terabytes to it in that time.

 

[whs]

Even a 'Secure Erase' is not a big deal. You image your SSD, make a secure erase and restore the image. 1 hour elapsed time.

But I only once made a secure erase to see what it does. I did not really see a diffrence afterwards. My oldest SSD runs since 4 years.

 

[Britton30]

Degradation isn't a worry, the site ignatz referred to they used several SSD and I think the first failed only after something in the neighborhood a petabytes had been written, which would be several years of ordinary use. TRIM and garbage collection and better controllers make SSDs much more tolerant to write/erase cycles.

Of course the best use of SSD is to load the OS and most used apps on it and put your Users file ans AppData on a separate HDD.