Speed difference between SATA III SSDs connected to a SATA II MacBook Pro?

I'm going to be upgrading my MacBook Pro (SATA II 3Gb/s interface) with a SSD very soon. I've been looking at different SSDs out there and am wondering if two different drives with SATA III connections will differ in speed on my SATA II MacBook Pro.

I've also heard from some people that the difference between most SSDs isn't very noticeable anyway, so I guess if that's true then my question is sort of irrelevant... But I don't know, I'm new to the world of SSDs.

I've been eyeing these three:

OCZ Vertex 4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227820

Crucial M4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148444

Samsung 830
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?is=REG&Q=&A=details&O=productlist&sku=845683

I assume speeds would be limited to both the connection's speed and the speed of the drives themselves, and that if different drives had read/write speeds faster than 3Gb/s then their differences wouldn't matter and either one would perform basically the same. Am I correct in assuming this?

I hope my question is easy enough to understand. Thanks!

asked Oct 02 '12 at 03:35

sfrancis928
2.6k●33●44●80

edited Oct 02 '12 at 03:36

"I've also heard from some people that the difference between most SSDs isn't very noticeable anyway," Whoever told you that does not know what they are talking about...

(Oct 02 '12 at 10:05) trueb

Haha okay, thanks for clearing that up.

(Oct 02 '12 at 11:22) sfrancis928

Just an update, I went with the OCZ. Installed it last night, and I'm loving the speed!

(Oct 05 '12 at 21:58) sfrancis928

2 Answers:

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Putting SATA III drives in a SATA II computer will definitely limit speed. You probably won't notice this from day to day computing. You'll probably only see the limitations on bootup. Instead of it booting up in ~10 seconds, it boots up in ~14 seconds (#firstworldproblems). Either way, it's still faster than an HDD.

I do own the Samsung 830 SSD (64GB). It's incredibly reliable, and I get a 7.9 on the WEI. On the other end of the spectrum, I have heard good things from OCZ SSDs, and for over $100 less, it would be hard to convince me to get the Samsung drive.

A little information on SSDs:
HDDs have to move a spindle to an area of the drive which takes time. SSDs have no moving parts, so there is a negligible amount of time seeking information (like not even milliseconds).

answered Oct 02 '12 at 07:27

catchatyou
20.7k●89●166●383

edited Oct 02 '12 at 07:28

Great, thanks for the advice! The OCZ is first on my list right now. I've heard great things about the Samsung, but I'd also like not to spend the extra $120.

(Oct 02 '12 at 11:24) sfrancis928

having a sata 3 drive in a sata 2 port is not as limiting as you might think.

with a SSD, you rarely use the full transfer speeds of the SSD's as most of the file transfers are small 4k reads and writes.

and those transfers (even with current high end SSD's, will not exceed the transfer rates of the sata 2 interface.

answered Oct 06 '12 at 14:34

Razor512
15.8k●35●81●247

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