SATA 3Gb to SATA 6Gb?

retiredin2011

I bought a SATA 6Gb hard disk for my SATA 3Gb motherboard.

Would it make any difference to the performance of my computer if I was to buy (or get for Christmas) a SATA 3Gb to SATA 6Gb/s Controller PCI-e x4 Expansion Card?

Windows 8 OS and GA-H61M-S2PV motherboard.

Nilrem

It won't make a huge difference generally, as unless it's a SSD the drive can only mechanically deliver about 100-150MB max.
The 1.5GB/3GB/6GB headline speed is what the interface can cope with, in the case of mechanical drives that's usually whatever is in the <128mb buffer on the drive before it slows down to what the rotating disc can cope with.

Normally you only see the advantage of the newer interface with either SSD's, or if there is a change in the way the interface works with the drives.
3GB SATA (basically SATAv2) supported some new instructions that made compliant drives more efficient in how they handled incoming/outgoing data so the move from SATA 1 to SATAv2 was a fairly important one, especially as it introduced proper support for SSD.
IIRC with the move to 6GB/s the only real change apart from top speed was to make sure all the controllers working at the new spec supported SSD's fully.

However if you need more SATA ports on your machine, it never hurts to go with the fastest/latest controller you can get if it's not much more expensive than an older version.

almillar

As above, depends on the speed of your hard drive or SSD. The 6GB/3GB you refer to is the TOP speed that the SATA interface is capable of. If you've an HDD that can manage 1.5GB/s then it won't make any difference.