What's the point of having 3.0Gb/s jacks if you have 6.0 Gb/s jacks ?

[Noahtuck]

So i have been going through tons of components for my next build and i found a motherboard that has 6 - SATA 6 Gb/s connectors and 2 - 3 Gb/s connectors.

What is the point of having the 2 - 3 Gb/s connections with 6 - 6 Gb/s connections on the same Mobo ?

I thought you could just plug 3 Gb/s HDD's into a 6 Gb/s connections/plugs and they would work, but just at the 3 Gb/s transfer rate ?

[johns0]

3gb for older hdd and optical drives and 6gb for the newer gb/s hdd,3gb hdd will work on 6gb at 3gb but you won't see any really speed difference between the two unless you got a fast ssd.

[Noahtuck]

That's kind of my point.

If you can plug a 3Gb/s sata HDD into a 6Gb/s sata plug on a motherboard, what is the point of having both 6 Gb/s & 3 Gb/s plugs on the same mobo.

I know the 3 Gb/s hdd wont run any faster.

[jagabo]

The older 3 GB/s chips are cheaper. Typically they're built into the VLSI chipset whereas the 6 GB/s ports may be on a separate controller chip. Licensing is probably cheaper. And there's less possibility of compatibility problems.

[Noahtuck]

I can see that, but with both 6 Gb/s & 3 Gb/s plugs on the same mobo it can't be cheaper.

It just struck me as weird having both on the same mobo.

[jagabo]

I can see that, but with both 6 Gb/s & 3 Gb/s plugs on the same mobo it can't be cheaper.

Why do you say that? In terms of connectors themselves the cost is probably the same. But if a chipset with four 6 Gb ports costs $35, and a chipset with two 3 Gb ports and two 6 Gb ports is $30, the latter motherboard will be cheaper.

[aedipuss]

i'm not complaining at all, i like the extra sata ports they are adding these days. my last build motherboard has 11 - 6 sata3, 4 sata2 and 1 esata. all used, almost wish for 2 more, but when the time comes an add-in card will do.

[Noahtuck]

I can see that, but with both 6 Gb/s & 3 Gb/s plugs on the same mobo it can't be cheaper.

Why do you say that? In terms of connectors themselves the cost is probably the same. But if a chipset with four 6 Gb ports costs $35, and a chipset with two 3 Gb ports and two 6 Gb ports is $30, the latter motherboard will be cheaper.

Of the motherboards i have looked at, namely Gigabyte, they have 6 - 6 Gb/s connections, 1 has 6 - 6 Gb/s + 2 - 3 Gb/s connections.

Obviously to add those 2 extra 3 Gb/s connections is going to add to the cost.

And even though the 3 Gb/s connections are cheaper, you would think to add 2 different speed connections onto the same board, 6 + 2, would cost more than just making 8 of the same speed connections at 6 Gb/s.

As opposed to having 2 different chipsets/controllers/ what have you....
On the same mobo.

[Noahtuck]

One thing i did notice is that the Mobo with the 6 + 2 sata jacks, also has an IDE connection.

But i doubt i will ever need one of those for any future builds as i am looking at higher boards for such things as faster and larger amounts of ram, sli, etc.
And i don't know that i will need 16gb of ram, let alone 32gb of ram, but it will be nice to be able to if i want

I am even considering putting in an SSD for my boot drive but but that may be the last thing i install as i don't really need to have it to finish my new build.

[usually_quiet]

The chipsets that are compatible with the various CPU sockets have controllers which place a limit on the number and type of SATA and eSATA connections that can be placed on the board. All the ones I looked at have a limit of 6 total. Some allowed all 6 to be 6GB/s SATA connections. Others only allowed a combination of 3GB/s and 6GB/s. I can't recall which ones still permit IDE.

If there are more than 6 SATA/eSATA, connections, the extras must come from additional controllers installed somewhere on the motherboard. IDE may be added the same way. I guess it comes down to what controller they choose to add the extra ports not supported by the main chipset.

IDE and 3GB/s controllers would be added just to support legacy drives. The controllers that can provide IDE may not even support 6GB/s SATA.