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The problem is very simple: I plan to replace my optical disk drive with an SSD. The question is if the SSD would be bottlenecked more if installed in the optical disk drive's bay instead of the internal HDD bay.

So following the instructions over at How can I determine the SATA controller version on Windows?, I downloaded SiSoftware Sandra and the "Disk Controller" information is as follows: 

   Disk Controller
Model : HP ICH100 (Sunrise Point-LP) SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
OEM Device Name : Intel ICH100 (Sunrise Point-LP) SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
Interface : SATA
Revision : C2
Specification : 1.10
Maximum SATA Mode : G3 / SATA600
Channels : 3
In Use Channels : 2, 67%
Port : G3 / SATA600
Port : G1 / SATA150

   Disk Controller
Model : HP ICH100 (Sunrise Point-LP) PMC
OEM Device Name : Intel ICH100 (Sunrise Point-LP) PMC
Revision : C2

The thread explains that if the "Maximum SATA Mode" is SATA600 then I can install an SSD in the optical bay. However, since there are 2 ports displayed in my report, I want to confirm that "Port G1 / SATA150" refers to the Motherboard's (and optical disk drive's) SATA interface and not the installed optical disk drive's SATA interface, since I know that the presently installed optical disk drive is DVDRW GUE1N SATA150.

I looked in SiSoftware Sandra's manual but couldn't find the explanation.

So, should I install the SSD in my optical disk bay?

Ferguson
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1 Answers1

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Most (if not all) SATA controllers are downwards compatible: A SATA-III (600) controller will happily handshake with a SATA-I (150) device to run at the lower speed.

The ICH100 is a SATA-III controller, so if you connect it to a SATA-III device (such as any modern SSD) it will run at full speed. Optical drives most often are unable of a throughput over 100Mbytes/s and as such handshake to only SATA-I or SATA-II specs.

So: As long as the cabling to your optical bay is capable of running at the higher speed, an SSD installed there will be able to run at full speed.

Eugen Rieck
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  • I know that the SSD will run, but I don't want it to run at SATA150. In that case, I'd swap my HDD out to the optical disk bay, and put my SSD in the internal bay, where I know that the controller is SATA-III. So the question is how do I find out if I have the cabling in my optical bay for SATA-III or if it's just SATA150 – Ferguson Jun 01 '20 at 10:45
  • Why not just try out? Plug the SSD there, boot from the HDD and see what the Sandra says! – Eugen Rieck Jun 01 '20 at 10:56