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Explore Our Internal SATA Cables. Operating at a speed of 3.0Gb/s – also known as 300MB/s, Storage solutions which specify a SATA II connection will operate up to this speed as a maximum. HDDs and SSDs which feature a SATA III connection will also be backwards compatible with SATA II.
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SABRENT SSD | SATA Hard Drive Connector Kit cables [Molex 4 Pin to x2 15 Pin SATA Power Splitter Cable, and x2 SATA Cable (Data)] (CB-SDSP)
- Step One: Choosing Your New Drive
- Step Two: Decide Whether to Transfer Your Operating System or Perform a Clean Installation
- Step Three: Install Your New Drive
- The Best Tech Newsletter Around
Should You Get Regular Drive, an SSD, or Both?
Here's the question to ask yourself: do you want more speed or more storage? Modern SSDs are amazing, and are a worthy upgrade to just about any system. Moving from a regular drive to an SSD improves speed across your system. You PC will start faster, load apps and large files faster, and decrease load times in most games. The trouble is, once you get past a terabyte of storage space, SSDs start to get prohibitively expensive. Alternately, conventional hard drives are slower, but offer huge amounts of storage relatively cheaply. You can find desktop drives that hold four terabytes — enough to satisfy all but the most demanding of media hoarders — for under $100 USD. You can also combine the strengths of SSDs and hard drives. If your desktop can handle more than one drive (and most of them can), you can install your operating system on the main SSD for speedy access to programs and essential files, and use a large capacity traditional drive for storing files. This makes an SSD an especially attractive upgrade if you already have a hard drive, since you can move the operating system over and "demote" the hard drive to storage duties. If money is no object — or if you're limited to a single drive connection in your laptop — you can spend quite a lot to get a multi-terabyte SSD. But for most people, a smaller SSD combined with a larger hard drive is a great compromise.
What Physical Size Should the Drive Be?
Hard drives typically come in two sizes: 2.5" and 3.5". The 3.5" drives are also known as "full size" or "desktop drives." Pretty much every desktop PC out there has room for at least one (and sometimes many) 3.5" drives. The possible exception to this are the super-small form factor PCs that can only handle a 2.5" drive. 2.5" drives are traditionally meant for laptops, but will also fit just fine in a desktop PC. Some desktop PCs have built in mounting points for 2.5" drives. If yours doesn't, you'll need a mounting bracket like this one. Note that these are usually labelled as "SSD mounting brackets." This is because all SSDs in the traditional hard drive form are 2.5" drives. That's what size you'll use whether you're mounting it in a desktop or laptop. And speaking of SSDs, there is one more form factor to talk about: the M.2 standard. These drives actually look more like a stick of RAM than a hard drive. They come in a handful of different lengths, ranging from about 30 millimeters (1.2 inches) to 110 millimeters (4.3) long. Instead of connecting to your motherboard via a SATA cable the way regular drives do, M.2 drives get plugged into a specialized slot. If you're interested in the M.2 drives, you'll have to determine whether your PC supports them. One other note about laptops. As they've gotten smaller and sleeker, laptops have also gotten harder to upgrade. Most laptops that aren't super-tiny still use 2.5" drives, but they may or may not have a user-accessible drive bay for upgrades. Cheaper, bulkier laptops, and few business-class designs like Lenovo's ThinkPads or Dell's Latitudes, still allow access fairly easily. Other models might need some extensive work to get to the drive bay, or may not have access at all, especially if they've moved to the expensive M.2 standard. Upgrading those drives will probably void your warranty, and you'll need to look for a model-specific guide, like this one on iFixIt.
What Connection Do I Need?
All modern 3.5" and 2.5" drives use a SATA connection for power and data. If you're installing the drive into a desktop PC, the SATA power cable is a 15-pin cable that runs from your PC's power supply. If your PC only offers the older 4-pin Molex cables, you can buy adapters that work just fine. The SATA data cable requires that your motherboard support a SATA connection (all modern PCs do). You'll find them in slightly different configurations. Some (like the one pictured below) have a straight plug on one end and an L-shaped plug on the other end. The L-shaped plug makes it easier to fit into jacks that are closer to other components. Some SATA cables have straight plugs or L-shaped plugs on both ends. You should get SATA cables with your hard drive, but if you're working in a particularly tight space, be aware that these other options exist. If you're installing into a laptop that allows user access, things are easier. You'll usually be able to plug the drive right into a slot that already has the power and data connections ready — no cables to connect. One other word on SATA drives. The latest revision to the SATA standard is SATA 3.3, and drives and cables are backwards compatible with older versions. On desktops, you'll want to make sure that the drive you're buying is as fast or faster than the connection that your motherboard accepts — most motherboard SATA connections from the last five years have at least 3.0 support. The same goes for the SATA cable you buy. Laptops don't use SATA cables, so just make sure that the drive you're upgrading to uses the same SATA revision or newer than the drive it's replacing.
Transferring Your Operating System
Transferring your operating system (and all your data and installed apps) means not having to worry about reinstalling Windows, setting it up the way you like it again, and then reinstalling each of your apps. The downside is that it's a pretty slow and tedious process. If you're upgrading from only one drive to another (as opposed to simply installing an additional drive in a desktop), you'll probably want to transfer your operating system to the new drive instead of installing fresh. The bad news is that this is a slow and tedious process. The good news is that it isn't too hard to do. Most new drives come with tools to make it happen. And if you didn't get a free tool, there are other ways to upgrade to a larger hard drive without reinstalling Windows. If you use a laptop, you'll need to use a USB-based SATA adapter or enclosure so that you can have both drives hooked up at once. You can go that way with a desktop, too, but it may be easier just to install the new drive, do the transfer, and then decide whether to leave the old drive in place for extra storage or uninstall it.
Installing Your New Drive In a Laptop
Different laptops have different methods for accessing the storage drive compartment, if they allow easy access at all. Some business-class designs let you swap out a drive by removing a single screw, others might need you to completely remove the bottom of the machine or even take out the keyboard. You can usually find specific instructions by searching the web for your laptop manufacturer and model. For this example, we're swapping the drive in a ThinkPad T450s. The design is a few years old now, but it's small enough that it requires the entire bottom to be removed, which is fairly typical among designs that allow a hard drive upgrade. To access the drive, I have to remove the battery, and then take out eight different screws. That loosens the metal body plate enough to let me pull it off the computer. You can see the hard drive in the lower-left corner. To pull the drive itself out, I need to remove another screw, pull the drive up a bit, and then slide it off of the integrated SATA connection. For this model, the drive caddy is just a thin piece of aluminum with a rubber bumper. I pulled it off, and then placed it on the new drive. Then, I reverse the process, slipping the new drive onto the SATA connection in the laptop, screwing the caddy back down to the frame, and replacing the body panel. Again, this process is going to vary quite a lot depending upon which laptop you have. If you need a step-by-step breakdown for your model, Google is your friend — you'll generally find at least a few users who want to do the same thing, and maybe an article or video if you're lucky.
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- Michael Crider
SATA Data Cables. Data cables are an essential part of any PC build, connecting internal components or external devices, allowing transfer of data and power. These SATA cables provide a data connection from the motherboard to SATA HDDs and SSDs.
Sep 3, 2022 · SATA I is the first generation interface and operates at 1.5Gb/s with a maximum bandwidth throughput of 150MB/s. SATA II is the second generation interface and operates at 3Gb/s. The maximum bandwidth throughput of SATA II is 300MB/s. SATA III is the third generation interface and has a transfer rate of 6Gb/s with a bandwidth throughput of 600MB/s.
Jan 11, 2023 · Almost all modern hard drives use the SATA interface and as a general rule, only a few legacy hard drives still use the older PATA interface. A buying guide for SATA cables that explains everything you need to know about the types available, where to use them and which is best for your task.
People also ask
Do I need a SATA cable to install a new HDD?
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How do I connect a SATA hard drive to a motherboard?
We offer a huge selection of SATA cables, with different lengths and connector styles so you can: Connect small form factor computers and mini towers; Secure data connections and prevent accidental disconnects (latching connectors) Connect to drives that are difficult to reach (angled connectors)
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