HP Blackbird 002 SATA II Backplate not upgradeable to SATA III?

[richiegore]

as far as i know the circut board just acts as a cable, simply allowing the hard disks to be hot swapped. As sata 3 and sata 2 cables are identical it should work at sata 3 speeds, just got a new psu and a sata 3 hard disk, when I test I will report back... Defnatly don't rip it out before you test it anyway..  Obvously the board also has the lighting functons but they are unrelated, just they integrated the functions onto one board....

[porky133]

Please do keep us updated on your efforts. I thought the backplane would be limited in speed some how. Just like USB 2 needed new case connector ports when you upgraded from USB 1.

[richiegore]

It worked, intel rapid storage technology (IRST) reported it as SATA 6GB/s!!!!! I didnt pay much attention to order when I wired the SATA cables though, it was the last hard drive bay I tried, I think my other SATA 3 (6GB/s) port is connected to my CD Rom!

I replaced the CDROM as the old one is pata which is no longer on almot all p67 motherboards. The eject button doesnt work (I have eject from windows) and I had to break a little bit of plasic on the blackbird CDROM holder and also had to get a regular sata power to micro sata power to converter but other than that it works great!!!!!!!!!!!

Love my Blackbird btw, shame they arent made anymore...

[GTODave]

maybe you could test the speeds and post a screen shot?

[richiegore]

The figure I got is comparable to this website (link below) at 309 gb/s, almost the  320.7 gb/s they achieved. This is compared to 248gb/s that they achieved in sata 2 mode so I think this counts as proof to all !!!!!!!!!!!! 

So don't rip out that beautiful circutboard!

http://features.techworld.com/storage/3220707/in-depth-sata-6-gbits-sec/?pn=2

[richiegore]

A zoom view, it was a bit hard to read, also it said sata 3Gb/s when plugged into the other ports....

[Rogersty]

Upgrading my BB with an SSD (and just about every other component).  Will the SSD just pop in the stock BB backplate sata ports?  Do I need a bracket to hold it in the standard BB HD bay?  Think this would work? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139602

Any update on whether you are happy with the SATA II to SATA III performance.

Thanks!

[GTODave]

that's a good question as to whether the ssd will fit the backplane but a 2.5 to 3.5 bracket should fit the hard drive tray. if the ssd doesn't fit the backplane maybe it would be possibe to plug the sata cable in the drive which would leave you with the problem of powering the drive, possibly using the backplane or the space next to the plugs to run the cables. i hope the ssd lines up with the backplane for you! keep us posted...

[richiegore]

I dont think the adaptor that comes with that will hold the ssd in the right place, the sata connedctor neeeds to match the position it is on a regual 3.5" hard drive. I use the http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cremax-DOCK-MB882SP-1S-1B-inch-Converter/dp/B002B4HHZ4 from icy dock, it works perfectly. No problems with my sata III 6gb/s drive so far. Hope you enjoy your new ssd!

[richiegore]

An interesting read from maximumpc confirming there is no difference between sata cables!

" There is virtually no difference between a brand-new SATA 6Gb/s marked cable made this year and one produced nearly eight years ago as far as performance goes. Expensive cable, cheap cable; long cable, short cable—none of it seemingly made a real difference. If anything, the minor variances in performance can be attributed to variances in the benchmark or the SSD."

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/your_sata_cable_slowing_down_your_data_transfers_max_pc_in...