Sata III drive compatible with Sata II computer?

[Silverthunder]

This post is on the subject of whether you can use a Sata III drive plugged into a motherboard's Sata II port (and just live with the capped speeds).

I have a WDS250G1B0A installed in my computer.  Here is the spec sheet:

http://products.wdc.com/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-800079.pdf

Note that there is a footnote at the bottom that says that it's backwards compatible with Sata I and Sata II.  Perhaps there is a setting that I should have modified, or perhaps the motherboards has to be capable (able to recognize and work with the Sata III drive.  

On to the more broad and important topic of when/ if this is ok.  From searching the web, there seems to be multiple options.

Here is a thread where one user that sounds like he knows what he is talking about says that you cannot safely do this:

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/142374/What+is+the+maximum+size+hard+drive+I+can+put+in+my+Mid+2...

On Tom's Hardware website, I'm usually not impressed by the quality of the responses to questions.  But, this user says that it's fine.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/289248-32-sata-sata-computer

In this thread, the posters say that it's ok but not recommended on some nvidia chipsets.  Does my computer have an nVidia chipset?  What is an nVidia chipset?  Is that some sort of hardware on the motherboard?

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/will-an-sata-iii-ssd-work-fine-in-a-sata-ii-computer.2267216/

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Below is the link to the product specs for your PC.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00878693

It has an Intel Intel 945G chipset.

I don't know of any reason why a SATA III (6.0 GB/S) hard drive wouldn't work in your PC.

It would just run at the SATA II speed.

Do not exceed a 2 TB hard drive though or it won't work.

I have all kinds of SATA III hard drives in my older HP desktop and notebook PC's

They work just fine.

One of my notebook PC's only has a SATA I controller and the SATA III drive works fine -- just runs at the 1.5 GB/s transfer speed.

[Silverthunder]

Thanks for the reply.

I think on some older drives, you need to set them to work at the slower speeds.  For example:

https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?h=p1&ID=981&lang=en&p=608#satadesktopjump

scroll down to the second diagram.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

The drive controller your PC's chipset has is SATA II, not SATA I.

I have installed SATA III drives in several PC's with SATA II controllers and never had to use any jumpers to get them to work.

[Silverthunder]

http://lowendmac.com/2018/watch-out-for-sata-iii-drives-in-sata-ii-macs/