Z800 and SATA3 (6 Gb/s) Hard Drives

[serratedauto]

Will the Z800 with the SATA1 (1.5 Gbps) and SATA2 (3.0 Gbps) interface support hard drives built with the SATA3 (6.0 Gbps) interface? The only reason I ask is because of this:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=125&prodSeriesId=...

which seems to indicate that I will have a problem if I throw in a WD2002FAEX (2TB Western Digital Caviar Black @ 6 Gbps) into my machine.

Thanks!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I agree with you...don't do it.

See the specs at the link below. Highest controller support is SATA II.  Page 5 and it is referenced elsewhere.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13278_na/13278_na.PDF

I installed a WD Caviar Black SATA III 500 GB HDD, and the PC would randomly not detect the drive on boot up or restarting the PC, on a dc7800 CMT with only SATA II controllers.

So, now I am going to have to assume that the support document you posted pertains to more than just the workstations.

Here's why...I also have a HP 8200 Elite CMT that came with a Seagate-branded HP 1 TB SATA III hard drive.

On a whim, I installed that drive in my dc7800 and it has since worked flawlessly for several months now.

I could not for the life of me understand why that high end WD Caviar drive failed to work in my dc7800 until you posted that advisory.

The WD caviar black SATA III 500 GB HDD works just fine in my 8200 Elite CMT because it has sata III controllers.

Paul

[serratedauto]

I'm sorry, but that makes no sense. First of all, every single new drive out of production is now SATA3 (6.0 Gbps), at least according to western digital. Does that document say that pretty much any new hard drive won't work?

Second of all, the SATA3 spec was introduced with the idea of "backwards" compatibility with SATA1 and SATA2, which should make sense that it would step the speed down to the lowest interface, in this case SATA2. The SATA3 on the drive just means the drive can go to 6 Gbps, it doesn't have to.

Thirdly, SATA is an Intel Spec. If this was  truly an issue with the SATA interface, this would be a global problem with the Nahalem processors (Tylersburg chipset or whatever) and would be apparant with every single Intel-based computer. I've had no problems running SATA3 drives on an i7 sandybridge architecture with SATA1/2 ports.

I have a sneaking suspicision that this is related to the firmware on the hard drive. Also, the release date on that document is over a year old (02-2011), and in computing time that's a long time for manufacturers to get the firmware right and address issues.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

The document says to use an HP SATA III hard drive.

It doesn't say no SATA III hard drive will work.

DESCRIPTION

Third party 6Gb/sSATA hard disk drives are not supported on HP Workstations featuring only 1.5Gb/s (SATA Gen1) and 3Gb/s (SATA Gen2) SATA ports.
HP has worked with the hard disk drive vendors so that all 6Gbps SATA hard drives provided by HP will work on 3Gb/s and 1.5Gb/s ports.\

Let me get this straight...

You are concerned about the document.

I provide proof that a 3rd party SATA III hard drive doesn't work in my HP dc7800 business desktop, with symptoms just like the document described, and you say that doesn't make sense?

Well, it does to me.

HP is forcing you to buy one of their hard drives, or find a SATA II hard drive somewhere.

[serratedauto]

I'm saying from the theory of operation of SATA3, it doesn't make sense. SATA3 drives SHOULD be backwards compatible with SATA1/2 ports...

[serratedauto]

Nevermind, I found the Intel documentation for the ICH10R chipset where HP got their information for that tech note from. It's possible but certain functions (like sleep) won't work correctly

[Paul_Tikkanen]

OK, I agree with you there, but somehow HP has found a way to make things difficult.

I installed a WD Caviar Blue 320GB SATA III HDD in a Dell 530s which only has SATA II controllers.

That drive worked just fine and has for well over a year now.

All I'm saying is what happened to me was exactly what they said would happen in that advisory.

I swap the HP SATA III hard drive, and it works fine in my sata II controllered dc7800.

WD Caviar Black SATA III HDD works fine in my 8200 elite with the sata III controllers.

That is more than coincidental.

[Big_Dave]

Hi serratedauto,

That is an interesting advisory article.

I have used Hitachi and Samsung SATA III drives with five different HP consumer level PCs and laptops using the Intel SATA controller on SATA II ports without issues.One issue that I have encountered was using the OCZ Vertex III SSD in a HP DV9700t laptop.  That problem was resolved with a bios update to the Vertex III.  I also experienced issues with two Western Digital SATA III hard drives connected to custom ASUS SATA III motherboard and I had to return both drives due to failure to be recognized.  I replaced both drives with Hitachi SATA III drives.

I have seen at least one SSD vendor that doesn't guarantee that their SATA III SSD will work with a SATA I controller.

Intel has released a lot of driver updates but it also takes the PC manufacturer to release bios updates that also contain the Intel ROM code updates to correct issues. Of course, this means a lot of regression testing by the PC manufacturer.  I have seen Intel bios code past 11.6 and in the 14 range.  I do run Intel 11.6 drivers.

Depending on the SATA III hard drive being used, you might not "feel" the performance improvement but you will see a noticeble performance improvement with benchmark results. I tend to use SATA III hard drives with a 64 MB cache so I can maximize the SATA III speeds as much as possible.