Is the Envy 17-j099nr SATA III 6Gbps capable

[johnst1e]

I'd like to know for certain if the Envy 17-j099nr supports SATA III 6Gbps. The factory installed HDD is SATA II 3Gbps.

Can anyone confirm or deny.

I'd like to get a new SSD but paying the cost of the computer for a SATA III drive that only operates at half speed would probably stop me.

Thanks

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

The Mobile Intel Series 8 chipset your notebook has supports SATA III drives at the SATA III speed.

However, what is unknown is if HP connected the hard drive to a SATA III port.

I have zipped up and attached a free utility that should let you know the speed of the controller, below.

Run the utility and close out of the summary window.

On the left side of the program window, click to expand the Drives category.

Then click on the SATA ATAPI drives section.

Then click on model hard drive you see listed.

The first listing (Drive Controller) will tell you the speed of the Hard drive and the speed of the controller.

[johnst1e]

I ran HWiNFO.

When I click on the drives section and then click on my HDD the information for "drive controller" reads

  Serial ATA 3Gb/s @ 3Gb/s

So that says that the controller is SATA II.

Is it possible that the controller could be SATA III and HWiNFO is just saying that because an SATA II HDD is connected?

I guess I'm asking can I take the HWiNFO report as being 100% correct? 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

It could very well be (not 100% correct).

When I run it on mine, (and I know I have a SATA III hard drive on my PC with a SATA II controller), it reports SATA 6.0 @ 3.0 GBPS.

When I run it on my PC's with SATA III hard drives and SATA III controllers, it reports SATA 6.0 @ 6.0 GBPS

In any event, a SATA III SSD running on a SATA II port still runs circles around a mechanical hard drive.

I even have a SATA III SSD running on a SATA I port, and it runs pretty darn good.

I have a couple SATA III SSD's running on SATA II ports and, they run really good.

I have a few SATA III SSD's running on SATA III ports, and of course, they run the best.

Let me put it this way, I wouldn't hesitate for a moment putting a SATA III SSD in any PC.

You can always move it to a newer model in the future.

Here's the specs on the HM 87 chipset...It can have up to 4 SATA 6.0 ports.

http://ark.intel.com/products/75528

Shame on HP if they didn't connect the primary hard drive to a SATA 6.0 Port!

[johnst1e]

The Envy 17-j099nr does connect at SATA III 6Gbps speeds to SATA III drives.  I went out and bought a new SATA III drive and installed it. Then confirmed that it connected at SATA III speed with HWINFO.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Thanks for confirming that the drive controller the HDD is connected to is SATA III.