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tft10

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hello everyone,

I have a 2010 MacBook Pro with a SATA II (3gbps) port. I am looking to upgrade my stock HDD to an Intel 510 SSD (which is SATA III). I know that I will not get all the complete benefits of a SATA III connection, but I may swap this drive out to a computer that does support SATA III in the future (a little more money is not a big deal for me). I just want to know if there are any performance issues if I plugged in a SATA III device in a SATA II port. I've read mixed responses arguing that it will work perfectly fine (like plugging a USB 3.0 device in a USB 2.0 port) while others claim that a SATA II SSD will perform best on a SATA II port and that using a SATA III device on a SATA II port will cause problems. I just want to receive a definitive answer before making any purchase. Thank you!
 
Really its personal choice above all else, but after reading around, I personally decided to just go for a SATA II drive, even though I'm getting the 2011 mbp w/ 6gb/s. The SATA III devices just seemed a little too hit or miss at this point. I figure prices are only going to come down over time, and once all the SATA III bugs are ironed out, I can always upgrade then (and probably even get a larger capacity!)

Good luck
 
It will work fine, you can use SATAII ports with SATAIII devices, or vice versa. It will just operate at the slower speed.
 
SATA III will work fine.

Crucial M4 with firmware 2 works great with low power consumption.

Samsung 470 and Kingstons V+ 100 have better garbage collection, in case you don't want to use the TRIM hack.
 
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