strange hard drive question

[rdsii64]

I have a 2008 8 core mac pro. If I am correct, this computer only supports SATA II and a max drive capacity of 2T. My question is that If I install a 2T SATA III drive, will it (a)function at SATA II speeds, or (b) not function at all?

 

[Gav Mack]

I have a 2008 8 core mac pro. If I am correct, this computer only supports SATA II and a max drive capacity of 2T. My question is that If I install a 2T SATA III drive, will it (a)function at SATA II speeds, or (b) not function at all?

I've partitioned a 3tb drive on my 3,1 2008 only the other day using 10.8.5 with no problems at all. My MP came with an apple raid card which has been removed because that card can't support drives larger than 2.2tb. The onboard ports will function at SATA 2 speeds fine which for a mechanical hard drive is more than adequate for use. Only when you install a SATA 3 SSD will you hit the bottleneck which is why I've ordered an Apricorn velocity solo x2 PCIe card to boot my SSD in OSX and windows with SATA3.

 

[Dark Dragoon]

- A SATA III drive will function at SATA II speeds in your machine, though its worth noting that if its a mechanical hard drive there will also be no difference in performance as a mechanical drive wont max out the SATA II connection anyway.

- The 2TB limit is just what was available at the time, higher capacity drives should work fine. I think the capacity limit is only a problem is if you are using the Apple RAID add-on card.

 

[rdsii64]

thanks

- A SATA III drive will function at SATA II speeds in your machine, though its worth noting that if its a mechanical hard drive there will also be no difference in performance as a mechanical drive wont max out the SATA II connection anyway.

- The 2TB limit is just what was available at the time, higher capacity drives should work fine. I think the capacity limit is only a problem is if you are using the Apple RAID add-on card.

This is what I wanted to hear. All the decent drives are up to date data III drives.