▷ Sata 2 vs sata 3: differences between both versions?

With the amount of data we use and store every day, all aspects of data storage become extremely important, including the highest transfer rates between storage devices. These days, hard drives are often replaced by SSDs for a big boost in these transfer rates, but getting the best data delivery may take a little more configuration.

Index of contents

What is the SATA connection and what are the differences between its versions

SATA (Serial ATA) is an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) standard, which basically for consumers means plugs, connectors and cables that allow storage devices like HDD, SSD and optical drives to connect to the motherboard, which allows data transfer. Many people can still remember huge ribbon cables on older PCs, which were PATA (Parallel ATA) cables, which have been gradually replaced by SATA cables since the early 2000s.

As with all technology, the SATA interface has gone through a few iterations to conform to modern standards. SATA has had 3 notable versions so far. Aside from a few minor differences, such as NCQ (Native Command Queuing, introduced in SATA 2.0) that allows hard drives to go through commands faster, the main difference between SATA versions 2.0 and 3.0 is the speed of data transfer that can provide. SATA 1.0 is almost extinct these days, as there are no new computers using this connection, so there is nothing special to discuss on this cable, other than the development of SATA is fully started. The three versions of connectors and cables are compatible with each other, just like USB.

SATA version	Speed
SATA 1.0	1.5 Gb / s
SATA 2.0	3 Gb / s
SATA 3.0	6 Gb / s

eSATA is a SATA interface located outside the PC

The basic SATA connectors are located inside the PC and allow you to connect only internal storage devices. To try to improve the functionality, eSATA (external-SATA) emerged, which became quite popular in the early years. eSATA, apart from general durability and better protection against external electromagnetic fields, is simply a normal SATA connector located on the back of a PC, similar to USB connectors. This allows external storage devices to be connected to the PC. The eSATA socket is basically connected to its SATA interface on the motherboard, so the version of eSATA you can get depends on which one your motherboard supports.

No difference between SATA 2 VS SATA 3 cables

All of these different standards, connectors, and speeds can be a bit confusing, but the part that people are most concerned about when working with the SATA interface is quite simple. All internal SATA cables are not only compatible, but also the same in all versions. For example, you could use what is labeled SATA 1.0 cable with a SATA 3.0 device and motherboard and not lose any transfer speed, which basically means that "SATA III cable" is basically a marketing term to make it sound new and better.

Intel 520 480GB	Reading speed	Write speed
SATA 2	504.8 MB / s	504 MB / s
SATA 3	414.7 MB / s	414.1 MB / s

However, this does not mean that the ports of different versions of SATA do not reduce speeds. For example, a SATA 3.0 hard drive connected to a SATA 2.0 port can lose a great deal of speed due to the bottleneck on the side of the motherboard. Therefore, you can use any SATA cable you already have to connect to your SATA port, but make sure your motherboard can handle the version of SATA that your chosen hard drive can. You can check the SATA version of your motherboard in its manual.

eSATA, on the other hand, has its own connector to ensure signal shielding, better signal transfer, and increased durability outside the PC case, so the eSATA connection is not SATA compatible. While the cable itself is different, the same principle as with SATA cables applies here as well: There is no version for an eSATA cable, different cable versions do not affect its transfer speeds.

SATA does not provide power to devices through its data cables, so SATA drives often use 15-pin connectors that are used to supply power. Devices can also use a Molex connector for power. This is a more square white connector with 4 large pins. When it comes to external hard drives, many of them use USB ports for power.

Final Summary SATA II VS SATA III

SATA is the connection made specifically to connect storage devices to the PC, making it the top choice of manufacturers. SATA 2.0 provides half the speed of SATA 3.0: 3Gb / s vs. 6Gb / s, respectively. The only other difference is Native Command Queuing.When buying a SATA or eSATA storage device, make sure that the SATA version of your motherboard can handle the version that device has. There is no difference between the cables of different versions, that is, the SATA 3.0 cable is the same as the SATA 2.0 cable, the eSATA 3.0 cable is the same as the eSATA 2.0 cable.

We recommend reading the following tutorials and guides:

This ends our article on SATA 2 vs SATA 3, we hope you found it very useful.