Crucial M4 on a SATA2 Mobo... should I get a SATA 3 controller card?

[astro_man]

Just got myself a Crucial M4 128Gb on a SATA2 mobo (DFI Lanparty DK T2RS), and I am considering the purchase of a SATA3 (and USB3.0 if I can find such a card) controller card to fully use my Crucial M4.

Currently plugged in my mobo are:
Crucial M4 128Gb ssd
Seagate 250 GB HDD (Sata2)
WD Caviar Black 640GB HDD (Sata2)
LG dvd writer/combo drive
LG Blu-ray reader/combo drive

Does this quantity of things cap the Chipset's ability to transfer data (aside from the obvious sata3 ssd on the sata2 controller)

The Problem I have with the current mobo is the fact that I only have a PCI 1x slot, so no PCI 4x which would not cap bandwith .Any chance a controller card would benefit performance, at a decent price?

[Mook06]

sata 2 is 3Gbps
sata 3 is 6Gbps
PCIe 2.0 standard per-lane throughput 500 MB/s = 4Gbps
PCIe 1.0 standard's 250 MB/s = 2Gbps

so even if your PCIe 1x slot is 2.0 compliant, you will only gain 1Gbps at best, much less after overhead, doesnt sound like it would be worth the effort

[xxsashixx]

Depends if its worth it for you or not. I'd personally wouldn't since you stated you had no PCIe x4 slot, but really whats worth it for some people may not be for others.

My 2 cents.

[astro_man]

After calculations and various input from people around, I have come to the conclusion it is not worth it. I would rather put some money aside and get a decent system instead. That would mean a mobo/cpu/DDR3 combo. The rest of my PC is fine though. I would get something along the lines of a Z68 chipset/2500K/8Gb ram... but that is 500$ or more, so no upgrade for now. My X3110 will have to hold the fort for a few months more!

[SKYMTL]

If you could find one of these, it is a great option for a pretty low price:

NCIX.com - Buy ASUS U3S6 2x USB3.0 2x SATA 6GB/S PCI-E4 Add On Card - ASUS - U3S6 - in Canada

[astro_man]

From the manual:
PCI Express is a high bandwidth I/O infrastructure that possesses the ability to scale speeds by forming multiple lanes. The system board currently supports the physical layer of x1 and x16 lane widths. The x1 PCI Express lane suppor ts transfer rate of 2.5 Gigabytes (250MBbps) per second. The PCI Express architecture also provides a high performance graphics infrastructure by enhancing the capability of a x16 PCI Express lane to provide 4 Gigabytes per second transfer rate.

So this means that it is PCI Express 1.0...

[astro_man]

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

If you could find one of these, it is a great option for a pretty low price:

NCIX.com - Buy ASUS U3S6 2x USB3.0 2x SATA 6GB/S PCI-E4 Add On Card - ASUS - U3S6 - in Canada

Yeah, that is the card I was looking at... but I can't seem to find stock, and with the calculations of bandwith limitation, I don't think it quite makes sense to pay 50$ (taxes + shipping) for something that is not really going to help performance.

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by astro_man

Yeah, that is the card I was looking at... but I can't seem to find stock, and with the calculations of bandwith limitation, I don't think it quite makes sense to pay 50$ (taxes + shipping) for something that is not really going to help performance.

1Gbps upstream and downstream is "limited"? That's an x4 add in card there.

[astro_man]

Yeah, but the Slot in which I would be putting it is a 1x of PCIe 1.0

[AkG]

then it wont fit. it needs an x4 (unless you are good at cutting). No free x8 slot? x4s work fine in x8 or x16 slots :)
If you dont...take the hit use he m4 on your sata 2 onboard ICH and then later upgrade the system and get a free performance boost. :)

YMMV