WD 64000AAKS - jumper for SATA II 3.0Gb/s speeds?

Blondie · Post by **Blondie** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 9:24 am

I just read some Newegg reviews for the Western Digital 6400AAKS that talk about a jumper modification being required to get SATA II 3.0Gb/s speeds.

"Other Thoughts: the jumper on the drive isn't to enable sata 300, its to enable sata 150 for backwards compatibility and all sata 300 drives have them not just wd's and it is pretty lame that it doesnt include the jumper but that didn't affect me"

AND

"Cons: You must remove jumper to get SATA 2.0 @ 3.0Gb/s. Jumper is fragile and required a little work to get it loose."

Is this true? One review implies that a jumper must be added and the other implies one must be removed. I don't see a jumper on the rear of the drive. How do I see the actual transfer speed of my 6400AAKS? I looked in the BIOS and the only thing I saw that seemed related to hard drive performance was that the drive is set to Enhanced mode. Sorry, this is my first PC build so I am not well versed in this subject.

BTW, the mobo is a Foxconn P45A-S, if that is relevant.

Thanks!

porkchop · Post by **porkchop** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 2:47 pm

i remember that some of my older wd drives required a jumper to set the drive to sata1, the default was sata2- i believe this is industry standard.

strangely enough my aug-2008 wd6400aacs doesn't have such settings on the sticker, i'm assuming that the drive is now smart enough to decide on it's own... or maybe it's simply not sata1 compatible.

anyways- i'd take newegg reviews with a grain of salt.

edit- to check hdd speed, use hddtach or something similar- the only difference between sata 1 and 2 will be the burst speed though.

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 3:43 pm

No jumper (ususally the default) and it's in SATA II mode, jumper and it's SATA I.

That the way it's been with all my SATA II HDDs and it's the way it is according to WD.

Blondie · Post by **Blondie** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 6:47 pm

Thank you for clearing that up. I realize that Newegg can be a fountain of erroneous information, but it seemed like something to double check.

Cryoburner · Post by **Cryoburner** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 7:59 pm

Yes, no jumper is needed for 3Gb SATA connections. Most 1.5Gb connections shouldn't require a jumper either, but some earlier SATA motherboards, like my own, do require one. My 6400AAKS didn't include a jumper, so I had a swipe a spare off my video card. : )