So im sure this is a dumb question, but i have two seperate HD's, one is a 160gb that i use as the primary drive with vista on it that is operating at 1.5gb/s and the second is a 500gb that operates at 3gb/s that functions as a storage device with no prorgrams installed to it. first off hwo does windows tell which is drive is master/slave? is that not around anymore with sata? secondly can i have both drives at 3gb/s? they can both operate at that and they are they are by the same maker, and are in the same series. Beast Desktop Intel Q6600 G0 @ 2.4ghz Evga 680i Evga 8800GTS 640mb/320bit 4096mb corsair 1x 160gb | 1x 500gb 750w corsair psu

No master slave. Each drive has it's own channel with SATA. If both drives are 3.0GB/s capable, and both are connected to a motherboard or card that supports 3.0GB/s, both should automatically operate at that speed. What leads you to believe one isn't? -Ryan Adams Computer Tips, Guides, Downloads, and more:http://RyanTAdams.com

There's little appreciable performance difference between SATA 150 & SATA 300. And just for clarification, it's 1.5Gbits/sec (150MB/s) & 3.0Gbits/sec (300MB/s). There is no master/slave for SATA devices...there can be only one device per channel.

Wow thankyou for such a quick reply. i believe the 160gb is only operating in 1.5Gbits/sec because theirs a jumper like the old IDE drives, and on the drive has a little blurb saying that if the jumpers their its only gonna operate in 1.5Gbits/sec, not 3Gbits/sec. The 500gb has a spot for the jumper, and also has the same blurb, however their is not one present. Beast Desktop Intel Q6600 G0 @ 2.4ghz Evga 680i Evga 8800GTS 640mb/320bit 4096mb corsair 1x 160gb | 1x 500gb 750w corsair psu

Remove the limiting jumper! But you will not see any remarkable difference...unless you are copying some large files from or to the drive. Then it shows it copied a tad bit faster. The jumper was installed to cover older motherboards using SATA I... the 3.0gbs setting is for newer boards using the SATA II protocol. If you have the older SATA I board it is backward compatable and will only run with the 1.5 interface. In The Matters Of Style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, Stand Like A Rock "People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid."

The 1.5 and 3.0gb is the maximum theoretical 'interface' speed. That has nothing to do with the hard drive speed. Drives these days have a problem even reachng 1.0 gb throughput speed.