XPS8300 Came With Incorrect HD ??

Hello!  So a SATA 6 HDD has a theoretical throughput of 750MB/s, while a SATA 3 is 375MB/s.  Real world usage of HDD systems give you about 200MB/s speed so your probably not missing much.  As to why Dell may have done this, if you purchased new from Dell its possible they had a bunch of SATA 2 drives laying around in stock they needed to get rid of.  

Was this from their Outlet site?

Or, was the SATA III HDD an extra cost option that you didn't order...???

I wouldn't worry about it. All hard drives are inherently slow, and SATA II is more than enough bandwidth.

SATA ii HDDs are compatible with SATA III ports so just because  the PC came with a SATA II drive does not mean it is incorrect. It is only incorrect if your purchase order/computer specs specifically says you are supposed to get a SATA III drive.

Thank you all for your replies. Given the specs for my current drive and PC (XPS 8300) would I see a big improvement if I were to replace the current drive with a SSD ?

                     ST31500341AS

                   Manufacturer    Seagate

                   Form Factor    3.5"

                   Heads    16

                   Cylinders    182,401

                   Tracks    46,512,255

                   Sectors    2,930,272,065

                   SATA type    SATA-II 3.0Gb/s

You  should see an improvement in boot time and application load times. Because of the cost of an SSD, you will probably not be completely replacing the HDD with an SSD of similar size so you will have to have both and manage the storage of programs and data between the SSD and the HDD.

Thank you. Yes I did intend to keep the old drive as a storage drive after replacing it with a SSD as my main OS drive.

Yes you have an old SATAII HDD. My XPS 8300... upgraded to have 3 drives... I think the originals were SATAII 5400 RPM drives.

SSD attached to SATA 0:

Heads 16
Cylinders 60,801
Tracks 15,504,255
Sectors 976,768,065
SATA type SATA-III 6.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ACS3
Serial Number 14520E6594A5
Firmware Version Number MU01
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 515 times
Power On Time 306.6 days
Speed Not used (SSD Drive)
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, NCQ, TRIM, SSD
Max. Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Used Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Interface SATA
Capacity 465 GB
Real size 500,107,862,016 bytes
RAID Type None

HDD attached to SATA 1:

ST2000DM001-1CH164
Manufacturer Seagate
Heads 16
Cylinders 243,201
Tracks 62,016,255
Sectors 3,907,024,065
SATA type SATA-III 6.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA8-ACS
Serial Number W1E5681K
Firmware Version Number CC46
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 650 times
Power On Time 573.8 days
Speed 7200 RPM
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, NCQ
Max. Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Used Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Interface SATA
Capacity 1863 GB
Real size 2,000,398,934,016 bytes
RAID Type None

HDD attached to SATA2:

Manufacturer Seagate
Heads 16
Cylinders 243,201
Tracks 62,016,255
Sectors 3,907,024,065
SATA type SATA-III 6.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ACS2
Serial Number W4Z2MM6K
Firmware Version Number CC46
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 457 times
Power On Time 381.4 days
Speed 7200 RPM
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, NCQ
Max. Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Used Transfer Mode SATA II 3.0Gb/s
Interface SATA
Capacity 1863 GB
Real size 2,000,398,934,016 bytes
RAID Type None