Buying a new HD: SATA or IDE ??

[LBJackal]

I need to buy a new hard drive, and I'm looking at either a SeaGate or Maxtor 250/300GB. But I'm not sure to get SATA or IDE (PATA). I'd go with SATA but I'm not sure if I have the right connections in my computer. I'm pretty sure I don't but I don't know if I can just get a SATA cable and use that (I'm a noob when it comes to hardware). Any recommendations? Should I just stick with IDE since I know I can easily install it myself? Or are there great advantages to SATA (other than the longer cable length which isn't an issue since it's internal)?

Any help is appreciated.

[Loco]

More info, please. People can't know what to recommend if they don't know whether your hardware can support a SATA HDD. Like an Abit or Asus board over the last couple of years would come with both a couple of PATA connections and a couple of SATA connections.

In my case, I would futureproof a little and buy a SATA drive that might be able to make the transition to a new computer later, but then there are SATA2 drives now. Damn

[LBJackal]

Well that's the thing, I don't know more information

So if I have slots for SATA or SATA2 I should go with that then? Price is really no different, it's only $6 more to go with SATA2 instead of IDE. My computer isn't the greatest but it gets by, although I can see myself in a year or two upgrading to a whole new system once my bank account will allow it.

I guess the next step is to see if I have slots for SATA or SATA2 (the slots for the two versions of SATA are different I presume) and I probably have neither since the computer was bought new in the summer of '03. Damn... might just go with the IDE since it's so simple. Will it really be obsolete, as in newer computers won't be coming with IDE slots? Again, sorry for thre lack of information, but I really have no clue when it comes to motherboards. The only reason I know how to attach something with IDE is because I just installed a new DVD burner not too long ago.

[JugaJatt]

i would definitly go with sata2. The only difference between ide and sata is the transfer rate. Sata2 is at the top, BUT make sure u got sata slots.

[rabbit]

I'm not sure to get SATA or IDE (PATA). I'd go with SATA but I'm not sure if I have the right connections in my computer.

So open up your computer and look. Use your favourite search engine to find photos of SATA and IDE connectors.

IDE -> http://www.mikeshardware.com/howtos/...ct_ide_hd.html

[LBJackal]

^I know I don't have the cables, but I'm not sure if I have a spot on my MB to attach a SATA cable.

OK I've looked into it a bit... apparently the only real difference is in the cables. The possible transfer rate of SATA2 is 300 MB/s but physically, no drive can work at over 50 MB/s due to a bottleneck, so the increase does not help at all, except when moving data in the cache which is only 16 MB anyway. I read that the only advantage, other than it's the "new thing" is that SATA and SATA2 have longer and skinnier cables which is good for cooling purposes, or if you have external drives, neither of which is a real issue for me. I might just go with IDE and be safe, since I know my MB is compatible with it and it's easy to install.

And thanks for the help guys. I knew nothing about this stuff before a few hours ago.

[ipxxx]

Personally, I would go with a Seagate Drive over a Maxtor or Western Digital. Most Seagate drives offer a 5 year warranty [check into it] and are much more reliable than the competitors. I've had Maxtor/WD drives in the past and they failed on me after a year. I'm running 3 Seagate drives at the moment, 1x 120GB IDE [different machine], 1x 160GB SATA and 1x 300GB SATAII [in the same machine].

Something to note: I have an old ASUS A7V-600X that supports only SATA, my SATAII drive could not be recognized, and would not allow the system to boot. I'm unsure about other manufacturers but the Seagate 300GB SATAII drive has jumpers which allow you to put the drive at SATA mode [and this drive is $135]. So...if you're considering IDE vs SATA I'd go with SATA since you're [as one user described it] futureproofing yourself.

There are many ways to find out the model of your motherboard. Asus boards for example print the model on the board itself between the PCI slots. After you have this information, a google search will determine whether or not your board supports SATA.

Hope this helps.
Take care~

[Jon Lai]

^^ agree with you.

Before, Seagate drives are harder to find at lower prices than Maxtor and W.D. because of demand, but now that more people are looking for Seagate drives, their prices have come to be able to compete with the other two brands. In that situation, Seagate is definately a better choice when they cost the same.

About IDE vs SATA, yes, the skinner cable is a plus, but most SATA drives also have NCQ, native command queuing (?), which means the drive will wait for more data that needs to be processed in one end of the disk before doing so. Kinda like car pooling, you wait for a friend or you pick up a few more friends before going to your destination. This will help large processing like loads of a server.

Beware, though, that for a SATA drive, you'll need a SATA cable and a SATA power cable, which should cost you around $10-$15 together.

[Daijoubu]

The only good thing about SATA is better air flow
The extra transfer speed is useless and NCQ is only good in IO intensive server environment
You don't want to enable it in a single user PC

Some benchmarks even shows slight performance drop with SATA vs PATA...

[ipxxx]

Beware, though, that for a SATA drive, you'll need a SATA cable and a SATA power cable, which should cost you around $10-$15 together.

I agree that the SATA cable is a must [assuming first that the board supports SATA] but some SATA drives [non Seagate from what I could tell] also have the old molex power connection w/ the SATA power connection. So one should look into that as well. Most newer cases/power supplies nowadays would have a SATA power connector anyways [and most newer motherboards will come with SATA cables] but this is besides the point [as the original poster seems to have older equipment] but sample prices can be found at:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index...672&cid=CA.865
(Molex -> SATA)

And then you're good to go!

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index...674&cid=CA.742
(SATA cable)

[woof]

Since your computer is 3 years old it almost certainly does not support SATA. I believe the first desktop systems supporting SATA began to appear in 2003 but they were very rare.

[PSiBeR]

If you're PC does not support SATA, and you have no ports. You can always just get a SATA controller card. Although I'm not sure if performance will be any different than onboard SATA.

[LBJackal]

Alright I went ahead and got a SeaGate 7200.9 300GB. It was only $126 with $9 express shipping, hard to resist

Thanks for all the help.

[xwar]

Alright I went ahead and got a SeaGate 7200.9 300GB. It was only $126 with $9 express shipping, hard to resist

Thanks for all the help.

Sweet, nice choice. Seagate's got the best warranty out there.

[anabeces]

The only good thing about SATA is better air flow
The extra transfer speed is useless and NCQ is only good in IO intensive server environment
You don't want to enable it in a single user PC

Some benchmarks even shows slight performance drop with SATA vs PATA...

this guy is the winner.