S-ata Vs Ide

Woden · 01-09-2003 5:31pm #1

As mentioned in some other threads will be getting new p.c soon and i'm trying to do my homework. Just wondering:

should i get a S-ATA HDD or an IDE one?
What are the benefits for me?
will they translate to real performance benefits?
Can anyone recommend an actual drive?
Is there illuminous S-ATA cables like the rounded IDE ones?

Cheers

Data

Dempsey · 01-09-2003 6:28pm

Dunno about S-ATA vs IDE

But for sheer speed.

Creamy Goodness · 01-09-2003 6:31pm

there is only one type of cable for sata and they are tiny. they are like the flat ide cables but are only about 1cm wide.

maybe in the future there will be illuminous ones

Ruaidhri · 01-09-2003 6:34pm

Originally posted by Dempsey
Dunno about S-ATA vs IDE

But for sheer speed.

Heh! i will have this hard drive tomorrow(come on DHL!)

If You want i'll tell you if it's fast.
i'll be moving from SCSI to Sata so if there is a performance boost i'll let you know(it was this drive or SCSI u320 from me,i want performance)

Dempsey · 01-09-2003 7:04pm

Originally posted by Ruaidhri
Heh! i will have this hard drive tomorrow(come on DHL!)

If You want i'll tell you if it's fast.
i'll be moving from SCSI to Sata so if there is a performance boost i'll let you know(it was this drive or SCSI u320 from me,i want performance)

***Dempsey calls over to Ruaidhri house to sleep at his letterbox:D ***

dazberry · 01-09-2003 7:10pm

should i get a S-ATA HDD or an IDE one?
SATA because its a newer standard. IDE has reached the end of its lifecycle, and I doubt we'll see many more (if any) innovations on the PATA end of things.

What are the benefits for me?
As above. Plus as mentioned the cables are longer and thinner, which gives you more options in your case and improves airflow.

will they translate to real performance benefits?
Probably not at this stage, or at least not in real-world terms.
My guess is that second generation SATA drives (and ultimately interfaces - SATA 2 = 300MB/s) will improve performance, but at this point I'd guess there'd be very little either way between (P)ATA/133 and SATA/150. The other issue is the PCI bus has an maximum transfer rate of 133MB/s, and until that is surpassed I doubt you'll see any raw transfer benefits unless using a mirrored RAID system.

The only downside to this is that you'll pay more for your drive than a parallel ata drive. This will change over time, but not yet.

D.

Inspector Gadget · 01-09-2003 7:24pm

S-ATA is probably easier; neater cables (easier to route), no jumpers (plug 'n' play), higher max. theoretical transfer rate (150 MB/s as opposed to 133MB/s; doesn't matter a whole pile ATM as no drives on the market even come close to half of either number except in bursts from the cache)

However, the lack of S-ATA CD/DVD drives is a bit of a limiting factor for now; however, this should probably be short-lived.

As regards illuminated S-ATA cables, I've seem 'em... let me check... yep, Sharkoon (.de) offer them; don't know where you'd find a dealer that stocks 'em though.

HTH,
Gadget

Creamy Goodness · 01-09-2003 7:30pm

when i bought my abit ic7-g it came with a ide to sata converter i was wondering would it format my ide hard drive if i use the seriell(the name abit give to the converter thingy) thingy.?

conZ · 01-09-2003 7:32pm

Read this S-ATA Hard drive round-up.

The Western Digital Raptor comes out on top, followed by the 250gig Western Digital (i'm ordering the 120gig WD s-ATA Hard Drive with 8mb cache). The Seagate comes in third, followed by the Samsung and Maxtor.

The Maxtor Sata HDD got a very bad review.

Creamy Goodness · 01-09-2003 7:38pm

do sata drives take normal power connecters?

sry i'm a total newbie when it comes to hard drives

Inspector Gadget · 01-09-2003 7:44pm

Yep.

Otherwise, the PSUs would have to be changed - this would be bad and expensive (as well as for no defensible reason as there's nothing technically wrong with the existing ones)

Gadget

Creamy Goodness · 01-09-2003 7:51pm

cheers for reply i might go and get this drive http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&AvdID=1&CatID=9&p=34432&view=detailed

also i just found this ---> http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/sata_cables.html

what the thing at the top for if a normal power supply will power a sata drive?

BigEejit · 01-09-2003 7:53pm

Originally posted by Cr3m0
do sata drives take normal power connecters?
sry i'm a total newbie when it comes to hard drives

I have the seagate 120GB SATA drive and it has the SATA powewr interface ... my motherboard came with 2 converters so I had no problem....

conZ · 01-09-2003 7:54pm

Current S-ATA Hard Drives come with power connectors you stick into IDE Hard drive power connectors.

Power Supplies have just been made that have the S-ata connectors instead of the regular connectors.,

Yea, my motherboard came with two of the PSU convertors aswell.
I'd say you'll get one with the Sata HDD aswell.

Inspector Gadget · 01-09-2003 7:58pm

Okay, _that_'s a new one on me - sorry.

I can't understand why they'd bother - after all, it's still a +12 and +5 supply, with separate grounds... all they're doing is rearranging the pinout. Why??? The only reason I can think of is that standard HDD plugs/sockets can be difficult to remove when they've heated/cooled a few times...

Again, sorry... I don't remember anyone mentioning that in any of the reviews I've read on the subject...
(A slightly sheepish) Gadget

conZ · 01-09-2003 8:04pm

Yea, I suppose they just made them for comfort, eventually looking to make total S-ata PSU's (when Optical drives become Sata and IDE HDD's are eventually phased out).

BTW, I cant find the link to the PSU atm, but afaik, there was only one or two s-ata power connectors on it, the rest being regular IDE.

Creamy Goodness · 01-09-2003 8:07pm

the sata connecters look at lot easier to pull them out of the hard drive.

it's the one thing i hate about power supplies them connecters are a pain in the a$$ to pull out of a drive

conZ · 01-09-2003 8:13pm

Also, the S-ata cables, as mentioned, are way thinner and darker.

It's a bitch looking into a PC and seeing these big white cables all over the place.

It's also a bitch trying to take out drives that are blocked by IDE cables. The cable has to be take out to get the drive in-between out. S-Ata is the way to go.

I'm getting rid of my 10 and 20gig IDE Drives, keeping my 180gig (because it's full of movies and the like) and getting a 120gig s-ata. I'll eventually try to offload the 180gig and get another 120gig s-ata.

Sir Random · 02-09-2003 8:35am

Using SATA gives no real performance boost but leaves more room for air circulation and frees up an IDE controller.
If you want fast HD access/performance, you need to get a pair of drives and set them up in a RAID0 (striped) configuration.

Both drives will be configured to work as a single large drive.
e.g.
2x40Gb HD with RAID0 = 1x80Gb HD (at nearly twice the speed)
The downside is that if either drive crashes, all data is lost.

Woden · 02-09-2003 8:37am

Thanks for all the information people

Conz i was thinking of that 120gb Western Digital one also its not that much dearer then its ide counterpart.

If the only performance boost is air circulation i'll take that, but i thought rounded ide cables solved some of them problems as well as the problems with the aesthetics?

Creamy Goodness · 02-09-2003 1:55pm

think i might get this and then convert my 120gig to sata using the convertor i got with my IC7-G

Kali · 02-09-2003 2:09pm

Originally posted by Cr3m0
think i might get this and then convert my 120gig to sata using the convertor i got with my IC7-G

Why would you want to use an existing IDE drive with an SATA interface? (presuming your 120Gb is IDE).

Woden · 02-09-2003 2:30pm

its nice alright Cr3mo but i don't think its worth it for the size of the drive regardsless of the rpm. i'd prefare the larger storage capacity

astrofool · 02-09-2003 3:31pm

smaller cables kali

also free's up more of the traditional ide ports for cd-roms etc., if u have more than one device connected to each cable, the slower one slows down the faster device.

Raptor's are excellent if u can afford them and have another drive for storage space

Sir Random · 02-09-2003 6:39pm

Originally posted by Cr3m0
think i might get this and then convert my 120gig to sata using the convertor i got with my IC7-G

How about getting a pair of them for an 80Gb striped RAID setup with the 120Gb as backup ? now that would be fast as ***t

Creamy Goodness · 02-09-2003 6:46pm

i'm getting that raptor one just for the o/s install then using my 120gig IDE drive as a backup.

the reason why i'm converting the ide to sata is that it frees up a IDE port so i can have a DVD player on one and a CD-RW on the other or some other combination.

S-ata Vs Ide

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