How long do you think it will take for IDE (parallel ATA) to disappear?

[mooojojojo]

I've been wondering.. I want to get another hard drive (80GB is getting really tight for me 🙂 ) but I don't have serial ATA ports in my PC. And I wouldn't want to get a 120-160GB drive that I'll have to give up in 2 years. So if I get a 160GB IDE hard drive, how long do you think it will take for it to become obsolete and unusable in a new system?

 

[Ionizer86]

I'd say the transition would take a little bit, maybe 2-3 years. Remember how long ISA stuck around after Pentium boards started coming with both PCI and ISA? I've even seen some P4 Wilamette boards with an ISA slot on it.

 

[JBT]

It'll be awhile I think they havn't even release sata optical drives yet. You will probably be safe for another 5 years I bet.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Heh heh..Ionizer86 beat me to the ISA comment.
:beer:

 

[MangoTBG]

You have absolutely no need to worry at all. IDE is way too cheap (yet, seemingly not cheap enough when you're a college student 😀) for it to be phased out quickly. Not until SATA is close to the same prices as IDE is now will IDE be phased out. (IMO)

 

[InlineFive]

IDE is a great budget. The addition of Syncronous Transfers and Tagged Queuing with my PATA-to-SATA adapter has made my Maxtor DiamondMax 9+ all the snappier. Of course it's not as fast as a Raptor but for it's price I think it performs very competitively.

-Por

 

[psyeudkev]

Consumer side might be a bit faster, maybe 4-5 years. I wouldn't bet on it though, there's definitely quite a stock of IDE drives out there still I suppose.

Corporate side, IDE might go on for a while. Think costs...

 

[Breezie]

i agree- IDE will stick around for many more years - like what are they gonna do with CD ROMS and stuff without IDE in general?

 

[EeyoreX]

i agree- IDE will stick around for many more years - like what are they gonna do with CD ROMS and stuff without IDE in general?

I agree also, IDE will be around a long while yet. My guess is at least 5 years. too many people have spent money on computers to run out and buy new ones for SATA. Lets leave the enthusiasts out of this for the moment. When John Q. Dell-Bought Computer needs a new/upgraded hard drive, he'll need IDE. I disagree with optical drives being a big problem. I hear you can use PATA -> SATA adapters for optical drives (I have never tried) and the answer is simple to the "what are they gonna do" question: They are going to release SATA optical drives. My guess is that by mid- to late-2004 we should see a few of them on the market.

\Dan

 

[Gerbil333]

PATA won't dissapear until SATA CD & DVD drives appear and the major system builders (Dell, HP/Compaq) begin using SATA. Otherwise, the prices are going to remain high, and it's going to feel like a proprietary technology. I'll give it about a year until we start noticing the gradual change to SATA.

My Western Digital WD400JB (40gb, 8mb cache) hd died last week. I was considering selling the RMA'ed drive and buying a new SATA hd, but when I saw the prices for the Raptors, and then the reviews, I decided to stick with my PATA drive. My replacement WD400JB will be here Thursday, so I'll still be using PATA for a while. I may upgrade next year.