Is ATA/100 or SATA 3.0 Gb/s better?

[Crazymex]

My mobo supports both drives, but I dont know which type of HDD to buy. Also what are the disadvantages of buying OEM?

 

[MustISO]

The only difference with OEM is that it comes with no cables or screws. That's usually the only difference. Occasionally the warranty will be different, some times for the better.
If you can use SATA, use that.

 

[Crazymex]

alright

thank you

 

[alpha88]

Both perform the same (more or less). SATA has significantly better cables, is cheaper, and is the logical choice for future proofing.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: alpha88
Both perform the same (more or less). SATA has significantly better cables, is cheaper, and is the logical choice for future proofing.

but with those "better" cables, there is a risk of breaking off the connector on the hdd.

op - get whatever is a better deal $$$ wise and be careful with the cables

 

[mshan]

Unless you are going to use both IDE channels up with optical drives, I would get a PATA hard drives because then there isn't the potential for needing SATA drivers on a floppy disk during Windows install.

For maximal reading and writing from optical drive, I think you would want the drive(s) you would be using to be on a separate channel than your system hard drive. I have three optical drives spread out on the two IDE channels, so I benefited from using a SATA hard drive (in some way).

Even now, you may not saturate the ATA100 spec with current hard drives (unless in RAID I guess).

Other main argument for SATA drives is the thin cables, which is supposed to help promote air flow in the case.

 

[EffeX]

Wait where do u get the screws if they dont come with the hdd????

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: mshan
Unless you are going to use both IDE channels up with optical drives, I would get a PATA hard drives because then there isn't the potential for needing SATA drivers on a floppy disk during Windows install.

Thing is that most AM2 and Conroe boards are shipping with a single IDE channel, which means that there are precious few PATA ports to go around. Since there is only one PATA channel you will have slighlty impared performance reading/writing from the optical drive to the PATA HD on the same channel (as you said).

I don't think (correct me if i'm wrong) that the SATA drivers on a floppy is a common occurance with current motherboards? I thought that it was more of an issue with older boards/BIOSes.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Originally posted by: alpha88
Both perform the same (more or less). SATA has significantly better cables, is cheaper, and is the logical choice for future proofing.

SATA>PATA for the future.

 

[GML3G0]

Originally posted by: EffeX
Wait where do u get the screws if they dont come with the hdd????

You should get some with the case.

 

[mshan]

I haven't upgraded from Nforce2 yet.

Do all of the Nforce4 mobos (I'm specifically looking at the MSI mATX 6150 mobo) allow you to install Windows on a SATA hard drive without drivers on a floppy disk?

 

[MustISO]

My NForce3 installed on an SATA drive without drivers (XP SP2). The drivers should only be needed for some RAID devices.

 

[imported_goku]

If you can get an SATA drive for cheap, go ahead and get it but if you're going to install an OS on it, it can be a pain because you have to load up SATA controller drivers before installing XP otherwise XP wont detect the drive. IDE drives in general can be found for cheaper and the performance difference is usually negligble, SATA does have a future though so it's really up to you. For simply a data drive, SATA is nice if you like the plug and play functionality that it supposedly gives you (never have tested the removal of the power plug).