SATA or IDE?

[ricer dad]

My old CD/DVD player (Dell/NEC DV-5800A) has died and I want to replace it.
I have an ASUS P5N-E SLI mobo, E6300 Core2 duo, 2GB mem.
The old CD/DVD player is IDE, should I just replace it with another IDE or should I use an SATA device?
I have a combination of IDE HDDs (2) and SATA HDDs (1).
I also have a Sony DRU-710A (IDE) Combo RW-DL DVD installed.
Finally, any recommendations on which new DVD RW-DL I should get?

 

[Throckmorton]

I'd get an SATA drive. They are like $40 now. I remember reading somewhere that the DOS discs that you use to flash bios don't work in them though... Might want to look into that.

 

[NoelS]

ricer dad,

I'll second Throckmorton's suggestion... Like you, I have an ASUS mobo, a P5K-E. When I built my rig, I decided to add a new 300GB IDE HDD I had to the mix and that made me consider a SATA optical since the mobo only has a single IDE channel. 6 months ago, I wouldn't have considered a SATA optical, but I read an article in MaximumPC mag and based on their recommendation, decided to try the Samsung S230B DVD drive. Bought 2 of them and hooked them up to my SATA connectors on the board and so far, couldn't be happier. They're 20x, so they're fast...

Give it a try, think you'll like them, and they open up your IDE channels...

EDIT: BTW, welcome to the forum... I think you'll like it here!

Noel

 

[LOUISSSSS]

DEF SATA! who wants those huge bulky IDE cables, only problem is, that you gotta draw your sata-power cable all the way from your hdd's to your optical Drive

 

[bruceb]

I prefer IDE myself. I think it is more reliable.
However, at some point hardware makers will
stop making anything IDE, then you have to go SATA

 

[Zepper]

Need to look into your SATA controller before going with SATA optical. If your controller is SATA 300,then you're probably OK, but if you still have the old SATA 150, then the controller may not support SATA ATAPI drives, just hard drives.

.bh.

 

[potato28]

I like the IDE drives, and I still can't recommend the SATA drives if you play games because of the DRM issues with Windows recognizing it as a SCSI drive.

 

[Howard]

One of my SATA hard drives has a very loose power connection.

 

[Peter]

IDE more reliable? Joke of the decade, really.

Drives have matured, so have the host interface controllers, the drivers, the cables and their retention mechanisms. Go with SATA.

 

[corkyg]

Both SATA and PATA drives are IDE. That means simply that they have Integrated Drive Electronics on the drive. I realize a lot of people are using IDE to mean PATA (Parallel ATA), but it is technically not correct. Let's stop perpetuating mythology.

Having said that, Peter is spot on. All drives today are IDE, yes, even the Serial ATA ones.

 

[bruceb]

Each has his own view. I will stay with IDE until I am forced to change
when hardware will no longer be available in IDE

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: bruceb
Each has his own view. I will stay with IDE until I am forced to change when hardware will no longer be available in IDE

Good choice. That way you can have either PATA or SATA. (Both are IDE)

 

[NoelS]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
DEF SATA! who wants those huge bulky IDE cables, only problem is, that you gotta draw your sata-power cable all the way from your hdd's to your optical Drive

LOUISSSSS,

My SATA opticals have a SATA data cable and a legacy Molex power connector on them. So it's true I have to extend the SATA data cable from the mobo connector to the optical, but the standard length SATA cable fits nicely in my case and can be tucked behind other cables so as to be relatively out of sight. As for power, I just use a Molex connector from my PSU, so there's very little length involved there. It's a easy set of connections and certainly less ungainly than the wider IDE cables of yore.

EDIT: I had to exchange a floppy drive on my computer and opened it up yesterday - I find that my SATA drives DO NOT have legacy power connectors , but normal SATA power connectors. I used a double SATA power connector right out of my PSU, so it ends up being about the same in terms of length as the legacy Molex's - a short length from the PSU to the opticals using the PSU's connectors.

LOUISSSSS, I'm sorry I may have mis-lead you with my earlier answer above...

Noel