SATA vs IDE Hard Drive

[irenealan]

Hi, just wonder what's the difference between a SATA and IDE hard drive? My system has both the IDE and SATA plug and I wonder if I should get a SATA instead of an IDE hard drive as my primary disk for booting up Windows? Thanks for all the help!

 

[0010010110]

Originally posted by: irenealan
Hi, just wonder what's the difference between a SATA and IDE hard drive? My system has both the IDE and SATA plug and I wonder if I should get a SATA instead of an IDE hard drive as my primary disk for booting up Windows? Thanks for all the help!

Performance wise there's not really much difference, but the SATA cables allow better airflow and are easier to manage.

 

[stevty2889]

Yeah, there isn't really much of a performance differance right now, with the exception of the Raptors, or maybe the newer 16mb cache drives, the only real advantage is the smaller cable for SATA. Athough I don't find it as an advantage in my case, cause the connectors on the drives are fragile, and broke on one of my raptors.

 

[ribbon13]

Go SATA if your buying a new drive. But if your drive is still functioning then there is no need to change.

 

[AristoV300]

If your board has Native SATA support then go with it, otherwise go PATA.

 

[irenealan]

Thanks for the help. I just go the EPoX Mini ME barebone (HTPC) and it has a serial and a IDE plug. However, I bought a IDE HD already since I read from the online documentation that the system doesn't support Serial. But now I found from the actual product that it does has a serial plug so I wonder if it's worth the hassle to return the IDE and get a different Serial.

If there's not much performance difference then I will keep the IDE drive since I got it for $25 after rebate (WD 80GB 7200rpm 8m cache). I may not get a good deal for a serial and yet if I get a 16m cache version then I may have to even spend more. However, if there's a significant difference between the serial drive or the 16m cache then I may look into getting one.

What do you think? Thanks for all the help!

 

[ribbon13]

SATA+16mb cache would be better, but the only ones out are by Maxtor, which I despise, sso I wouldn't reccomend it. When Seagate's puts out 7200.9s it would be though.

 

[fstime]

Ni differance but I hate IDE cables and sata is only a few bucks more.

 

[mooncancook]

Unless I have an old IDE drive I can use, i would only buy sata drives for a new system. I have all sata drives, including DVD-RW, for my new system and cabling is sweet. I use my old IDE drive in a external enclosure so i won't waste it.

 

[MrControversial]

Go SATA with NCQ.