SATA vs. IDE?

[charloscarlies]

I'm considering getting rid of my 80 gig Maxtors in favor of a couple of SATA drives (maybe Raptors if I find the money). Will I notice a performance increase? Are the 7200 rpm sata drives any faster than ide? Is it even worth it?

I'm also considering selling one of my drives and keeping the other for storage....and using a 36gb Raptor for my os and important apps. This a good idea?

What would yall recommend?

 

[suklee]

If you are going for Raptors, yes. Otherwise going strictly from IDEs > SATAs will result in negligible performance increase.

If you don't need this NOW wait a few months for SATA 2.0 controllers/hard drives with NCQ.

Alternatively, your suggestion to use the 36GB Raptor + 80GB Maxtor for storage is a good one.. I know many who use such a setup. In fact I'd consider one myself but my motherboard doesnt have on-board SATA

 

[paperfist]

Biggest advantage is the nice, small data cable for SATA, after that there isn't any performance to be gained. Most of us don't even max out the bandwidth of a ATA/133 interface.

So if I was building a new system I'd go with SATA, but just to upgrade to them is a waste of money. The Raptors are a bit faster, but IMO not THAT much faster. I use my 36GB Raptor for my OS and it's a few seconds faster over all.

 

[charloscarlies]

Thanks guys. I'll probably just get a 36 gig raptor and keep one of my drives for now...that should keep me set for a few more months atleast.

What kind of performance are people getting out of sata raid configurations? Would the difference be significant?

 

[nageov3t]

my current set-up:

36 GB Raptor OS drive
250 GB SATA 7200 RPM content drive

before this, I was using a 120GB IBM 7200 RPM IDE drive (along with an 80GB IDE drive for backups)

I noticed a pretty significant decrease in the time it takes programs to install and in the time it takes programs to open and access data.


edit: my bad

 

[Mwing]

I am also thinking about upgrading to raptor, currently I have 2 WD800JB, not RAID, I want some more storage, but I also want to try something new so I want to go for SATA (also because I don't have any IDE channel left). I am debating to go for storage (WD1200JD, 120 g SATA 7200 rpm) or performance (WD360GD, 36 g SATA 10000rpm).

1. so in real life, there is not much performance by using Raptor over the 7200 rpm one?

2. does my mobo (ASUS A7N8X-deluxe) support this faster hard drive?

3. loki8481, opening application needs more time, why is that?

 

[nageov3t]

ack, sorry... that should have been decrease.

I did notice a difference when I upgraded to a raptor, and that difference was a good one

 

[Thegonagle]

Originally posted by: paperfist
Biggest advantage is the nice, small data cable for SATA, after that there isn't any performance to be gained. Most of us don't even max out the bandwidth of a ATA/133 interface.

So if I was building a new system I'd go with SATA, but just to upgrade to them is a waste of money. The Raptors are a bit faster, but IMO not THAT much faster. I use my 36GB Raptor for my OS and it's a few seconds faster over all.

I 100% agree. I have parts are on order from Newegg, including a SATA HD chosen mainly because of the small serial cable. I have no illusion that I'll notice any difference in performance. The parts are going in an Antec Overture, not exactly known as a super-cool case.

In order to hinder air-flow as little as possible, I'm using SATA for the HD and round cables for the floppy and optical drives.

On the other hand, OS installation involves the extra step of installing a SATA driver. It's not a huge deal--if you've ever installed RAID or SCSI drivers, it's the same procedure, but you need to prepare a floppy beforehand so you'll have it when Windows setup asks.

 

[nageov3t]

On the other hand, OS installation involves the extra step of installing a SATA driver. It's not a huge deal--if you've ever installed RAID or SCSI drivers, it's the same procedure, but you need to prepare a floppy beforehand so you'll have it when Windows setup asks.

you bring up a good point... my one major SATA complaint is the difficulty a Linux installation poses (especially for people new to linux). that should be changing soon, though, once the latest kernal makes it into some of the stable releases from the major distros.

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: paperfist
Biggest advantage is the nice, small data cable for SATA, after that there isn't any performance to be gained. Most of us don't even max out the bandwidth of a ATA/133 interface.

That has nothing to do with "us" or our usage patterns, it has everything to do with the drive's ability (or inability) to push data.

So if I was building a new system I'd go with SATA, but just to upgrade to them is a waste of money. The Raptors are a bit faster, but IMO not THAT much faster. I use my 36GB Raptor for my OS and it's a few seconds faster over all.

Hmmmm that's interesting especially considering Raptor kicks the butts of all drives listed at StorageReview.com with the exception of the top 2 Ultra320 SCSI drives, it even kicks the Seagate Cheetah 15.3 Ultra320 series. Perhaps in your opinion that isn't "THAT much faster" but to alot of people it's "THIS, THAT, and THE OTHER THING" faster.......

Thorin

 

[charloscarlies]

Wow thanks for that link thorin. I guess I'm gonna go ahead and order one. Seems like a solid drive.

 

[thorin]

Here's their full review of the Raptors.

Thorin

 

[JBT]

I just ordered the 74Gig Version I can't wait for it to come on monday. According to storage review this thing is FAST!!!! w00 h00

 

[Alptraum]

I think pretty much any non SCSI drive I buy from now will be SATA. Both of the drives in my current machine are SATA. I also went the Raptor for OS and apps and larger SATA drive for storage. While other then the Raptors the only thing that SATA gets you is the smaller cable at the moment thats enough reason for me.

EDIT = Oh, and if you have the right motherboard you don't have to mess with having drivers on a disk. My 875p doesn't need to do that. There might be other chipsets with native support like that as well, though I am not sure. But at least with 875p boards you don't need to. Just plug the drive in, pop in your XP cd and you are good to go, no need to mess with the drivers during install.