SATA...worth it over IDE for gaming?

tornadobox

Platinum Member
Jun 3, 2001
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So I'm in the works of planning a new rig to build, and the motherboard I've selected has both IDE and SATA board connectors. This leaves me with the question, which type of hard drive should I use? SATA or IDE? the WD 120GB IDE is about $75, whereas the WD 120GB SATA is about $90...is the price difference worth it for gaming? Or should I sink the difference and a little more into a faster CPU or video card?

Thanks.
 

bunnyfubbles

Lifer
Sep 3, 2001
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there is ultimately no performance difference unless you get a 10K drive, but then you sacrifice storage space for speed. However such a drive would be $100 more than you are planning to spend so go with the $75 drive.
 

gotensan01

Golden Member
Jul 6, 2004
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Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles
there is ultimately no performance difference unless you get a 10K drive, but then you sacrifice storage space for speed. However such a drive would be $100 more than you are planning to spend so go with the $75 drive.
As I have just noticed with my raptor drive, you also sacrifice quietness...the raptors are loud as fudge when under load.
 

Feep

Senior member
Aug 30, 2004
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with 7200 rpm sata drives you are basically paying for a smaller cable.
 

Pollock

Golden Member
Jan 24, 2004
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SATA makes no difference because current hard drives (I don't think even 2x74GB Raptors in RAID0, doing a sustained transfer) simply can't use up all of the bandwidth of the PATA cable as it is.
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
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The only benefit is the nice cables.

So unless you are going for the Raptors or the SATA is the same price as the IDE drive...it's not worth it.
 

CraigRT

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
31,440
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IDE is fine.. I just ordered some UV rounded IDE cables because I plan on keeping my IDE drives as they are perfectly fine.. Segate 7200.7 drives.
 

SUOrangeman

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
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After a very unsicentific look at PriceWatch, the price differences between PATA and SATA hard drives is roughly no more than $20. As capacities increase, the differences drop to $10 and I think I saw one instance where a PATA drive was $1 more than an SATA drive.

Raptors aside, I don't think I would recommend any drives smaller than 200GB anymore, since drives of that size can be had for $100 or less. The price differences in that size range are around $10.

Unless you do not have a motherboard that doesn't already support SATA *OR* that extra $10/$20 means you can't eat that day, I fully recommend SATA.

-SUO
 

Koing

Elite Member <br> Super Moderator<br> Health and F
Oct 11, 2000
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Originally posted by: SUOrangeman
After a very unsicentific look at PriceWatch, the price differences between PATA and SATA hard drives is roughly no more than $20. As capacities increase, the differences drop to $10 and I think I saw one instance where a PATA drive was $1 more than an SATA drive.

Raptors aside, I don't think I would recommend any drives smaller than 200GB anymore, since drives of that size can be had for $100 or less. The price differences in that size range are around $10.

Unless you do not have a motherboard that doesn't already support SATA *OR* that extra $10/$20 means you can't eat that day, I fully recommend SATA.

-SUO

Right on the money.

Koing
 
Jun 14, 2003
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i got sata drives as here they are only £1-2 difference over IDE...so i thought why not have the newer (albeit no better) tech, nicer cables and and maybe a little bit of future proofing.....even tho IDE will be around for a while to come
 

Insane3D

Elite Member
May 24, 2000
19,446
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Also, some of the next generation SATA 7200RPM's are coming with true SATAII support, including NCQ which may help in the future as more controllers support it. The newer Seagates and Maxtors are pretty nice drives...

:)
 

imported_jediknight

Senior member
Jun 24, 2004
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Originally posted by: SUOrangeman
After a very unsicentific look at PriceWatch, the price differences between PATA and SATA hard drives is roughly no more than $20. As capacities increase, the differences drop to $10 and I think I saw one instance where a PATA drive was $1 more than an SATA drive.

Raptors aside, I don't think I would recommend any drives smaller than 200GB anymore, since drives of that size can be had for $100 or less. The price differences in that size range are around $10.

Unless you do not have a motherboard that doesn't already support SATA *OR* that extra $10/$20 means you can't eat that day, I fully recommend SATA.

-SUO

Why SATA over PATA if you get no performance increase, and it costs more? Makes no sense to me..
 

SUOrangeman

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
8,361
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Again, if you already have a SATA controller, really take a look to see if SATA drives are indeed priced higher than PATA models *for the size you want to buy*. Don't just assume that SATA is more expensive across the board.

Although there is little to no performance gain/loss on equivalent drives, the features inherent to SATA (and forthcoming generations of the standard) offer much more than what PATA ever will.

Point-to-point transmission
No more jumpers; no more "should I connect my DVD burner with on of my hard drives, or ..."
Daisy-chaining in future generations
(Perhaps) NCQ support on existing drives via firmware upgrade
...

-SUO