So let me get this straight. We cannot fully utilize bandwdth of ata133 but people buy the faster higher costing sata?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
B

biggiesmallz

Banned
Feb 1, 2003
881
0
0
So let me get this straight. We cannot fully utilize bandwdth of ata133 but people buy the faster higher costing sata? Why?

And how many years are we away from being able to fully utilize ata100/133?

 
Elcs

Elcs

Diamond Member
Apr 27, 2002
6,278
6
81
Another couple of ideas...

Cables... SATA power cables arent special compared to molexes but their data cables are so much nicer to work with than flat IDE wires and easier to work with than even rounded IDE cables in my opinion.

SATA has become the prevailant technology and more development seems to be going to SATA drives rather than IDE so performance of SATA drives seems to be pulling away ever so slightly.... only to do with drive developments, not relating to any bandwidth bottleneck with the IDE system.
 
Z

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
18,998
0
0
There are some advantages to SATA mainly to do with the cleaner cabling (at the expense of weak connectors, so be gentle with them). Allowing only one drive per channel helps maintain optimum performance - that decision is built into SATA, you have decide that for yourself with PATA (buy an add-on controller if you have more than two drives).

..bh.
 
O

orangat

Golden Member
Jun 7, 2004
1,579
0
0
Technolust? Only for those who are still running dos2.11. Sata doesn't cost more or the difference is minimal. The advantages of thinner cables is worth it.

Thick pata cables usually impede airflow to the vid card if the connectors are in front.
 
E

eastvillager

Senior member
Mar 27, 2003
519
0
0
Originally posted by: biggiesmallz
So let me get this straight. We cannot fully utilize bandwdth of ata133 but people buy the faster higher costing sata? Why?

And how many years are we away from being able to fully utilize ata100/133?
Click to expand...

Lots of answers.

1. Nobody is upgrading just for SATA. When you build a computer, you're usually buying a motherboard, based on a chipset, and the hard disk interface is a feature of that chipset. One feature among many. You can't just go ala carte and say "Hey, I want a nf4 motherboard, but I don't want SATA, please remove that feature and credit my account $1".

2. Speed of interface is the least of the benefits, imho. Think of the other benefits: a) better cabling method, b) no more slave/master stuff, c) advanced features being added to SATA that won't find their way into ATA/EIDE.

3. The speed of ATA is irrelevant. As long as we can only put two drives on a controller port with ATA, the speed of the interface won't be a bottleneck. That is assuming drive technology doesn't make some quantum leap that just happens to be backwards compatible with ATA.

4. You're not choosing between ATA and SATA. You're choosing, in most cases, to have both options. A benefit of having both options is usually the benefit of supporting more drives. I have 6 hard drives and 2 optical drives in my computer, without having to add a controller board to the mix. Could I have done that on a non-server board in the ATA only days? NO.

5. At the moment, there are SATA drives that are 10,000rpm, while there are no ATA drives that are 10,000rpm. People who want the (usually)increased performance of a 10,000rpm drive have to go either SATA or USCSI to get it. Needless to say, SATA is much, much, much cheaper than USCSI.

 
T

TylerP

Member
Feb 27, 2006
46
0
0
I only went to SATA because I wanted to go to PCI-e for my video card and that is what my mobo had on it.

Also I like:

The little cables
The fact that each drive is on a seperate channel ( including my two IDE optical drives )
 
M

Maluno

Senior member
Mar 28, 2005
697
0
0
Originally posted by: TylerP
I only went to SATA because I wanted to go to PCI-e for my video card and that is what my mobo had on it.

Also I like:

The little cables
The fact that each drive is on a seperate channel ( including my two IDE optical drives )
Click to expand...

Exactly, and its also just a new standard, which is where all of the new faster drives are being produced, not on the ATA interfaces.
 
WT

WT

Diamond Member
Sep 21, 2000
4,816
60
91
Another reason:
I run two optical drives in my rigs and having both on their own IDE channel is the way to run them. Adding an SATA 16 meg drive (as opposed to my 8 meg PATA's) is simply the smartest choice.
 
E

erwos

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2005
4,778
0
76
Originally posted by: biggiesmallz
So let me get this straight. We cannot fully utilize bandwdth of ata133 but people buy the faster higher costing sata? Why?
Click to expand...
Speak for yourself. Those of us who are running large RAIDs (6+ drives) can easily appreciate the greater bandwidth SATA 3gb/s gives us.

I realize this isn't the every-day way of doing things, but not everyone has the same usage patterns as you.

-Erwos
 
shortylickens

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,081
136
Originally posted by: corkyg
Technolust.
Click to expand...
For the Win!

Same reason we have more advanced cell phones every year. Humans (Americans in particluar) are very good at convincing themselves they "need" something.

It used to be muscle cars.
Now its SUV's and trucks.
 
J

justlnluck

Senior member
Jul 13, 2004
261
0
0
I upgraded to SATA over a year ago when I needed to buy a new hard drive. Why buy a PATA drive when the SATA drive is the same price? I really appreciate the cabling. I've always hated those damn ribbon cables taking up so much room. I can't wait for optical drives to start using SATA.
 
shortylickens

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,081
136
Originally posted by: biggiesmallz
So sata cables is only one per cable?
So how many sata devices can be hooked up on a normal mother board?
Click to expand...
My last two DFI's have had 8 SATA connectors.
 
A

AkumaX

Lifer
Apr 20, 2000
12,643
3
81
I'm surprised no one mentioned this:

The only thing i hate about SATA is that it revives the floppy drive. As in, you need SATA drivers when installing XP during initial setup (press F6, etc..)

WHY?? WHY CAN'T WE JUST KILL IT?!?
 
D

darkswordsman17

Lifer
Mar 11, 2004
23,444
5,850
146
Originally posted by: AkumaX
I'm surprised no one mentioned this:

The only thing i hate about SATA is that it revives the floppy drive. As in, you need SATA drivers when installing XP during initial setup (press F6, etc..)

WHY?? WHY CAN'T WE JUST KILL IT?!?
Click to expand...

Contact Microsoft and see if you can trade your older copy of windows for a newer one that has all the updates (they might just send you a new CD). I believe SP2 had the SATA driver built-in so you didn't need the floppy.

I hate having to use a floppy as well.

Another advantage that SATA offers is hot-swappability. So far this isn't a big deal, but it could come in handy if someone made a case with removable drive racks. They've finally started to add e-SATA (external SATA ports) ports to higher end motherboards, although for some reason most of them don't offer an external power connector. Wouldn't be a big deal for most people, but its a decent idea.
 
E

erwos

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2005
4,778
0
76
Originally posted by: darkswordsman17
Another advantage that SATA offers is hot-swappability. So far this isn't a big deal, but it could come in handy if someone made a case with removable drive racks. They've finally started to add e-SATA (external SATA ports) ports to higher end motherboards, although for some reason most of them don't offer an external power connector. Wouldn't be a big deal for most people, but its a decent idea.
Click to expand...
Not all SATA controllers (and drives?) support hot-swap. Be very, very careful before trying to use it.

-Erwos
 
J

justlnluck

Senior member
Jul 13, 2004
261
0
0
Originally posted by: AkumaX
I'm surprised no one mentioned this:

The only thing i hate about SATA is that it revives the floppy drive. As in, you need SATA drivers when installing XP during initial setup (press F6, etc..)

WHY?? WHY CAN'T WE JUST KILL IT?!?
Click to expand...

Windows XP SP2 does not require this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom