So what exactly is SATA and why is it the latest rage?

[jj1492]

I keep seeing this SATA stuff on the new motherboards I'm looking at. I just don't know what it is.

 

[dartworth]

google and the search button are your friends

 

[Lonyo]

It's liked because it has smaller connectors, and it also is the only way to connect those rather nifty WD Raptor drives to your computer.

 

[Jeff7181]

Link

People who get excited about Serial ATA are kinda ignorant... they're the same folks who got excited about ATA133. The benefit that Serial ATA holds over ATA133 is that Serial ATA has a maixmum transfer speed of 150 MB per second, and ATA133's is 133 MB/s. However, those are theoretical maximums, and there isn't a hard drive in existance capable of saturating even an ATA100 bus. My Raptor peaks at 78 MB/s at best, and average is 48 MB/s. So whether that's a benefit or not is questionable... if you're using an add in SATA card, it's sitting on the PCI bus, which is limited to 133 MB/s anyway, and has to be shared with the everything else on the PCI bus like the sound card, network card, modem, hard drives, optical drives.
The other benefit is the size of the cables... they no longer use big wide ribbon cables... they use cables smaller than rounded IDE cables... which allows for better airflow through the case.
Another benefit is the fact that the Raptor is only available with the SATA interface, so you must have either SATA ports on your motherboard, or an add in Serial ATA card... but that's not really a benefit of Serial ATA.

So... in short... SATA isn't all the rage... the Raptor is =)

 

[John]

Another nice benefit of the WD Raptor is the 5 year warranty

 

[AndyHui]

No fiddling with Master/Slave jumpers is also a big bonus.

 

People who get excited about Serial ATA are kinda ignorant... they're the same folks who got excited about ATA133

Apples and oranges.

So... in short... SATA isn't all the rage... the Raptor is =)

Im excited about my two raptors in raid 0, they are SATA drives i do believe.....


Now if i can just get rid of my ata cables to my WD se's and cdrw.....

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Link

People who get excited about Serial ATA are kinda ignorant... they're the same folks who got excited about ATA133. The benefit that Serial ATA holds over ATA133 is that Serial ATA has a maixmum transfer speed of 150 MB per second, and ATA133's is 133 MB/s. However, those are theoretical maximums, and there isn't a hard drive in existance capable of saturating even an ATA100 bus. My Raptor peaks at 78 MB/s at best, and average is 48 MB/s. So whether that's a benefit or not is questionable... if you're using an add in SATA card, it's sitting on the PCI bus, which is limited to 133 MB/s anyway, and has to be shared with the everything else on the PCI bus like the sound card, network card, modem, hard drives, optical drives.
The other benefit is the size of the cables... they no longer use big wide ribbon cables... they use cables smaller than rounded IDE cables... which allows for better airflow through the case.
Another benefit is the fact that the Raptor is only available with the SATA interface, so you must have either SATA ports on your motherboard, or an add in Serial ATA card... but that's not really a benefit of Serial ATA.

So... in short... SATA isn't all the rage... the Raptor is =)

Unless you've got an nForce2 motherboard - then I believe the integrated peripherals talk directly to the southbridge, and don't interface with the PCI bus. At least, that's what I gathered from the block diagram of my 8RDA+.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Link

People who get excited about Serial ATA are kinda ignorant... they're the same folks who got excited about ATA133. The benefit that Serial ATA holds over ATA133 is that Serial ATA has a maixmum transfer speed of 150 MB per second, and ATA133's is 133 MB/s. However, those are theoretical maximums, and there isn't a hard drive in existance capable of saturating even an ATA100 bus. My Raptor peaks at 78 MB/s at best, and average is 48 MB/s. So whether that's a benefit or not is questionable... if you're using an add in SATA card, it's sitting on the PCI bus, which is limited to 133 MB/s anyway, and has to be shared with the everything else on the PCI bus like the sound card, network card, modem, hard drives, optical drives.
The other benefit is the size of the cables... they no longer use big wide ribbon cables... they use cables smaller than rounded IDE cables... which allows for better airflow through the case.
Another benefit is the fact that the Raptor is only available with the SATA interface, so you must have either SATA ports on your motherboard, or an add in Serial ATA card... but that's not really a benefit of Serial ATA.

So... in short... SATA isn't all the rage... the Raptor is =)

Unless you've got an nForce2 motherboard - then I believe the integrated peripherals talk directly to the southbridge, and don't interface with the PCI bus. At least, that's what I gathered from the block diagram of my 8RDA+.

Read the rest of the sentence you bolded. "if you're using an add in SATA card, it's sitting on the PCI bus which is limited to 133 MB/s anyway..."

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Link

People who get excited about Serial ATA are kinda ignorant... they're the same folks who got excited about ATA133. The benefit that Serial ATA holds over ATA133 is that Serial ATA has a maixmum transfer speed of 150 MB per second, and ATA133's is 133 MB/s. However, those are theoretical maximums, and there isn't a hard drive in existance capable of saturating even an ATA100 bus. My Raptor peaks at 78 MB/s at best, and average is 48 MB/s. So whether that's a benefit or not is questionable... if you're using an add in SATA card, it's sitting on the PCI bus, which is limited to 133 MB/s anyway, and has to be shared with the everything else on the PCI bus like the sound card, network card, modem, hard drives, optical drives.
The other benefit is the size of the cables... they no longer use big wide ribbon cables... they use cables smaller than rounded IDE cables... which allows for better airflow through the case.
Another benefit is the fact that the Raptor is only available with the SATA interface, so you must have either SATA ports on your motherboard, or an add in Serial ATA card... but that's not really a benefit of Serial ATA.

So... in short... SATA isn't all the rage... the Raptor is =)

Unless you've got an nForce2 motherboard - then I believe the integrated peripherals talk directly to the southbridge, and don't interface with the PCI bus. At least, that's what I gathered from the block diagram of my 8RDA+.

Read the rest of the sentence you bolded. "if you're using an add in SATA card, it's sitting on the PCI bus which is limited to 133 MB/s anyway..."

I know, I know.....Just sort of saying, you know, that it is that way.....leave me alone, man!!!



j/k