Upgrading to SATA worth it?

[Illidan]

Right now I'm running on a 30 gig Maxtor Ultra-ATA-100 drive with a 2 megabyte buffer.

What kind of HD performance upgrade would I get going to a SATA II drive like http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100590-2 this one?

Accrording to the (Stated) specifications of each box, I'd be going from:

100 mbit/second transfer rate to 300 mbit/second
2 megabyte buffer to eight
Same rotational speed (7200 RPM)

The new specs *look* much better, but will they be really noticeable or just 10% different?

 

[Silversierra]

When I went from a 2mb drive to a 8mb drive it seemed a lot faster, but then again, the new drive was a fresh install, so it would seem faster.

 

[orangat]

Originally posted by: Illidan
Right now I'm running on a 30 gig Maxtor Ultra-ATA-100 drive with a 2 megabyte buffer.

What kind of HD performance upgrade would I get going to a SATA II drive like http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100590-2 this one?
Accrording to the (Stated) specifications of each box, I'd be going from:
100 mbit/second transfer rate to 300 mbit/second
2 megabyte buffer to eight
Same rotational speed (7200 RPM)
The new specs *look* much better, but will they be really noticeable or just 10% different?

Theres no noticeable performance difference between SATA and ATA for drives of the same generation, so you needn't upgrade to SATA if its just for speed.

But in your case, your drive is probably old and much slower than that Hitachi you linked to. And get the t7k models, they are newer and better than the 7k ones.