Using SATA on PATA drives

[Munky]

My motherboard supports SATA, but currently I'm using PATA hard drives. I saw an adapter that you can get to connect the drives using SATA, will it offer any improvement in the speed of the drives, or any other benefits?

 

[firefaux]

nope. currently there arent any significant advantages over using sata over pata's (yet). the only advantage i'd say is that you use a thinner cable, so it improves airflow. but a pata will still remain a pata regardless of where you plug it in. sorry.

 

[egkenny]

No. These adapters first came out because motherboards with SATA came out a number of months before SATA drives were available. The adapters allowed people to use existing PATA drives with the then new SATA ports on the boards.

I have 2 SATA ports on motherboard I bought in 2002 and have 2 additional SATA ports on the PCI PATA/SATA card I have. I have yet to try a SATA drive for two reasons.
1) SATA drives are usually more expensive,
2) SATA drives are not significantly any faster than comparable PATA ones

When I build a new system in the next year or so that my change as SATA drives will hopefully prove to be faster as the SATA interface matures.