Will IDE hard drives significantly impact performance?

[CFSett]

Hello.

I'm building a mostly new computer, based on a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe NF4, AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz "Winchester" Processor and MSI nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT Video Card. These components about double the performance of my current system.

I have two IDE hard drives in my PC, both Maxtor 7200RPM drives (160GB main and 80GB backup). I'm not planning to upgrade to SATA, but I'm wondering if, by not doing so, I'm giving up a large performance gain.

How significant is the speed differential between SATA and IDE hard drives. Is it enough that I should consider new, clean drives (and the headache of reinstalling/transfering everything).

Thanks.
CFS

 

[Blain]

You are giving up a huge performance gain if you stick with those old Maxtor drives, instead of the 74GB Raptors. :laugh:

 

[artikk]

Originally posted by: CFSett
Hello.

I'm building a mostly new computer, based on a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe NF4, AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz "Winchester" Processor and MSI nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT Video Card. These components about double the performance of my current system.

I have two IDE hard drives in my PC, both Maxtor 7200RPM drives (160GB main and 80GB backup). I'm not planning to upgrade to SATA, but I'm wondering if, by not doing so, I'm giving up a large performance gain.

How significant is the speed differential between SATA and IDE hard drives. Is it enough that I should consider new, clean drives (and the headache of reinstalling/transfering everything).

Thanks.
CFS

The SATA and IDE drives are exaclty the same based on perfomance. Since they spin at the same rpm speed they tend to perform at the same level. SATA will perform better thatn IDE when the rpm is higher or the tranfer rate is higher. For now SATA"s transfer rate is 150 and IDE/ATA is 133-so no big differnece in perfomance yet. When the SATA II standrad is released the badnwith/transfer rate wil be increased to 300 so then there will be a performance differentiual between ATA/IDE and SATA. For now you can buy either one.
Text

 

[Gothgar]

SATA to IDE is almost no different on comparable drives...

 

[CFSett]

Thanks russianpower. My hope was not to "buy", but to recycle what I already own and use. While the gain from Raptors would be nice, if I'm unwilling to pop for new drives as is (if not necessary), the cost of Raptors is prohibitive (~$180). The little bit of gain for SATA will not be worth it to buy new drives, and the airflow should not be an issue.

 

[Blain]

The Seagate SATA & PATA's don't perform the same

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: Blain
You are giving up a huge performance gain if you stick with those old Maxtor drives, instead of the 74GB Raptors. :laugh:

Why are you comparing those drives? The D740X's are from like 4 years ago and had a maximum capacity of 80GB. I'm sure his 160GB drive is much newer than that and will have much better performance over all.

 

[LTC8K6]

You are giving up a little bit of performance. Nothing to lose any sleep over.

 

[Blain]

Oops, sorry about that. I was thinking the 80GB was the main drive...
> Fixed <

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: Blain
Oops, sorry about that. I was thinking the 80GB was the main drive...
> Fixed <

That raptor has TCQ his probably wont... hehe Either way yes the Raptor benchmarks very well. In the real world its not as noticible of a lead. Don't get me wrong I love my raptor but its certainly not the end all drives esspecially if ur on a budget.

 

[CFSett]

Originally posted by: JBT
[That raptor has TCQ his probably wont... hehe Either way yes the Raptor benchmarks very well. In the real world its not as noticible of a lead. Don't get me wrong I love my raptor but its certainly not the end all drives esspecially if ur on a budget.

Yep. Raptor was never really a consideration. I was hoping to avoid replacing my hard drives, and it appears I won't have to.

 

[JBT]

So in short stick with your IDE drives for awile longer. If you plan on buying new drives def grab SATA but if you have no need stick with what you've got. Also welcome to Anandtech.

 

[CFSett]

Thank you, JBT. It only took me 12 months to register and another 3 to finally post!

 

[HammerZ]

Originally posted by: Blain
The Seagate SATA &amp; PATA's don't perform the same

Comparing a 2MB PATA drive against a 8MB SATA drive is not really an apples-to-apples comparison. Why wasn't the 8MB version used in the comparison?

The Raptors are not that much faster than the newer generation PATA drives (i.e. Maxtor 16MB cache drives). They are comparable. The interfaces (either PATA or SATA) are no way close to being saturated in a single drive environment.