Sata 2...

[Mayhs]

so im buying a new computer and im going to do a lot of music editing and video editing...im gna use my harddrive a lot..so my friend said that sata 2 would be beneficial for me...how gd is? and whats the price difference between sata 1/2 and is it worth it?

Thnx
MayhS

 

[BillLeeLee]

SATA 2 is just a specification for hard drives, specifying features like 3 Gbps transfer speeds, NCQ, and port multiplying.

However, in application, no drive in the retail market, SATA 1 or SATA 2 or whatever, come close to 3 Gbps or even 1.5 Gbps (150 MB/s), with the fastest being the Raptor 150 in the IDE/ATA world (I think Maxtor Atlas II in the SCSI realm, which is the fastest hard drive I think).

I've read that NCQ is most useful in multiuser environments, and the majority of personal computers are used as singleuser configurations (basically, only one user on the computer, unlike systems in business or academics, where dozens or hundreds of people log into a central system).

Anyway, the price difference between SATA 1 and SATA 2 are that great, but know that performance differences aren't drastic between drives of either spec (though of course, newer drives will naturally be better performers). I paid about $125 for a 300 GB Maxline III a month back, and it's a nice drive.

Check out the hard drive buying guide for some good recs:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=873523

 

[Mayhs]

SATA 2 is just a specification for hard drives, specifying features like 3 Gbps transfer speeds, NCQ, and port multiplying.

However, in application, no drive in the retail market, SATA 1 or SATA 2 or whatever, come close to 3 Gbps or even 1.5 Gbps (150 MB/s), with the fastest being the Raptor 150 in the IDE/ATA world (I think Maxtor Atlas II in the SCSI realm, which is the fastest hard drive I think).

I've read that NCQ is most useful in multiuser environments, and the majority of personal computers are used as singleuser configurations (basically, only one user on the computer, unlike systems in business or academics, where dozens or hundreds of people log into a central system).

Anyway, the price difference between SATA 1 and SATA 2 are that great, but know that performance differences aren't drastic between drives of either spec (though of course, newer drives will naturally be better performers). I paid about $125 for a 300 GB Maxline III a month back, and it's a nice drive.

Check out the hard drive buying guide for some good recs:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=873523

thnx..i saw the sticky

so what is the performance difference between the two?

 

[BillLeeLee]

There isn't any real performance difference, and up until some of the more recent drives drives of either SATA 1 and 2 were pretty much the same in transfer rates, seek times, etc. For example, until drives like the Raptor 150, the Raptor 740 (the previous Raptor) was the performance leader, and it's just a SATA I drive. Of course, now the king of the hill in the SATA world is the Raptor 150 (SATA 2, etc.).

Like I said, newer drives will usually come with better performance as technology improves (platter sizes, better algorithms, more cache), and newer drives produced now will probably support some SATA 2 features.

And of course, the price difference is maybe a couple dollars between a SATA 1 and SATA 2 drive, if even that. However, most of the drives you'd probably be looking at these days are 3 Gbps ready and NCQ-ready anyway.