SATA or IDE?

[Hawk]

I currently have a 5 year old dell HDD which is IDE and have just bought my computer and am using that HDD for the time being but am looking at upgrading to a new HDD and was wondering which would be better at transfer rate. Even though SATA says 150, it only runs at like 30. WHat does IDE run at? And would it be worth paying an extra $10 for a the SATA version of the HDD? The 2 ones i'm looking at are:

CAVIAR SPECIAL EDITION 120GB ATA100, 3.5LP, 8MB, 8.9MS, 7200RPM, 3YEARS

or the SATA version:

CAVIAR SPECIAL EDITION 120GB SATA150, 3.5LP, 8MB, 8.9MS, 7200RPM, 3YEARS

I have the cables so that's no problem.

 

[ikurox]

i always go sata. my cleaner look in the case. i dont know much about the difference but i would think that sata is better

 

[StealthyFish]

unless you're gonna benchmark your hard drives and walk around posting them everywhere bragging about how your SATA pwns the UATA transfer rates... doesn't really matter. They feel the same. I've got both and they feel almost exactly the same, other than the fact that one of them has a smaller, red colored cable and no jumper configs to use (the SATA). I'd save those 10 dollars for some nice thermal paste or something

 

[Hawk]

Ok. Another thing is since this HDD is so old i think i'm going to be surprised in the difference in speed

THanks

 

[BillLeeLee]

What model Caviar drive is that SATA drive - a WD1200JD?

If so, then it's not a true SATA drive - it's actually a PATA drive that has a PATA->SATA bridge installed. All the older WD sata drives are the same, the first native SATA drive from WD was the 2500KS I think.

The bridge actually hinders drive performance, so if those are your only two choices, I'd go with the PATA drive just for performance reasons.

Anyway, strictly comparing a SATA and a PATA drive - drives with both interfaces perform at pretty much the same level. My PATA drives (a WD1600JB and a Seagate 7200.7 120 GB) both can transfer around 50 - 55 MB/s (informal testing with hdparm) and my new SATA Maxline III 300 GB transfers 50 - 60 MB/s (same informal testing). Of course, I haven't used the new drive much though, so I haven't witnessed full benefits of a 16 MB cache.

The majority of drives these days don't break the ATA/66 barrier, so don't worry that much about interface (unless you're looking at stuff like Raptors, which are SATA only).

 

[unhappy_mage]

I like sata just for the cable management. My current server box has 2 ribbon cables in it, I'm gonna try to eliminate them over the next few years. And sata is more futureproof; when you try to upgrade in a few years, you won't *have* to buy a new drive right away.

Whatever you decide, get the drives from ZZF or hypermicro. Sata or ide. pick your poison, but the shipping from ZZF is far better (in terms of not killing drives) than newegg.

 

[SSlaytanic]

sata

 

[kumquat]

The bridge actually hinders drive performance, so if those are your only two choices, I'd go with the PATA drive just for performance reasons.

Reference? I've heard repeatedly that the SATA bridge had no measureable impact on performance.

 

[Hawk]

I live in New Zealand mage so getting stuff from newegg is kidnaoutta the question

 

[unhappy_mage]

Neither ZZF or Hypermicro appear to ship internationally, either. I don't know of anyplace that has both good shipping practices and international shipping. I imagine if you email a place that will ship to you and ask if they use foam packing or packing peanuts+bubble wrap to ship their drives, they'll be able to tell you. Foam is the preferred option there.

 

[Hawk]

When you buy something and it's shipped to NZ you have to pay GST (Goods & Services Tax) which is 12.5%. And by then it's either more expensive or not worth the time I tried buying stuff from newegg but they don't do international shipping or international credit cards and i guess the others wouldn't either.