IDE vs. SATA

[Zylstra]

Which one is better, SATA or IDE?
I opened up our Compaq, and was quite surprised to see a SATA cable connecting to the hard drive.
Which brought this question

Is it faster, more reliable, just smaller (no broken pins) or what?

[Dusty]

Some say they're faster, others say they're better.

This is an extract from here...

"The third standard, serial ATA (SATA), potentially the fastest of them all, could transfer data as fast as 600MB/s now, but the current internal mechanisms of hard drives limit it to being not much faster than standard IDE ATA drives, which can only sustain about 60MB/s in practice."

IMHO Sata has the edge over Ide due to the cables being smaller allowing better airflow in the box.

There's a heck of a lot of reading on that site..

[Zylstra]

Looking at this image:
http://sierra-cables.com/SATA/Images/SATA-Signal-Cable-1.jpg
I see that there are less pins on the SATA cable than the IDE.

Is the speed in the cable, or the controller?

[Dusty]

I'm no guru but, from the reading I have done, the speed is achieved by the transfer rate from actual disk to cache then from there to the controller but is restricted by the physical/mechanical movement of the head(s).   As you will see from the extracted quote in my first reply the transfer rates of Sata vs. Ide are reported as being very similar.

[honvetops]

just a little bit more info along lines w/ Dusty's good stuff *
 here are specs on identical 7200.10  320 MB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache  seagate cuda's  hd's

IDE Ultra ATA100:

Average Seek Time     11ms
Average Write Time    12ms
Average Latency    4.16ms

SATA 3.0Gb/s:

Average Seek Time     8.5ms
Average Write Time    10ms
Average Latency    4.16ms

many reviews from owners state the speeds are very comparable but theoretically sata II is supposed to be faster up to 1.50 gigs -to- 3.00 gigs a second interface..(adjusting the jumper settings). Sata cables are known to pop out of the hd's  very easily if you move the case a lot but other than that you would have somewhat lower temps in your case and much better air-flow....  the looks and much cleaner view inside the case especially with all the led's flashing....is a nice plus...

[Dusty]

Thank you for that Honvetops.   

Your figs show that the SATA is faster but who's gonna notice 2 to 2.5ms other than NASA.   I don't associate with any group to whom it would make a difference

I had thought that SATA would be much faster than UATA (I don't yet have SATA drives) but the info available on the WWW doesn't show that.

Any heavy users of hdd's like to comment further

 

[honvetops]

EXACTLY,  i just got 2 of those cuda 320 satas  and I read many, many reviews from experienced users, you'd have to be a freak to notice any difference...
i don't...

[WillyW]

...
(I don't yet have SATA drives) ...
 

Me either.

But, from reading,  I understand that there is no jumpering.  No master/slave.
Just plug 'em in, and go.

For some folks, would this fall into the "better" category, when considering?

[honvetops]

...
(I don't yet have SATA drives) ...
 

Me either.

But, from reading,  I understand that there is no jumpering.  No master/slave.
Just plug 'em in, and go.

For some folks, would this fall into the "better" category, when considering?

There are actually "jumpers" on the back of some of those 320 cuda's according to people that bought them at newegg.!!! I didn't have any but more than 10 people in the review section stated they had to switch from 1.5 to 3.0  on theirs ?

revised* 4-27   yup,  on both my sata drives there are  4 pin jumpers on the back of each ~  4-28

called seagate > they instructed me to remove the (tiny) grey piece of plastic that is covering the last 2 pins (4 pins total) all the way on the right .. that is to enable 3.0 mb vs  1.5  on the sata hard drive.

[Raptor]

SATA is better for home machines, better air-flow due to the small wires and slightly increased performance.

Not to mention that it is easier to install them.

[Zylstra]

About the airflow:
I dont think it really makes a difference. When you think about it, the effect of air making its way around objects counters it out.
And then again, its not in an area that really needs great airflow. (HDD's do produce heat, but not enough to do all too much dammage in a PC)

About the ease of install:
I agree, but it will set you one heck of a good project if you break a pin on an IDE drive

I have never installed a SATA drive, so I cant say anything about how easy it is.
I have gone through enough IDE drives to get the hang of it.

Its just odd that they would say SATA is faster, since there are more pins (wires) than the SATA drive, which has, what, 12, maybe?

[Dusty]

About the ease of install:
I agree, but it will set you one heck of a good project if you break a pin on an IDE drive

I have never installed a SATA drive, so I cant say anything about how easy it is.
I have gone through enough IDE drives to get the hang of it.

Its just odd that they would say SATA is faster, since there are more pins (wires) than the SATA drive, which has, what, 12, maybe?

Seems there's an even chance of breaking a connector on Sata as well.

Sata pinning is 15 pins for the power supply (one connector) and 7 pins for data (another connector)

See here...

I guess we all will go for Sata at some stage.  Also understand that the max number of connectors on the mobo is two but several more can be attached using Raid.

An adaptor is available to connect Sata to Ide but haven't yet seen one which connects the other way round.

Thanks all

[Zylstra]

15 PINS FOR POWER!
WOW!

I guess they are really equal (until we have faster drives)

I think its probably all going to SATA since its smaller. (Probably cheaper)

You know what I cant wait for:
When every computer device plugs into a universal connector. (Almost like a USB, but faster. A way where all video cards, hdd, monitor, can all be plugged in, detected via BIOS and loaded with a generic driver (or the Driver be downloaded to a ROM/RAM chip from the internet using some sort of LAN that can access the internet before the OS is even loaded.)

[Dusty]

You know what I cant wait for:
When every computer device plugs into a universal connector. (Almost like a USB, but faster. A way where all video cards, hdd, monitor, can all be plugged in, detected via BIOS and loaded with a generic driver (or the Driver be downloaded to a ROM/RAM chip from the internet using some sort of LAN that can access the internet before the OS is even loaded.)

And all to happen without user intervention..  Don't you know that Uncle Bill has promised all of that in Windows Later, codename Utopia .

[Raptor]

About the airflow:
I dont think it really makes a difference. When you think about it, the effect of air making its way around objects counters it out.
And then again, its not in an area that really needs great airflow. (HDD's do produce heat, but not enough to do all too much dammage in a PC)

So, you think they create ROUNDED IDE cables for the heck of it?

[Dusty]

Hey Raptor - what's doing?    Very quotable quotes but don't seem to have much bearing on Sata vs Ide.   I suppose there must be a connection, all that's missing is the adaptor

[Raptor]

Hey Raptor - what's doing?    Very quotable quotes but don't seem to have much bearing on Sata vs Ide.   I suppose there must be a connection, all that's missing is the adaptor

That's weird, I quoted the wrong person. Thanks.