SATA vs IDE HDD?

[Raphael Argus]

Hi all, my old 75gb Western Digital HDD seems to be dying on me after many good years of use. I notice my motherboard supports SATA and ATA 100, and I'm not sure exactly what the benefits are, if any. I am looking at a 160gb Seagate Barracuda drive that is SATA.

What is the difference between IDE, SATA, and ATA 100?

Would it be wise for me to purchase a SATA over IDE?

Any help would be appreciated, I'm pretty much old school and have only used standard IDE HDD's.

 

[weringo]

ATA hard drive run on IDE channels and SATA hard drives run on SATA channels. SATA is faster with 150mb/s transfer rate against the 100 mb/sec of ATA100

 

[Tyler1989]

SATA is far superior because the modern SATAs get 3GB/S using SATA2 Technology.

I've even seen people say there is SATA3 at 5GB/S but I'm not sure if thats true.

The old SATA is 150MB/S

 

[Sport1031]

Also the SATA cables (top right) are thinner than IDE cables (left), allowing for better airflow.

 

[Cobalt]

Better performance, much sleeker cables and the newer of the two technologies in question - SATA every time. Put it this way, buy a SATA drive now and you can probably transfer it to a new PC should you get one within the next year or two.

Just go with the more futureproof technology to get your moneys worth is my advice, especially since (where I am from anyway) SATA drives are no more than ATA drives.

John

 

[Raphael Argus]

Thanks all! I'll go SATA all the way.

Are SATA powered from the motherboard or the typical 4-pin power connector?

Seagate Baracuda 160GB SATA a decent drive?

Thanks again!