I am curious and after reading many many posts i am still lost, i am fixing to buy my new computer and i wanted to get an 80 GB SATA HDD. I am familiar with the old PATA i guess they call it with the flat cable? But where does IDE come in and what the heck is IDE? Is sata just a different connection to the motherboard? Can someone clear this up a little, i wanna go sata i hear it is faster but i hate to get into stuff i dont understand.
Sata Or Ata?
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the definitions for you:
IDE: A type of disk-drive interface in which the controller electronics reside on the drive itself, which eliminates the need for a separate adapter card. The IDE interface is compatible with the controller that IBM used in the PC/AT computer, but offers advantages such as look-ahead caching
EIDE: Enhanced Integrated Digital Electronics. The current standard for hard drives. Replaces the original IDE specification. The controller is built into the drive, and does not require an accessory card on the bus
ATA (AT Attachment): A disk drive interface standard for integrating drive controllers directly on disk drives. The ANSI X3T10 working group developed this standard. ATA includes the ATA-1, ATA-2, Fast ATA, and Parallel ATA standards
ATAPI: Short for AT Attachment Packet Interface, an extension to EIDE (also called ATA-2) that enables the interface to support CD-ROM players and tape drives.
Serial ATA: Often abbreviated SATA or S-ATA, an evolution of the Parallel ATA physical storage interface. Serial ATA is a serial link -- a single cable with a minimum of four wires creates a point-to-point connection between devices. Transfer rates for Serial ATA begin at 150MBps. One of the main design advantages of Serial ATA is that the thinner serial cables facilitate more efficient airflow inside a form factor and also allow for smaller chassis designs. In contrast, IDE cables used in parallel ATA systems are bulkier than Serial ATA cables and can only extend to 40cm long, while Serial ATA cables can extend up to one meter
With that said... This is the simple of it.
In the old days we had IDE which was great, but slow. Then came EIDE and extends to today. The ATA standard came out to provide enhancments to the drive technology so things got faster. ATAPI has been around for a while so we have CDroms and such. PATA (EIDE ATA) is the standard drive spec for all desktop and laptop drives. SATA is an up and coming technology that offers many enhancments on an old specification. Not only is it faster, but it's a simpler technology, with smaller cables to boot. SATA works on a dedicated connection to each drive and can support higher data transfer and sustained speeds than ATA. SATA is a HDD technology, that as far as I know is not meant for the CD world, so we won't be seeing IDE free system for a while.
Hope that helps.
IDE: A type of disk-drive interface in which the controller electronics reside on the drive itself, which eliminates the need for a separate adapter card. The IDE interface is compatible with the controller that IBM used in the PC/AT computer, but offers advantages such as look-ahead caching
EIDE: Enhanced Integrated Digital Electronics. The current standard for hard drives. Replaces the original IDE specification. The controller is built into the drive, and does not require an accessory card on the bus
ATA (AT Attachment): A disk drive interface standard for integrating drive controllers directly on disk drives. The ANSI X3T10 working group developed this standard. ATA includes the ATA-1, ATA-2, Fast ATA, and Parallel ATA standards
ATAPI: Short for AT Attachment Packet Interface, an extension to EIDE (also called ATA-2) that enables the interface to support CD-ROM players and tape drives.
Serial ATA: Often abbreviated SATA or S-ATA, an evolution of the Parallel ATA physical storage interface. Serial ATA is a serial link -- a single cable with a minimum of four wires creates a point-to-point connection between devices. Transfer rates for Serial ATA begin at 150MBps. One of the main design advantages of Serial ATA is that the thinner serial cables facilitate more efficient airflow inside a form factor and also allow for smaller chassis designs. In contrast, IDE cables used in parallel ATA systems are bulkier than Serial ATA cables and can only extend to 40cm long, while Serial ATA cables can extend up to one meter
With that said... This is the simple of it.
In the old days we had IDE which was great, but slow. Then came EIDE and extends to today. The ATA standard came out to provide enhancments to the drive technology so things got faster. ATAPI has been around for a while so we have CDroms and such. PATA (EIDE ATA) is the standard drive spec for all desktop and laptop drives. SATA is an up and coming technology that offers many enhancments on an old specification. Not only is it faster, but it's a simpler technology, with smaller cables to boot. SATA works on a dedicated connection to each drive and can support higher data transfer and sustained speeds than ATA. SATA is a HDD technology, that as far as I know is not meant for the CD world, so we won't be seeing IDE free system for a while.
Hope that helps.
nice explanation. however, i think you missed one thing. i dont think many if any drives out there currently even push the 133 Mb/s of the ATA interface. i think the main advantage of SATA for now is the thin cables, not superior speed. 150 Mb/s is a little overkill at present. correct me if im wrong.
And not to correct you, but all SATA drives have an 8meg buffer, couple that with the same if not faster rotation speed and higher transfer rate and you'll notice a difference. The connectors are kind of flimsy, but no more jumper settings.
All in all, I say SATA all the way.
All in all, I say SATA all the way.
LoTeX
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aaaaaaaaaaaand sata 2 (300mbs) shoud be backwards compatible with curent sata 1.
Cherubimon_3.20
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Inaris said:
I have a question. Would an ATA HDD work on a computer with this caliber:
Pentium 167 MHz
Windows 98SE
That depends. The drive needs to support ATA 33 to be used I would guess. Some of the newer drives don't cary the older compataibility that they should. But I think you should be able to use any HDD on a Pentium class system from the past 8 years. I don't remember having a problem loading an ata133 on a Pentium 200 so I don't see why you should...
Your motherbaord would determine what hard drive youed be limited too.Your processor wouldnt matter.Most hard drives would back step if your motherbaord dosent support the higher ata.
8mg buffer's and 7200 rotation are common for Ata drives.Only thing differnt about Sata is the connection to my knowledge.Raptor has 10000 rotation but has nothing to do with it being a sata drive.
A lot of times you can flash your bios to get higher ata depends on yuor broad maker.
See very little differance between a high end ata and a sata drive. Just your cash and marketing involved.If its atleast 7200 8 cache 100 ata is really all that matter's. Rest would be frosting.
8mg buffer's and 7200 rotation are common for Ata drives.Only thing differnt about Sata is the connection to my knowledge.Raptor has 10000 rotation but has nothing to do with it being a sata drive.
A lot of times you can flash your bios to get higher ata depends on yuor broad maker.
See very little differance between a high end ata and a sata drive. Just your cash and marketing involved.If its atleast 7200 8 cache 100 ata is really all that matter's. Rest would be frosting.
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