Compatability, motherboards and hard drive connections!

I have no idea how to set up an SATA hard drive, is it easy - and am I right in thinking most motherboards come with the necessary cables etc?
apart from this is IDE going out of fashion or just that SATA is more reliable?

those 2 questions out of the way I notice there are variations of ATA out there - whats all that about and how do i know I'm not about to buy an hdd thats not going to work with a mobo I buy at the same time?!!

I'm just about ready to spent a lot of mohunney for a fully new set up, here's what I plan [have probably said this loads of times before but this is pretty much definite:

Neo2 plat.
3000+ AMD64
512mb (crucial) 3200ddr [mobo, cpu and mem as one in a kit]
ATI 9800pro :devilish:
420w tagan whisper
160gb seagate barracuda (which ever ide or sata)
comes to £480, i'll get 512mb more when I have some more money in next month :rolleyes: [and a copy of win xp pro for £80 too!!]

need a suitable cooler on cpu - havent decided yet, about £20 to play with though is about right. suggestions welcome!

SATA cables rock - ATA cables don't.

Native Command Queueing is nice - not the be all and end all right now though.

Yes, there are various types of ATA, 33,66,100,133, doesn't really make that much of a difference whichever drive you plug in, unless you're using an old drive/motherboard.

My motherboard came with the required cables, which was nice. The only thing about setting up SATA is having to use a floppy for the Windows XP install process... allowing XP Setup to see the SATA device. This is only necessary if you're installing to it.

Didn't need a floppy for my install, but I was using the latest SP2 version (if that makes a difference).

right...still bit confused about it all

ok, so I've found a
"160Gb Seagate Barracuda ATA-100 (7200rpm,8MB) - PATA "
and a
"160Gb Seagate Barracuda (7200rpm, 8Mb) - SATA - NCQ"

whats the difference apart froma few letters? is one faster than the other? I'll only be using one hdd so will it matter which type I get at all?

PATA = IDE
NCQ isn't supported on that mobo anyway iirc but may improve performance slightly at a later date if used in a multi hdd PC where the mobo & other drives support it.

There is no real difference in performance as the mechanics of the drive are the limiting factor rather than the interface but for future compatability if there isn't a big difference in price I would go SATA.

right so i might as well go with bog standard ide then. cool, cheers for the info :)

Go SATA if you can !, The smaller cables alone make it worthwhile ! :)
Plus as Buff said, they have better future compatability (i wouldnt think it was a worry too much though, IDE will be here for a while).

Get SATA HDDs and leave the IDE connections for your CD/DVD drives. You want to avoid sharing devices on the IDE.

well i'm comfortable with ide so might as well stick with it - no point learning something new and trying it out on lots of expensive equipment...and getting it horrendously wrong!

p.s. i'm stumped again, lowestonweb have a bundle that is neo2, 512 crucial mem, 3000+ BUT no fan for cpu (its oem) - the cheapest with this route includes a 9800pro from l.o.w. too and the rest from scan.
OR i can get cpu with fan from scan but since its not in a bundle then costs more, and also get a sapphire 9800pro...in all its £20 more...but is it worth it to get all from scan? as the other route i'd need a cpu fan, could i do better than oem fan for £20?!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ed^chigliak

Get SATA HDDs and leave the IDE connections for your CD/DVD drives. You want to avoid sharing devices on the IDE.

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not if the mobo has two ide connections - one for hard drives and one for optical drives...which i'm guessing many have now a days, also the one at sacn is ncq, what ever that means! but apparently it wont work with what i want...

NCQ is a feature of SATA hard drives, not PATA(IDE) hard drives; see WIKI for details. Using SATA isn't hard at all; all you have to do is make sure you have the floppy with the SATA driver on it when you install Windows, hit F6 when you get to the "Press F6 if you want to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver" and feed it the floppy when asked.

oh ok...ta.

now's another one - whats so good about the MSI Neo2 that makes it £10-£15 more than the gigabyte k8nf-9 board?...both seem to have similar specs. could save a bob or two even more!
i know the gigabyte is pci-e and the msi is agp, but then i have no idea how pci-e cards compare to their agp counterparts, e.g. is an x600pro the same as a 9600pro agp, or better?

If you're gonna go pci-e, LOW do a 6600gt for £5 less than their 9800pro... they are better as well as cheaper!

edited out...