Is SATA worth the bother ?

**Lexeus** · 24-09-2003, 06:33 PM

I have an ATA 133 120 Gig 8 mb Cache Maxtor Diamond 9 drive in my computer, I have to get a new hard drive for my father so I was thinking of just giving him this dirve an replacing it with a 120Gig 8mb Cache Maxtor Diamond 9 SATA drive. Is it worth the bother of shifting all the stuff ?
I would just use partition magic to image the old drive onto the new, so it wouldnt be too bad, but would i really find a performace increase ? Or anything really better at all ? Is SATa really any better than ATA133 foir my daily gaming web drowsing, downloading etc, i dont really do a great deal of bench marking so i dont care about just a few more points, but is it worth it ?
I seem remember reading somewhere that there wasn't really much more than a different interface connector on some SATa drives, just like havcing a built in adaptor.
Appreciate any comments.

Thanks

**jon bda** · 24-09-2003, 07:49 PM

I hope its worth the bother, i just bought two WD Raptors...

**overfloe** · 24-09-2003, 07:54 PM

what about the maxtor s-ata.. any good?

**Yosh** · 24-09-2003, 09:08 PM

Unless your into benchmarking your drives you wont see much difference, i have one drive running on the sata lead and 3 on the ide and i dont notice any real change although its probably does something.

You could stick with ide for the moment.

The only item i do like about sata is the slimline cables which are easy to slip out of the way in the case

**dgr** · 25-09-2003, 11:58 AM

pigboy@

i have a raptor and it is HELLA fast. i upgraded my pc recently and it is noticeby faster than my WD/120/8/7200 ide drive.

jon bda@ have fun!!!

dgr

**jon bda** · 25-09-2003, 01:58 PM

Originally posted by dgr
jon bda@ have fun!!!

They arrive tomorrow...looking forward to getting it setup...

**Gordy** · 25-09-2003, 02:10 PM

If ure buying today it makes sense to go sata as its more future proof. If you already have a good drive I'd hold on to it

**dgr** · 25-09-2003, 04:11 PM

gordy@

i disagree with "future proof," as i don't see ide disappearing any time soon. you still need cd drives, and there isn't a replacement for that yet. motherboards will still need ide for that, and it won't be too much more expensive to provide 2 headers than one.

imo the only real reasons to go SATA are the quality of the drives (which are very similar for most except the raptor), the speeds (again very similar execpe the raptor) and the cables. which are very nice.

bear in mind that if you buy a hdd now, in 2-3 years it will probably end up as a backup drive with a couple of drives repalcing it as sytem drives. if i've only got SATA headers for 2 drives, i know that i'd buy an ide drive now....

dgr

**dgr** · 25-09-2003, 04:14 PM

btw jon bda which motherbiard do you have? if something like an asus a7n8x deluxe, and if you are building from scratch:

you will need a driver floppy - no way of doing it otherwise. you need all the files in the directory in the onces that CONATIN "disc one" and "disc2" folders on the cd

put it in the drive after the winxp setup begins and DON'T forget to press F6!

and finally, run MEMTEST86 BEFORE you run xp setup as any faulty ram is likely to give you a bad windows build.

just my 2p

dgr

**Lexeus** · 25-09-2003, 05:27 PM

thanks for all the comments guys, i think im just gonna buy a 80 gig IDE drive for ym father and stick with my IDE maxtor, been good so far

Also, was thinking about the 'future proof' comments, there always seems to be this tag of 'first generation' SATA drives; So it could be possible in the future that they change them slightly and may not even work as well as they do now on future mobos ? Maybe, just a thought

Thanks again all

**Austin** · 25-09-2003, 06:00 PM

Yeah no real need for SATA, there is a gain in Maxtor (and Raptor obviously) but most other manu's have simply sold current ATA100/133 drives with a SATA interface, there's no gain from the 150MB/s badnwidth at the mo, the 133MB/s of ATA133 wasn't needed. The current drives (SATA150) will certainly work in future SATA (SATA300?) so no probs there. There are benefits to SATA, potential for hit-swapping, lower CPU usage, small cables, no bandwidth sharing, cooler running etc. However it is still in its infancy and I'm sure there will be wrinkles to iron out, many find SATA perf is a little quirky or slowert than std PATA ... bottom line get ATA100/133 as the biggest benfit is a mature archy, lower prices (slightly) and the ability to try/use/sell the drive to/in any PC.

**dgr** · 25-09-2003, 06:10 PM

austin@: the cooler running probably has more to do with the drives themsevles than the technology (if you ddin't know). The weight of my raptor is incredible, it has fins on the sides to cool it down!!!

rest assured the only place it is going in my case is between 2 80mm fans...

dgr

**jon bda** · 25-09-2003, 07:21 PM

Originally posted by dgr
btw jon bda which motherbiard do you have?

Have the following system (its in my sig as well?, dunno if you have sigs turned of or not so)...

[size=0.75]Chieftec Dragon Full Tower - Antec TruePower 430watt - ASUS A7N8X deluxe (Rev 1.04, 1004 uber BIOS) - XP2600+ T'bred - AX-7 & Delta - Radeon 9700 Pro - 1 Gig Crucial PC2700 - 2x 36.7gig WD Raptors (RAID 0) *IN THE POST* - Backup: 40gig Maxtor D740X - Lite-On 52x24x52 - Pioneer 16x Slot DVD - Logitech Internet Navigator - Wireless Intellimouse Explorer - Iiyama VM1451 19" - Cambridge Soundworks DTT2500's - XP Pro[/size]

Its all been running fine up until the point the 80gig WD drive i have decided to crap out. Thats gone off for RMA and in the meantime i was going to buy just one 7200RPM/120gig SATA drive but these Raptors came along and i couldn't resist

. Going to get it all up and running, then in the near future i'll swap the 40gig Maxtor drive for a 120/160gig IDE drive for backup and storage...

**dgr** · 26-09-2003, 10:45 AM

duh, just saw it...

dgr

**Gordy** · 26-09-2003, 11:34 AM

Originally posted by dgr
gordy@

i disagree with "future proof," as i don't see ide disappearing any time soon. you still need cd drives, and there isn't a replacement for that yet. motherboards will still need ide for that, and it won't be too much more expensive to provide 2 headers than one.

imo the only real reasons to go SATA are the quality of the drives (which are very similar for most except the raptor), the speeds (again very similar execpe the raptor) and the cables. which are very nice.

bear in mind that if you buy a hdd now, in 2-3 years it will probably end up as a backup drive with a couple of drives repalcing it as sytem drives. if i've only got SATA headers for 2 drives, i know that i'd buy an ide drive now....
dgr

I'm running my dvd writer on sata

IDE is not needed

**dgr** · 26-09-2003, 12:02 PM

sata - ide convertor?

didn't realise you could. thats genius!

dgr

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