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I am going to buy 160 GB hard disk. But I have got an offer from a nearby computer hardware shop of the 2 * 80 GB hard drives (used) which are actually IDE. So I wanted to know if I should go for this or 160 GB SATA hard drive. What the real difference between them and which is more better.
Before going further for anything, please be sure which cables does your computer support. Are they SATA or IDE? If you are currently having SATA connector, IDE drive will not work. In fact you cant even connect them to your motherboard.
Oh, I forgot to mention that my computer supports both IDE as well as SATA connection. Currently I am having a 160 GB SATA already. But I know I can connect IDE as well. Thats why I am considering that.
Difference between IDE and SATA drives:-
ATA
(Also known as IDE) is a disk drive implementation that integrates the controller on the disk drive itself. ATA is used to connect hard disk drives, CD-ROM drives and similar peripherals and supports 8/16-bit interface that transfer up to 8.3MB/s for ATA-2 and up to 100MB/s (ATA-6).
So, what do parallel interfaces have to do with SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) and SATA (Serial ATA)? A lot, actually. It is the architectural limitations of the parallel interfaces that serial technologies like SAS and SATA address. In contrast to multiple parallel data stream, data is transmitted serially, that is in a single steam, by wrapping multiple bits into packets and it is able to move that single stream faster than parallel technology.
Serial ATA (SATA)
Often abbreviated as SATA, Serial ATA is 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 150MB/s.
Starting with SATA, it extends the capabilities of ATA and offers transfer rates starting at 150MB/s and, after years of development, has moved to the mainstream of disk interfaces. The successor the SCSI interface is SAS at speeds of up to 3Gb/s. Additionally, it also addresses parallel interface issues such as drive addressability and limitations on the number of device per port connection.
Why going for the used drives? That too when they are 2 while you can get brand new single 160 GB instead! Any specific reason?Quote:
Originally Posted by F1RE
You provided nice detail information RoninBlade. Thanks for that :) So which one is more beneficial. What will you suggest?
Yeah, I am getting the used IDE drives at comparatively very cheaper rates. And they are also in good working conditions as I scrutinized. But still want to confirm from you techies because I want to get the best.Quote:
Originally Posted by T.j.
Serial interfaces offer an improvement over older parallel in storage applications and environments. These benefits include better performance, better scalability, and also better reliability as the parallel interfaces are at their limits of speed with reliable data transfers. SATA drives can also operate in the same environment while ATA cannot. For example, using faster SAS drives for primary storage and offloading older data to cheaper SATA disks in the same subsystem, something that could not be achieved with ATA.
Sata with NCQ is better. Sata without NCQ is basically a IDE drive without fat cluttering cables. Sata has much thinner and manageable cables. IDE cables are really fat and hard to work with.
Difference at a glance -
- Speed (150mbps (SATA) vs 100/133mbps (PATA))
- Air flow (large IDE cable vs thin SATA)
- Hot swappable (SATA)
- Newer technology with future speed increases promised.
NCQ is useless if your controller doesn't support it, and if the software you use does not support multi-threading.Quote:
Originally Posted by RoninBlade
SATA stands for serial ATA, which is a fairly new interface found on newer motherboards.
Plain old ATA, sometimes called parallel ATA, is another term for the older IDE interface, which has been around for many years.
The newer interface supports faster throughput, easier recognition of multiple drives and greater reliability, but none of that is really important from the average end-user's standpoint. IDE and ATA are essentially different abbreviations for the same thing.