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Does SATA actually make a differance

I bought a SATA a few months back so that i can backup large ammounts of data and be able to store it safely away from my comp. If I was to use it as my main drive would I see any significent speed boost compared to my 60gb PATA drive

Hrm, there's no real difference in how fast the disk spins, of course (though there are some 10K RPM SATA drives), but SATA has a faster transfer rate than PATA and, more than likely, a number of other capabilities. If I recall correctly, SATA has a transfer rate of 1.5GB/s (150MB/s) and SATA II has a transfer rate of 3.0GB/s (300MB/s)... PATA has something like 133MB/s. I suppose you'll see a tad bit of a difference, but I'd get SATA anyway just based on the fact that it's a better interface (the cables use up less room too ).

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SATA II drives also have Native Command Quening. It also seems that the new drives perform better even without the use of ncq due to optimizations of the drive itself (i.e the 7200.8 and diamond max 10).

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Back in the states.

I hate the SAT.

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"Hey, **** YOU!"

If you have a mobo that supports sata, get a sata drive if you're in the market for a new HD, just for the sake of having the nicer cables. They're SO much thinner and easier to work with.

just remember that you need either an HD with a legacy power connector, or a molex -> sata power converter cable, if you don't have sata power connectors coming out of your PSU.

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I've got a girlfriend! WOOT.

Okay...a lot of things can make a difference. I recently built an Athlon64 box with 1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR400 ( 2-2-2-8 ) OC'd running in dual-channel mode (effectively pushing my fsb to 2000MHz)...I dropped a 74GB WD Raptor drive in there. For those not in the know, it's a 10,000rpm SATA drive, pretty awesome.

My install (drive format, install, config) from the first time I hit the power button to reaching a working desktop and achieving internet connectivity in Windows XP Pro SP1 was exactly nine minutes flat. I don't know anyone who could do it in even TWICE that time with a IDE ATA drive, even if the other hardware was the same.

The combined SATA capability and platter speed of the drive (as well as increased cache) really makes a world of difference. Load times for HL2 are practically non-existent. CS:S? I'm ALWAYS the first person in the room when it comes to map loads. Pretty sweet.

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Bmovies are BACK!

Last edited by actionPlant, May 13th, 2005 08:20 PM (Edited 3 times)

yeah but you'll see a nice gain even without necessarily going to a 10k rpm drive.

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Back in the states.

True, but if you can afford it, why not? You don't have to have deep pockets to get one of these things...get it OEM from newegg. I found my 74GB for about $175, install the OS on that so you take advantage of the speed, then put your media on your bigger IDE drives.

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Bmovies are BACK!