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SATA vs IDE

Sun, 04/15/2007 - 22:32 — RevT

What exactly is a SATA drive? I'm looking at some hard drives and all the really cheap ones are SATA. I think its just a different connection type, but why is it also so cheap?

Like this one,
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=14&name=Internal-Hard-Drives

Any links to read about it somewhere?

Can I convert or adapt my IDE drives to a SATA?

Thanks,
RevT

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Tue, 04/17/2007 - 11:06 — Roachman

SATA vs IDE

The diffence is not only the connector, but also SATA drives have a higher (theoretical) transfer rate. A good SATA drive should outperform an IDE drive of similar specs.

SATA drives are getting cheaper because they are becoming the most common hard drive available, and IDE is getting more expensive because they are not being produced in as great a number as even a year ago.

On the latest Intel chipsets, IDE controllers are not even included. For example, my new board added a JMicron controler to handle the IDE drives, the new Intel chips don't have IDE. If you are looking for new drives, and have the connectors on your board for SATA, I would get those. If you get a new board down the road, you know SATA will be on it, while IDE may not (not to mention better performance).

Roachman
A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.

Wed, 04/18/2007 - 11:23 — Roachman

Conversion

Okay, if you want to go from SATA (on the board) to an IDE drive, you can use an adapter like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822998008

If you want to go from IDE (on the board) to an SATA drive it looks like this adapter would do the trick http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812203016

Keep in mind that you will loose a little performance because of the conversion process (no matter which way you are converting).

Roachman
A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.