Some SATA questions

Syth

I need a new harddrive. I need about a 250GB (or more) drive. I'm undecieded between a SATA or an IDE drive. They are about the same price per gigabyte (on komplett). However I've heard that SATA are faster, and more reliable than IDEs. How true is that?

Also I know there is SATA 1 and SATA 2. I have 2 SATA connectors on my motherboard (it's one of this: http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=572), it was bought in July 2004, so I've been told that it's unlikely I have SATA2. What kind of backwards compatibilty is there with SATA drives? Will SATA2 drives work in a SATA1 connector?

I'm considering getting a IDE drive just for the simplicity of it. I know it's all going to work.

mloc

an SATA-II drive will work with an SATA-I connector/motherboard. It will work at the SATA-I speed however.

Personally, i'd go with the SATA drive becuase the cables are neater! There won't be a huge speed difference.

Creamy Goodness

SATA drives are backward compatible, SATA 2 will work with SATA1.

the connecters are the same just like USB 1 & 2.

i'm not sure on all the speed increases/decreases if any maybe someone else might fill you in there.

also don't make the same mistake i did when buying SATA drives.

if you have a PSU that doesn't have SATA power connecters buy one of these for each drive
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=314057

conzy

SATA is 1.5gb/s SATA2 is 3gb/s there is no performance increase with SATA2 other than support for NCQ.......

SeanW

The problem with using SATA drives as primary hard drives is that when installing Windows on them, Windows XP and older do not recognise SATA/SATA 2 archictectures natively, meaning that you will need to use a floppy disk containing special drivers and interrupt Win setup at the beginning to add them. You need to be careful to read your main boards manual in this case.

Also, yes, SATA 2 drives are backwards compatible, AFAIK there's normally a jumper on the back that allows you to switch between SATA and SATA 2

So if you're planning to buy a primary hard drive and aren't familiar with SATA/SATA2, save yourself the grief and grab the IDE version.

If you are more confident/prepared or are planning to add your new HD as a secondary storage, go for it.

Michael Collins

SeanW wrote:

...meaning that you will need to use a floppy disk containing special drivers and interrupt Win setup at the beginning...

Yeh, the major problem with SATA. Newer technology (SATA Drive) needs a really old technology (Floppy Drive) to work...very annoying.

leeroybrown

There is a performance increase between SATA and IDE. This is because of the increased bandwidth of the SATA interface. Ultimately the transfer speeds are limited by the physical disk itself. NCQ also offers performance improvements by dealing with multiple simultaneous disk requests more efficiently.

SATA disks not necessarily more reliable. Any extra reliability would come from improvement in the design of the moving parts but these would be the same in similar. One thing that might lead to this impression is that there are more expensive enterprise SATA drives available such as the WD Raptor and the WD Caviar RAID-Edition which are specifically designed to be more reliable.

leeroybrown

Michael Collins wrote:

Yeh, the major problem with SATA. Newer technology (SATA Drive) needs a really old technology (Floppy Drive) to work...very annoying.

There are tools available to create an altered Windows CD with the drivers available. I assume the most recent WIndows XP revisions include installer updates for the common SATA chipsets.

L31mr0d

this might seem n00bie. But could someone explain why SATA drives need 2 power connectors? I mean they've got the SATA one and the Molex one. I'd assumed you could use either but on trying it will only boot with both.

Also is NCQ a hardware feature by default with SATA drives, is there any way of testing to make sure it is actually working?

leeroybrown

L31mr0d wrote:

this might seem n00bie. But could someone explain why SATA drives need 2 power connectors? I mean they've got the SATA one and the Molex one. I'd assumed you could use either but on trying it will only boot with both.

Also is NCQ a hardware feature by default with SATA drives, is there any way of testing to make sure it is actually working?

A lot of SATA1 drives had both power connectors because 1) very few power supplies had the correct connectors and 2) they were essentially modified IDE drives with an ATA -> SATA bridging chipset. SATA2 drives and some later SATA1 drives will only have the SATA power connector. You only need to use one and I would suggest that you have something else wrong if you need both.

NCQ should work by default if both your drive and motherboard support it and you havn't jumpered your drive not to use it.

Syth

Thanks for the replies, this is helpful stuff. Thanks for the heads up on the power connecter Cremo, I probably would have forgetten about it and then been pissed when I got it.

Currently I have a 120GB IDE drive, I'm going to keep that around and use the new one for /home. The OS (Ubuntu Dapper) will be staying on the IDE.

SeanW

Yeah, if the OS is staying on the IDE you might as well go for the SATA drive.

However, you may want to make sure that your SATA controllers drivers exist for the OS you're using.

Syth

SeanW wrote:

However, you may want to make sure that your SATA controllers drivers exist for the OS you're using.

Yeah, I know. Fun fun.

Creamy Goodness

Syth wrote:

Thanks for the replies, this is helpful stuff. Thanks for the heads up on the power connecter Cremo, I probably would have forgetten about it and then been pissed when I got it.

heh, no problem you learn from others mistakes, i had to give pcworld a tenner cause i wasn't paying komplett a tenner to ship 3 euros worth of goods.