-=PCTechTalk=- Re: ide or sata hard drives?

Hi Matt,
    Smart man!!!  As a general rule, Noise = Aging bearings which will 
eventually fail and take the data with them.

    SATA is actually easier to work with than IDE drive.  The cable is much 
thinner and plugs in much easier than the wide ribbon cables IDE uses. 
Since they connect easier, it also means they can disconnect easier, so be 
aware as you back your hands out of the case.

    The fastest IDE interface is generally thought of as 100 Gbit/sec. 
Maxtor came out with a 133 Gbit/sec (and your board supports this for IDE 
drives), but it wasn't widely adopted (probably because they knew that SATA 
was on the way).  The SATA spec was originally introduced with a 150 
Gbit/sec interface, so it already sported a 50% advantage over IDE.  The 
second generation of SATA devices does confuse the issue a bit, but the most 
significant change was an increase in transfer speed to 300 Gbit/sec.  Check 
the link below for a LOT more info on the spec.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA#SATA_1.5_Gbit.2Fs

    If you need to replace a drive, future proof yourself and get the best 
drive technology available to you.  In the case of your board, that would be 
a second generation SATA drive.  Eventually you'll have to replace the board 
and your new board will definitely support a SATA II drive.  The same cannot 
be said of any PATA devices.

    Finally, if you DO get a SATA drive, only connect ONE of the two 
possible power supply lines to the drive.  They come with both the older 
Molex port (4 large pins) as well as a new SATA power port (a much thinner 
connector).  If you try using both at the same time, you could fry the 
drive.  Not good.

Peace,
GMan

The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matt Moceri" <matt.moceri@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 12:01 PM
Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- ide or sata hard drives?


> My hard drive is getting loud so I'm going to replace it.  My mobo is an 
> MSI-K7N2 Delta2 Platinum with;  AMD Athlon XP 2400 cpu & 1 gig memory. 
> Presently it has two hard drives; one 80 gig Western Digital primary hd 
> and a 40 gig WD secondary.  (Besides backing up data onto an external hard 
> drive, I also keep a back up of data on the second hard drive.)
> My problem is should I go with ide hard drives again or switch to one or 
> two sata drives.  They're pretty much cost the same price but which is 
> better?  Another concern is since I've never installed a sata hd, is it 
> going to be difficult installing one and will I have a problem ghosting 
> info from an ide hd onto a sata hd? My computer is running Windows XP sp2.
>
> The mobo has the most recent drives and bios installed. Here is a url for 
> the board;
>
> http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=592&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=171&cat3_no=89
>
>
> Thanks,  MM 


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