Which hard drive should I order?

[1heavyd]

I am ordering a larger hard drive for my desktop (a Maxtor 80 Gb). There are two types of interface an SATA and an IDE. Which hard drive should I order and why? I don't know the difference between them except I do know that I need to order the retail package.

[jroc]

ATA: Advanced Technology Attachment

usually supports drives from ATA 33 to ATA 133 (UDMA-80 Pin IDE Cable)

SATA: Transfer rates for Serial ATA begin at 150MBps.

So unless your motherboard supports SATA...then you might stay with Maxtor ATA 100/133...I have 4 Maxtor 80G Max9 ATA 133 UDMA installed.

Plus the support and RMA's of Maxtor are unbeatable.

[Drewdatrip]

Pretty much if you DONT know what SATA is then you most likley just need ATA.

You definatly dont have SATA if your computer is over about 7months old.

I would stick away from maxtor, but that is just me.

Reccomends are Western Digital and segate

|Drew|

[puntoMX]

You definatly dont have SATA if your computer is over about 7months old.

Hold on, better to make that 1 year and 7 months old .

1heavyd,

Tell us what kind of motherboard you have or what kind of system. Also, SATA(1) (ATA150) isn´t that much faster then a ATA100/133.

[prathapml]

As puntoMX says, its useless to go for SATA as of now. Despite 8 MB caches and fast spinning speeds, it still does not have enough performance difference over the normal (parallel ATA) drives to justify the higher cost.

Just remember that if SATA is costing 10% or more, higher than the standard PATA, then just buy a PATA itself. And of course, check whether your desktop has the ability to support SATA at all.... Bottomline is, wait for the SATA 2x generation if you need it, since only that could be worthwhile.

Also, IDE by itself can mean both SATA and PATA - for example my system has support for both integrated so its both IDE for me, as well as for many other people who bought MoBos recently.

[SiMoNsAyS]

ATA 100 (133 if possible, price don't differ too much) and retail

btw, my comp is 1 year and 5 months old, SATA Drive and MoBo lol

[XtremeMaC]

• why go with the retail pack?
  
• tell us your motherboard's name etc.. if u dunno it download everest home or look into the screen after u reset your comp.
  
• afaik there are not much difference in the prices of 80 & higher. in oem versions. i'd buy a higher cap, if u're needing a new hdd u'll soon discover that u need more
  
• I've seagate 80gb ata100, wd 120gb ata100, maxtor 160gb ata133, never had any problems with any of them...all 7200rpm
  
• if u're mobo has sata, u'll also need to check if your PSU support sata or not, if not u need to get a converter bc sata uses different cable for data & power
  

[epic]

• if u're mobo has sata, u'll also need to check if your PSU support sata or not, if not u need to get a converter bc sata uses different cable for data & power
  

Most all SATA drives have both 4pin & SerialATA power connectors installed on them. It's not neccesary to get a power supply that has SerialATA connectors, but it would be useful.