buy new SATA 3.0Gb/s drive to replace ata133 drive?

[cumminbk]

I an looking into a new system and the new motherboard supports SATA 3.0Gb/s. My current one does not and i have ATA133 IDE drives right now. Should i pay to get the a new drive. I need at larger drive this one im looking at is 250 gb. i only have 120gb drives right now. Any performance increases with SATA 3.0Gb/s?

[ripken204]

not much of a performance increase but there are new features in it. go to newegg.com and look at the seagate 3.0gb/s 250gig or 320gig hdds with perpendicular recording.

[nmX.Memnoch]

The model number for those is 7200.10. They range from 40GB all the way up to 750GB. The 250GB model can be purchased for $75US +shipping.

[tomi_ak47]

PATA also got harddisk over 300G ~ 500G , like seagate 7200.10 , 16M cache . i like it , max transfer rate over 74M/s !

[ripken204]

PATA also got harddisk over 300G ~ 500G , like seagate 7200.10 , 16M cache . i like it , max transfer rate over 74M/s !

ya, like i said theres not much of a performance increase, if any at all.

[nmX.Memnoch]

The main benefit right now is the easier cable routing.

When solid-state drives start hitting the market in a few years then the SATA interface will become more important (unless they create yet another new interface for those...but I don't think they will). SSD's should be able to use the full bandwidth of the controller. Also, with SSD's the sustained rate should be much closer to the burst rate...if there's even such a thing as a burst rate with SSD's. While there are a few SSD's out now, it's probably still going to be a few years before they're mass marketed.

[betamax]

I love the SATA cable. I would burn my IDE cable if I didn't still have old drives in my system. I'd ditch the old drives, but I've got gigs of porn on them.. and I can't let go of that.

Also, as far as I know, drives have not exceeded the 1.5Gb/s rate of SATA1 as of yet (correct me if I'm wrong). So while you can get a 7200rpm drive that supports the SATA2 interface, a SATA1 drive at 10,000rpm (WD Raptor) will probably get you a little faster loading times.

[ripken204]

well the only benefit is the burst speeds. i cant beleive there suppose to be coming out with sata3 sometime this year, no point IMO.

[nmX.Memnoch]

Keep in mind that "SATA II" doesn't really reference the potential speed increase. It references several technologies. A SATA150 drive can still support "SATA II" technologies even though it doesn't have the 3Gb/s (or SATA300) speeds.

See this article on the SATA-IO website titled Dispelling the Confusion: SATA II does not mean 3Gb/s.

So the "SATA III" (or "SATA3" if you prefer) committee will probably be responsible for adding additional capabilities to the SATA interface, one of which will be 6Gb/s theoretical speeds. Most of these additions to the spec are aimed at the enterprise market when SATA drives are paired with a SAS RAID controller. Not only is it MUCH cheaper to use SATA drives instead of SAS drives, but you can also get MUCH larger capacities. The largest SAS drive right now is 300GB with no rumors on when a larger drive will be released. The largest SATA drive right now is 750GB with 1TB expected within months.

[ripken204]

i didnt read the article but how does sataII not mean 3Gb/s? isnt one of the technologies of sataII is that is had a theoretical max transfer speed of 3Gb/s ?

[nmX.Memnoch]

That's one of the additions to the SATA specification. But as I said, a SATA150 can have all of the "SATA II" specs except for the speed and still technically be considered a "SATA II" drive. This is how WD got some extra speed out of the Raptor drives (aside from the 10K RPM spindle speed). They have all of the specs except for 3Gb/s, but because of that people don't refer to them as "SATA II" drives. And conversly, a SATA300 drive can have none of the specs except 3Gb/s.

The article is short and worth a read.

Edited April 11, 2007 by nmX.Memnoch