IDE vs SATA

[hons]

We can see it in two ways :

Normal users :

If you want to add a PATA HDD into your system, before you do that, you have to find out what is primary master, primary slave, secondary master and secondary slave otherwise most likely you will not be able to see your new HDD.

If you want to add a SATA HDD, just connect the cables and start the computer, that's it.

Pro users :

PATA, you can only have 4 devices which inluded HDD and CD-Rom and your case becomes "Warm" already.

SATA, Max. you can have 127 devices(ideal) and which suppose will not affect to each other (when you want to burn an image from HDD to DVD-R).

Will this be easier to explain???

[jcarle]

PATA, you can only have 4 devices which inluded HDD and CD-Rom and your case becomes "Warm" already.

SATA, Max. you can have 127 devices(ideal)

That is incorrect.

IDE supports 2 devices per channel. SATA supports 1 device per channel. There is no limit to the number of channels that can be used. You could have 200 IDE channels and you could have 200 SATA channels. The only limit is in the chip designs and motherboard layouts.

[XL-DJK]

Interesting, so since I only have 2 sata ports, I can only have 2 sata drives running.....

[Taliseian]

Been reading this thread and learning alot....thanks OP

I do have a question concerning my own rig and how to improve upon it.

Mobo - Gigabyte GA-945P-S3 rev 1.0

I have one SATA HDD, and one IDE HDD and CDROM.

The SATA is used as the primary boot drive.

Financially I can't afford getting another SATA drive for a while, but I was thinking about getting an IDE to SATA converter for my other HDD and possibly for my CDROM (not sure if they make them tho).

If I do that, will I see any increased performance since I'm going all SATA?

I'm a little confused about my mobo settings. WinXP shows the Intel SATA Drivers in the Device Manager and I think I'm getting a good transfer rate from my SATA Drive, but I don't want to slow my system down by mixing IDE and SATA drives if by going all SATA (even with converters that I know slow down transfer rates) I can increase performance by turning off the IDE channels in the bios.

If my post doesn't make sense, its probably because I need more coffee.....

Thanks in advance for advice/help.

T

[nmX.Memnoch]

If you do a lot of file transfers between the SATA and PATA drive then you'll probabaly see a slight performance increase. You may also notice a slight increase with CD burning (even if you leave it on the PATA controller with both drives on the SATA controller). At the very least there would be less of a chance of coaster making.

Other than that you probably won't notice much...other than having better air flow, which will result in a cooler running system.

[jcarle]

Using an IDE to SATA converter for your hard drive would be to your advantage since it would allow your CD-Rom to be by itself on the IDE cable. Two devices on the same IDE cable will always cause bottlenecks, it native to the technology. I wouldn't advise using the converter for the CD-Rom at the moment, even if it would work, as SATA ATAPI protocols are still unstable.