ide or sata?

[kazz0817]

i know sata is faster but how much more noticable in games? also can someone please explain to me what RAID is? im guessing it involves 2 sata hard drives link'd together somehow? or is my understanding way off mark? thanx in advance

i would also like to know if i could get any extra speed from my current hard drive, its currently connected to my motherboard via standard IDE cable

my motherboard is: asus a7n8x-edeluxe
and my hard drive is: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB ATA-133 8MB Cache

i have IDE cables, and i also have SATA cables, with the correct sockets for them to fit in on my motherboard could i plug the above hard drive into the SATA sockets using the cable that came with my motherboard? (SATA) or would i have to buy a SATA hard drive to do this? i got my HD from the IDE section of the online PC store.

[mc2phat]

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/

If you have SATA controller(s) on your motherboard, go with SATA drives. The performance is marginally better; SATA will be around for a long time now, may as well stay current.

[RJ]

Although SATA is faster, you won't notice it because it's only burst rate, not sustained rate. Current hard drives can't really take advantage of SATA's high speed.

Anyway, by the topic's name "ide or sata?" I guess you want to build a new PC ? In that case, go SATA. Simply because 1) thinner cables -> better cooling, 2) no master/slave settings -> each drive has full bandwidth at all times (2 devices on the same IDE channel have to share the bandwidth between them, therefore they are a bit slower when used at the same time), 3) SATA is new -> new boards will always have SATA. PATA will fade away, no one knows how long it takes. If you need a spare hard drive in a couple of years, SATA hard drive will have its connection, PATA maybe not, 4) same price -> SATA is not more expensive

RAID involves more than 1 hard drive and there are different setups of RAID, like for example mirroring: 2 hard drives that have exactly the same data -> when 1 fails, the other is your backup, data is not lost.
Or striping: 2 hard drives act as one, and data is written on the hard drive that is able to write, whichever of the 2 that is -> faster
You can also combine the two (but then you need 4 hard drives).

RJ

[kazz0817]

Originally Posted by RJ Although SATA is faster, you won't notice it because it's only burst rate, not sustained rate. Current hard drives can't really take advantage of SATA's high speed. Anyway, by the topic's name "ide or sata?" I guess you want to build a new PC ? In that case, go SATA. Simply because 1) thinner cables -> better cooling, 2) no master/slave settings -> each drive has full bandwidth at all times (2 devices on the same IDE channel have to share the bandwidth between them, therefore they are a bit slower when used at the same time), 3) SATA is new -> new boards will always have SATA. PATA will fade away, no one knows how long it takes. If you need a spare hard drive in a couple of years, SATA hard drive will have its connection, PATA maybe not, 4) same price -> SATA is not more expensive RAID involves more than 1 hard drive and there are different setups of RAID, like for example mirroring: 2 hard drives that have exactly the same data -> when 1 fails, the other is your backup, data is not lost. Or striping: 2 hard drives act as one, and data is written on the hard drive that is able to write, whichever of the 2 that is -> faster You can also combine the two (but then you need 4 hard drives). RJ

so RAID is for backing up DATA or protecting it somehow? have i understood correctly? and SATA improves performance (but not by huge ammounts).
i have built my own pc already, and have the above mentioned hard drive, and was wondering

1) can i use my Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB ATA-133 8MB Cache on the SATA conector? if so, how will performance improve (possible percentage?) if at all. or will i have to buy a SATA drive, i'd like to know what i can get out of my current hard drive, other than basic IDE connection, or am i better sticking to how it's setup?

2) If i can use my Maxtor on SATA can i remove from IDE cable - plug into SATA and carry on using it? or will it involve a format of the mentioned drive, if that's the case is it worth it? from your pooint of view?

3) the above mentioned hard drive is fairly new, and i dont know whats its capable of (regarding SATA,RAID etc) but if its limited to IDE, would it be worth the trouble using this drive in my older system, and buying a new SATA drive specially for my new built PC, thats being use for games, apps etc?

[RJ]

so RAID is for backing up DATA or protecting it somehow? have i understood correctly?

It's for increasing speed (striping) and backing up data (mirroring). There are other RAID levels too but I don't know what they are right now. Striping and mirroring at the most known.

i have built my own pc already

Ah, ok. If you've already bought a drive then I wouldn't exchange it for a SATA right now. I'd right now only get SATA if you were to buy a new drive anyway.

1) Yes you can, but you'll need an IDE/SATA adapter for that. But you won't see any performance increase, as ATA133 is already faster than the drive is capable of.

2) Yep you can then remove the parallel ATA cable. You connect the adapter to the board with the SATA cable, and the adapter itself will be attached to the hard drive. You won't need to format it.

3) As far as I know the drive does not have to have any RAID capabilities, it's just up to the mainboard. But as I said, since you already have the drive, keep it. If you were to buy a new drive anyway, get SATA. If you could still return that drive and get your money back, I'd do it too and buy a SATA drive.

RJ

[kazz0817]

thank you for your help, i think i'll keep my drive for now and buy SATA on my next upgrade :-)