HDD choice question

[ionapaul]

1st time builder here with a quick question:

Ordered ALL parts but the HDD (well, paid for a 120g SATA that was not in stock so money refunded). Plan to use PC for gaming, web surfing use, NO overclocking, probably no video editing. I am getting a nice mobo, Athlon 64 cpu, lots of ram, do I need a SATA HDD? Or will IDE do for me? I do not plan to get a 2nd HDD, in fact I would say that is very very unlikely, as 120gb will be much more than I really need. IDE would save me cash AND having to learn how to install the SATA drivers!
Thoughts?

[tireman]

If it were me, I would go ahead and go with sata, even if I was not going to add a second drive or create a raid array. I have not tried running just on sata drive yet, but from what I have heard, there is a goo performance increase.

tireman

[Sir]

you shouldnt need the drivers with a good mobo
so get SATA

[TheJackal]

Installing the SATA drivers isn't hard...

During the Windows XP install it will tell you to press F6 to install third party storage drivers. You just push F6, feed it the floppy, and it'll do its thing.

[bigandy]

Agreed, SATA is the way to go. And as Jackal said, installing the drivers is pretty simple.

[mb26]

i dont think (if u have a 7200 rpm drive) there will be much performance increase with SATA..
i think which is best for you depends on what u want it for..
SATA i guess it will be 'future compatibile', whereas u could use ata on any old machine.. if u find no difference then i guess SATA is better just for its neater cabling, but i wouldn't go out of my way to get it right now...

my fav drive is the seagate st3120026A, because it is the quietest u can get.. its not SATA, but if the SATA equivilant was as quiet (which it is not) then i would probably get that.

i think IDE would 'do' as theres not *much* difference, and they are usually cheaper, but ideally SATA is best

[bigandy]

The biggest difference is not necessarily the rotational speed, but the transfer speed. PATA maxes out at 100-133MB/s (but I think Maxtor is the only HD maker that uses 133). Whereas SATA is capable of 150MB/s, and the potential for increased speed is huge.

[Sphegdave]

The only thing to remember with SATA drives is the increased transfer speed is that it is only the bus's potential It doesn't actually mean that it will operate any faster. The IDE drives haven't even used all of their potential yet!

If I were you I would save the money and put it towards a program like alcohol 120% so you can run your games off your hard drive.

[QuickSilver]

Originally posted by Sir you shouldnt need the drivers with a good mobo so get SATA

You will need drivers no matter what the Mobo is. If you are going to go with a A64 proc and loads of memory, then to me it would make sense to go with a 10kRPM drive with SATA, to keep up with the rest of the system.