Harddrive Performance

[jime]

When I look up the specs on a ATA150 and a SATA 150 the data transfer rate
is listed the same. What is the advantage of SATA?

 

[Stephan Grossklass]

When I look up the specs on a ATA150 and a SATA 150 the data transfer rate
is listed the same. What is the advantage of SATA?

You can indeed buy the same drives as either PATA and SATA versions, and
performance differences will be very small. What SATA would bring you is
the longer and thinner cables, OTOH 1st generation SATA connectors can
be very loose and cause problems that way (so-called c.r.a.p), which
should be fixed in 2nd-gen connectors (no idea whether these are
actually already in use). One compelling reason to upgrade to SATA
certainly are the WD Raptors, which are only available with SATA
interface.

Stephan

 

[Mark A]

You can indeed buy the same drives as either PATA and SATA versions, and
performance differences will be very small. What SATA would bring you is
the longer and thinner cables, OTOH 1st generation SATA connectors can
be very loose and cause problems that way (so-called c.r.a.p), which
should be fixed in 2nd-gen connectors (no idea whether these are
actually already in use). One compelling reason to upgrade to SATA
certainly are the WD Raptors, which are only available with SATA
interface.

Stephan

Some of the newer SATA drives already on the market also have Command
Queuing, which is similar to a feature on high-end SCSI drives. Besides the
WD Raptor, some Maxtor and Seagate drives have it. This allows multiple I/O
requests to queue up and be processed asynchronously. SATA II, which
provides up to 300 mbps is just around the corner, but will not provide much
transfer speed advantage for 7200 rpm drives under typical use. Some
motherboards already support SATA II (including my A8N-E).

The longer and thinner SATA cables are important as system builders try to
keep ever more powerful computers cool and quiet. They have less restrictive
airflow through case compared to flat ribbon cables.

 

[Mark A]

Per Mark A:

Any idea if Seagate's ST3 120 827AS has it?

Manufacturer websites will tell you which ones have it. But keep in mind
that command queuing primarily helps server type applications where you get
multiple simultaneous I/O requests to the same disk from different
applications running at the same time.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Mark A:

Some of the newer SATA drives already on the market also have Command
Queuing, which is similar to a feature on high-end SCSI drives. Besides the
WD Raptor, some Maxtor and Seagate drives have it.

Any idea if Seagate's ST3 120 827AS has it?