Vic said:
I have a MOBO which allows both types of drives. Thinking of upgrading
but have a question. While benchmark figures show SATA drives to be
faster than PATA HD's, is the difference NOTICEABLE in the real world
(to an operator familiar with his PC)?
TIA
Vic
About all I'm sure of is that you won't see a DECREASE. As for an increase,
it not only depends on what apps you're running but also the type of SATA
drive, plus the controller for it. For the most part, you'll get "about the
same" response times by feel, and if you're really attuned to it you might
notice improvements with some large files or say when editing video or
anything that uses rendering functions.
SATA II seems to be the path of the future, so if the price is compatible,
which they pretty much are now, with PATA or ATA, IDE, EIDE, whatever you
want to call it, I'd advise using SATA.
I know I DO like the low prices of the data cables, and the small amount
of room they take up inside the computer.
Depending on the drive, you might need a power connector converter:
SATA drives use a new voltage, so if you dont' already have a SATA power
connector on your PSU, make sure the drive you buy is built to accept the
regular drive power connector and thus it derives the new voltage inside the
SATA drive on its own. A PSU older than a couple or three years may not
have the required SATA power connector, even though the computer is equipped
with the SATA data connectors and controller.
Wikipedia last I looked, had some excellent articles on SATA and even the
cable specs. I'd highly recommend a read there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA
HTH
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