What are the differences between IDE Ultra ATA100 and SATA hard drives?

Current ATA hard drives come in four main varieties, two use the old 40-pin ribbon cable and the others use a 7-pin series cable. Besides minor additons like command queing and native support for hot swap, the cables are the main difference.

about $10! performance wise, SATA is marginally better. SATA cables are a lot nicer to deal with. Are they worth the $10 premium? Probably not.

IDE = Jumpers

SATA = no Jumpers!!

Jumpers aren't that bad unless you're like me and have a computer with 8 hard drives that you swap out every once in awhile to let friend borrow, then have to go in and rejumper everything... grr.

But yea, both are fine for hard drives. Normal 7200rpm hdd's only get 30-50MB/s bandwidth anyways so that 300MB/s of SATA II and the 150 MB/s of SATA I is just for future head room. ATA 133 vs. SATA has no slowdown that I've seen. I could be wrong though.

If you are planning to buy a hard drive make sure you have either the free IDE connection or SATA connection. Older motherboards and some really damn cheap new motherboards may not have SATA ports.

Actually SATA is much better. They provide more speed in terms of data throughput. I know the interface speed increase is completely pointless other than future headroom, but IDE drives generally get sustained data rates of about 50-55MB/s, whereas some of the latest generation SATA drives (specifically the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 drives) get between 65-75MB/s.

One will plug into any given existing port and the other won't. It's an interface to a drive technology that is essentially unchanged beyond the interface (excepting NCQ, which has limited use beyond servers).

Buy based on what your system supports, including # of free ports/channels/etc available per # of drives you want. The end.

Get a 7200.10 ATA100 and see ATA100 getting 65-75MB/s. I've seen ATA100 go up to 98MB/s burst mode, sustained transfers of 75MB/s are completely feasable.

The problem with your analysis is that you're comparing old ATA drives to new SATA drives. That's understandable, given that recent ATA100 drive reviews are in short supply.

Well, you've already gotten quite a few answers to your question. What sort of an answer were you looking for?

-john the dinosaur

Yes I saw that flaw in my argument a few minutes after posting it....

I'll add that the reasons I went to SATA are:

1. It's the new hard drive standard.
2. The cables are much smaller and nicer to work with
3. There is no longer a 3 hard drive limitation. Motherboards are now generally coming with between 4 and 9 SATA ports.
4. Other features such as NCQ and perpendicular recording (which ultimately provides higher data throughput).
5. Slightly cheaper (where I am anyway).

A standard?

Ok I see, Thanks! I guess I'll get a SATA since its newer and the price isnt that different, and its better for my mobo.

Ehhhhhhhhhh, maybe. Sorta. I guess.

For me the reasons why almost everyone who can should be moving to SATA boil down to just these two:
1. Every day in every way "everyone" seems to be working very hard to make it next to impossible to use an IDE device.
2. SATA cabling is just so much easier to work with!

When I was buying my (many) IDE drives, I never believed that effectively overnight all new motherboards would come with only 1 IDE connector. But now I fully expect to see motherboards with no IDE connectors at all, maybe as soon as next year. But thankfully anyone who has IDE drives can buy a PCI Express IDE controller card which will allow them to continue to use their equipment over the next few years, correct?

No, wait! I'm wrong! You can not do that! AFAIK there is only one PCIe IDE controller available and it provides only 1 IDE connector. So if you have many IDE devices you need to attach, you're pretty much forced to go with a PCI bus IDE controller. But PCI slots are going to be the very next thing to disappear from motherboards, right?

It seems the only legacy connectors you can depend on finding on future motherboards are the PS/2 keyboard & mouse and the inevitable floppy drive connectors. These things are like styrofoam! I guess we'll never be rid of them.

-john, the redundant legacy dinosaur

I always thought Abit's problems were partly caused by them listening to Enthusiasts with a "Legacy Free" motherboard: Hundreds of people screamed for them, yet thousands of sales are not enough to float a company that relies on tens of thousands of sales.

FWIW, I think all my objections to the "legacy free" trend would vanish if I was provided with reasonable alternatives or work-arounds.

Getting rid of the floppy connector, I believe can be worked around by getting a USB attached floppy drive.

As for the PS/2 keyboard and mouse ... Heck, I've got a ~$7 gizmo in my drawer right now that will supposed let you plug in a PS/2 keyboard and/or mouse and then use a USB port. Absolute worst case scenario here is to buy new USB ones. In the end, they just aren't that expensive.

But for a large IDE drive that (1) I've paid non-trivial bucks for and (2) I presumably have data on it I don't want to loose ... for this they've essentially got nothing.

(OK, ok ... there are the little IDE to SATA adapter dongles like this one. I love the concept, but I remain skeptical about well they actually work in practice).

-john, the redundant legacy dinosaur

Main problem with that legacy free theory is that USB, bluetooth, et al, don't work until after post.

Makes it kind of difficult to get into your bios...

uhh.. I use nothing but a USB keyboard and mouse and I can edit my BIOS fine with the keyboard. Maybe newer motherboards allow it or something? Mine is an Asus P5B deluxe.

All BIOS releases for the past two years have supported USB input devices. Three years ago there were still a couple that had problems. FIVE YEARS AGO there were already a few that worked right.

I don't have any USB keyboards I like. I don't want to buy a new heavy mouse to replace my old heavy mouse. I'd use an adapter if I needed to, but at this point I don't need to