SATA Compatibility

[Eagle]

I'm thinking of upgrading, but my hard drive is fairly new. Unfortunately it is a ATA IDE. My question is, can my ATA IDE drive be used on a SATA IDE port? If I upgrade I would like to "plan ahead" and get SATA on the motherboard but I don't want to just toss away my other hard drive right now.

 

[t0rek]

Nope, you can't use your PATA (the "regular" ATA) drive on a SATA port. However, new motherboards usually have SATA connections, but they still have two PATA IDE ports. So you can surely connect your old HD.

 

[Eagle]

Sweet thanks.

 

[Jakob]

Nope, you can't use your PATA (the "regular" ATA) drive on a SATA port. However, new motherboards usually have SATA connections, but they still have two PATA IDE ports. So you can surely connect your old HD.

Actually, that is not true, you can purchase an adapter, it just plugs into the PATA drive where the cable would, and provides a sata interface.

 

[Malcolm]

Yeppers, here's one (google's Feeling Lucky button):
http://www.cwol.com/serial-ata/serial-ata-ide-converter.htm

 

[Stezo2k]

Actually, that is not true, you can purchase an adapter, it just plugs into the PATA drive where the cable would, and provides a sata interface.

whoa nice, does it improve performance much?

i heard sata improves bandwidth when under load

not sure if it'll improve it being IDE by default, but its worth asking

 

[Gorxon]

It doesn't improve performance since PATA HD's aren't made for transferring such high speed. Not to mention that no drives actually nowhere near max the speed potential. However it will decrease the load on the CPU I believe, but that isn't by much.

 

[Eagle]

Actually, that is not true, you can purchase an adapter, it just plugs into the PATA drive where the cable would, and provides a sata interface.

Thats kinda backward though, I'm looking for SATA that I can plug my PATA into. But the motherbaord I found has a SATA and a PATA dual raid.

 

[Jakob]

Thats kinda backward though, I'm looking for SATA that I can plug my PATA into. But the motherbaord I found has a SATA and a PATA dual raid.

There are also adapters that give a SATA drive a PATA interface, heh.

It doesn't improve performance since PATA HD's aren't made for transferring such high speed. Not to mention that no drives actually nowhere near max the speed potential. However it will decrease the load on the CPU I believe, but that isn't by much.

Considering that current SATA drives are the same as their PATA equivalents, except with a SATA interface, that's a moot point

not sure if it'll improve it being IDE by default, but its worth asking

You mean PATA - not IDE as bother PATA and SATA drives are IDE drives. Although there are legions of retailors and dumbass reviewers swarming around claiming otherwise, it reminds me of the time I read a winxp review where the reviewer complained about no support for HFS(Mac) discs not realizing that windows never did support them, just that someone installed a prog to do it

 

[t0rek]

Oh, it's true, I forgot about adapters. BTW there are also power cables adapters if your current PSU doesn't have power cables for SATA drives.

 

[Stezo2k]

BTW there are also power cables adapters if your current PSU doesn't have power cables for SATA drives.

yeah there is mate, i've got about 7 of em here that came with my two abit motherboards, not that i'll ever use em though, my psu has about 3 sata power connectors

 

[AlphaWolf]

FWIW I think theres a performance overhead in these adapters, so it may be slower when you use one.

 

[Eagle]

I appreciate everybodys help, maybe this thread will help someone else. I think I've changed my mind and I'm going with a notebook before I upgrade my desktop system. I was looking at emachines (aka Gateway). My mom has one and its nice, this one is a step up from hers, and now, its cheaper than she bought hers for.

http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=eMachines_M5405