Performance IDE vs. SATA

grant_77

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I just purchased a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750 GB Perpendicular Hard Drive.

I thought I was sold the SATA 2 but they gave me the IDE. Because of stock if I return it I will not be able to get the SATA 2 until after christmas. So I am considering keeping it however I wanted to see some reviews and can't find anything good on google or forums.

I wanted to know what the actual performance difference is between the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 in IDE and SATA. Lots of website compare different harddrives with SATA and IDE but I haven't found any that actually compare the exact same hard drive in different format.

What would be even better is if anyone has any links to this exact hard drive being compared in both formats.

If theres only a 5% performance difference it does not make a difference, but if theres a 30% it may be necessary to take it back. Let me know your opinions and any really good links you have.

Thank you
 

darkstar782

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Makes a negligible difference, the interface bandwidth is way above the sustained performance of the drive anyway.

Burst speeds to cache will be *slightly* lower, but as the cache is only 16mb out of 750GB, that is kinda moot.

The performance difference would probably be under 1%, but IDE cables suck, and motherboards have fewer and fewer IDE connectors.

Your next motherboard will more than likely have NO IDE connector, as thats the way things are going now. If the drive is sharing a cable with a CD or DVD drive, then transfers between the two will be slow as hell.
 

grant_77

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It is sharing with my dvd rom, however most of the time im only using one or the other, not both.

Is it slowed down only if both are in use, or is the signal strength divided even if one is not in use?

Im using one 320gb to run windows and programs.

The other 320 gb hd im using for downloading and other active processes divided between the 2 hd's to keep each specialized.

The 750 Gb is going to be primarily for long term storage and later I may transfer it to a external drive in a few years.
 

pat

Expert
I just purchased a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750 GB Perpendicular Hard Drive.

I thought I was sold the SATA 2 but they gave me the IDE. Because of stock if I return it I will not be able to get the SATA 2 until after christmas. So I am considering keeping it however I wanted to see some reviews and can't find anything good on google or forums.

I wanted to know what the actual performance difference is between the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 in IDE and SATA. Lots of website compare different harddrives with SATA and IDE but I haven't found any that actually compare the exact same hard drive in different format.

What would be even better is if anyone has any links to this exact hard drive being compared in both formats.

If theres only a 5% performance difference it does not make a difference, but if theres a 30% it may be necessary to take it back. Let me know your opinions and any really good links you have.

Thank you

If you have enough connecor for your drive, then keep it. like others said, the speed difference will be negligibe, and later, can be used in an external enclosure as a removable backup or storage drive ...

but don' wory about speed.. SATA ar still IDE drive..same mechanism, same logic, only different interface.
 

gudodayn

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I beg to differ......

I dont have a exact 750GB drive like yours but I do have 2 x WD 120GB 8MB buffer IDEs and 2 x WD 120GB 8MB buffer SATA(I)s and depending on how you configured them and what it is that you do on your PC......you'll notice a difference

I had the IDEs setup in Raid-0 initially and they were fine except for when I was multi-tasking....working in photoshop / 3DMax/ converting a DVD and watching TV on the PC at the same time. The system becomes noticeably unresponsive/ lagging....

I swapped in the SATA(I)s in Raid-0 also doing the same type of work, it would still get the occassional lag but the multi-tasking experience was definitely improved

Now the SATA(I) drives are backup drives on my PC, my main drives are 2 x WD 320GB 16MB SATA(II)s in Raid-0 and I hardly experience any lags during multi-tasking.

The fact is, SATA drives do have a higher sustainable through put comparing to IDE drive (same capacity/ buffer/ platter density), it may only 15MB/sec (or less) more but it could mean the difference between smooth operating PC and lagging operating PC depending on what you do!!!

Whats the price difference on the 750GB SATA-II and IDE version anyway?
 
HDD Charts - Average Read

There is no diference as said above....The drive is limited by the speed of the platers/read/write heads.
However since sata does not use the traditional Slave/Master settings(2 drives on one cable). Raid may be faster.
But in the same sense, who the hell sets up raid with the drives on the same cable.....

If you plan to go to an enclosure in the future IDE External cases are cheap. and if you can get firewire one you will have decent performance.

By the same rule if you plan to get a board with E-sata then sata will be your friend, but that limits it to only computers with e-sata

In the end the choice is up to you. If you got the space for it(ide channels), I do not think you will loose any noticeable speed.

Hope this helps
 

tool_462

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I use 3 PATA HDDs for that reason. I have two 160GB drives that were $35 at a local store because the guy told me they were "old technology" but I knew better :twisted: I also have a very old 40GB that I picked up for $5 or $8 at a computer show, same "old tech" story. Don't try to sell me an overpriced SATA when I can get the same performance for 1/5th the price...fools.

That being said, if prices were the same, I would get SATA because mobos have (usually) 1 IDE port standard. Since you already have the drive, no need to return it, I challenge you to fill it up! :p
 

gudodayn

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Difference in Price is $10 CAD

I guess its up to you to decide if you think the extra $10 is worth it or not.
I would get the SATA-II version for sure if it were up to me just because of my past experience.

My own benchmark showed minor differences in Raid-0 configuration between my IDEs and SATAs but it was the real world tasks that convinced me that SATA is the way to go......for what I do, anyway!

Judging by your SIG, you seem like someone that does large data processing tasks as well...3 x 19" LCDs and a 50" LCD??

2 of those 750GB in SATA-IIs will fly.........
 

darkstar782

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I beg to differ......

I dont have a exact 750GB drive like yours but I do have 2 x WD 120GB 8MB buffer IDEs and 2 x WD 120GB 8MB buffer SATA(I)s and depending on how you configured them and what it is that you do on your PC......you'll notice a difference

I had the IDEs setup in Raid-0 initially and they were fine except for when I was multi-tasking....working in photoshop / 3DMax/ converting a DVD and watching TV on the PC at the same time. The system becomes noticeably unresponsive/ lagging....

I swapped in the SATA(I)s in Raid-0 also doing the same type of work, it would still get the occassional lag but the multi-tasking experience was definitely improved

Now the SATA(I) drives are backup drives on my PC, my main drives are 2 x WD 320GB 16MB SATA(II)s in Raid-0 and I hardly experience any lags during multi-tasking.

The fact is, SATA drives do have a higher sustainable through put comparing to IDE drive (same capacity/ buffer/ platter density), it may only 15MB/sec (or less) more but it could mean the difference between smooth operating PC and lagging operating PC depending on what you do!!!

Whats the price difference on the 750GB SATA-II and IDE version anyway?

Were these IDE drives both on the same IDE channel bychance?
 

grant_77

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Yeah,I do alot of cad, 3ds max, rendering and stuff. Video Games, and I record tv, so i use the dvi to watch movies and shows on the tv.

I also have it running Climate Prediction.net, it was actually number 27 in the world for daily work units until i overclocked it to much and had to get the bios reflashed.
 

gudodayn

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I beg to differ......

I dont have a exact 750GB drive like yours but I do have 2 x WD 120GB 8MB buffer IDEs and 2 x WD 120GB 8MB buffer SATA(I)s and depending on how you configured them and what it is that you do on your PC......you'll notice a difference

I had the IDEs setup in Raid-0 initially and they were fine except for when I was multi-tasking....working in photoshop / 3DMax/ converting a DVD and watching TV on the PC at the same time. The system becomes noticeably unresponsive/ lagging....

I swapped in the SATA(I)s in Raid-0 also doing the same type of work, it would still get the occassional lag but the multi-tasking experience was definitely improved

Now the SATA(I) drives are backup drives on my PC, my main drives are 2 x WD 320GB 16MB SATA(II)s in Raid-0 and I hardly experience any lags during multi-tasking.

The fact is, SATA drives do have a higher sustainable through put comparing to IDE drive (same capacity/ buffer/ platter density), it may only 15MB/sec (or less) more but it could mean the difference between smooth operating PC and lagging operating PC depending on what you do!!!

Whats the price difference on the 750GB SATA-II and IDE version anyway?

Were these IDE drives both on the same IDE channel bychance?

Nah ~~ I wanted maximum performance.......it was on a DFI Ultra-D with 2 IDE connectors and 4 SATA connectors.

The IDE drives were both set to Master drives on different IDEs with nothing else on them (not even CD / DVD ROMs)!!

To grant_77.........For what you do with your PC, I'd go with a 750GB SATA-II drive for an extra $10 instead of the IDE version.
 

modderspot

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I just ordered a new 1 TB hard drive, sata, and also a new DVD rom drive. My old disk drive was IDE. Well i added my disk drive and 1 TB, totally getting rid of IDE all together. Well i dont know why, but my computer is running faster!

EVGA 750I FTW
Q6700 Dual Core CPU
4 GB memory
500 GB 16 cache+1 TB 32 Cache

but the 1 tb wasnt added, i still had to go through disk management to make it official. Did changing the DVD drive from IDE to SATA change the speed of my computer?