On 5/22/07, Lan Barnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Tue, May 22, 2007 4:00 pm, Carl Lowenstein wrote:
> On 5/22/07, Lan Barnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> SATA (Serial ATA) uses a different data transmission scheme (serial on
> 2 wires rather than parallel on 40 wires). Probably faster in data
> transmission, although the over-all data rate is limited by the disk
> drive or the motherboard, whichever is faster. It requires a
> different controller on the motherboard, with the concomitant
> difference in cables and connectors. One can buy SATA controllers
> that plug into the motherboard PCI backplane.
>
> So if you are upgrading an old system you probably don't want SATA.
> Unless you are upgrading it by getting a new disk drive to put into an
> external box. Then you can get a box that connects to the rest of the
> world by USB or Firewire or Ethernet, and has the right kind of
> internals to fit your disk drive.
And are you implying that PATA is the *ATA that is usually more expensive?
The disk drives are about the same price. In fact, I just looked
again at frys.com and found that they have 500GB Maxtor drives in
either SATA or PATA flavor for the same $99.
New construction should be also about the same price, possibly a bit
less for SATA because the construction overhead for the 4-wire cable
is less than for the 40 (which is really 80) cable. Requires a custom
logic chip, but they are cheap to produce once the design has been
finished.
If you are adding or replacing an internal disk in your existing
system, SATA will most likely not work because the motherboard wasn't
designed that way. (My small Dell server just gets in under the wire,
having the classical 4 PATA ports and also 2 SATA).
It isn't a problem of expense, just of being compatible with an existing system.
carl
--
carl lowenstein marine physical lab u.c. san diego
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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