Sata vs IDE

[QBA]

Hi

My 250 GB Western Digital that I use as backup is dead, so now I'm going to buy another 250GB or a 300GB.

My dilemma is should I go Sata or IDE, I'm planning to use a hard drive rack which I know they make for the two types.

The reasons I may go Sata is because some one told me that they are "hot swap" meaning I could just push the rack in at any time and the system will recognize the sata drive without me having to turn off the system, plug the hard drive in and then turn it back on to do the back ups.

I heard that Sata is faster than IDE but speed is not really relevant to me because I think IDE are fast enough for what I need, so the main reason I could go Sata rather than IDE is the hot swap feature.

It is true I could plug the Sata drive in at any time with my system running, back my data and then unplug it again without harming the hard drive?

Or should I go IDE?

Thanks

Alex

[neil01]

SATA will eventually replace IDE, so if you are changing your drives, and your motherboard supports SATA - it is a bit of a no-brainer - GO SATA!

[networkguy]

Sata is faster hands down, no question. Yes sata will eventually replaced conventional IDE but I don't see that happening for a couple years, there are still billions of computers out there that are IDE and whats a guy gonna do when his IDE HD crashes and all he can buy is sata? Replace his system? No, probably get an external USB or firewire, but still I can't see them phasing out IDE completely for awhile yet.

NG

[neil01]

I accept that IDE is not dead yet, and will probably be around for some time yet. But I think that it is foolish to stick with IDE when replacing drives unless you have to.

[networkguy]

Well I don't agree that its 'foolish'. For example if someone can't afford the few extra bucks to get an SATA drive, in my opinion, they are not foolish if they buy the IDE. Of course only newer boards even have sata, so people without have no choice but to stick with IDE. If you upgrade to a board with SATA, as I did, and max out all your IDE connections then you have two choices, remove an existing IDE or get an SATA drive. If someone doesn't think or believe that paying a few bucks more for an SATA drive it worth it to them, they are not foolish, thats just their decision, and we should respect it, even if we disagree with it.

NG

[QBA]

I guess sata it is :)


I need to get a sata hard drive rack, because I want this HD to be on only when I'm backing up my data once every few month

[networkguy]

Why don't you consider backing up to dvd or even DL dvd? How much are you backing up and what are you backing up if you don't mind me asking?

NG

[AMD]

The extra bandwidth of SATA is insignificant for standard 7200 RPM drives sold today. The performance difference today is negligible, since most hard drives can't even take advantage of what ATA133 has to offer. But than again, if your board supports it, there is no reason to stick with IDE unless the drive will be moved between systems. (there are lots of 3+ year old machines which do not support the new standard)

[neil01]

Well I don't agree that its 'foolish'. For example if someone can't afford the few extra bucks to get an SATA drive, in my opinion, they are not foolish if they buy the IDE. Of course only newer boards even have sata, so people without have no choice but to stick with IDE. If you upgrade to a board with SATA, as I did, and max out all your IDE connections then you have two choices, remove an existing IDE or get an SATA drive. If someone doesn't think or believe that paying a few bucks more for an SATA drive it worth it to them, they are not foolish, thats just their decision, and we should respect it, even if we disagree with it.

NG

I stand by what I said, unless there is a good reason to stick with IDE, you would be foolish to do so - obviously cost would be a good reason for having to remain IDE, but I did say 'unless you have to'.

In my experience, SATA is currently little more expensive than IDE (certainly in the UK), in fact, I have even seen them cheaper than the equivalent IDE model from the same manufacturer (and via the same supplier), but as we all know, upgrading to SATA can involve costs over and above the drives themselves.

It is also clear to see, that my 'no-brainer' comment was in reply to the original poster who had 'dead' drives and had to buy new ones, and that I was referring to the single single situation where the motherboard already supported SATA - I have never mentioned any other situation.

[QBA]

Thanks guys I think that since my mother board support SATA and it has it's benefits over IDE I'm going SATA :)

neil01 here in Toronto the diference bettween Sata and IDE is just a few bucks so doesn't really matter to me.

networkguy I don't like backing into DVD because I think it can get messy having all those DVD around, I preffer to have a 300 or 400 GB hard drive partitioned and label (Music, Application, Personal, System Backup ect) I have a lot of Data and the 250 GB that just die was getting to small for me already, so every so often I turn off my system push a hard drive rack with a SATA on it and backup all the partitions from my working IDEs that have been update it into the backup partitions; It works for me because it feels like a comfortable way to do my backups.

[bigzig]

good choice... SATA is much better then ide.. i am still trying to fully convert to a full sata system