Emarian

With the development of computer hardware going through the roof, connections between the hardware inside your CPU is getting more and more advanced. A question I see often is what is Serial ATA (Or SATA) and IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics). I am going to explain that difference and what the pros/cons of each are.

First, let me show you.

This is an IDE cable:


This is a SATA cable:


The IDE cable is the wide, thin, gray cable. The SATA cable is the normal sized, one red cable.

Size-wise, it does not matter whether you get an IDE drive or a SATA drive.

The difference is in speeds. IDE drives are slower when you are transferring files, copying them, deleting them, and so forth. They also are slower than SATA when it comes down to large amounts of files (But this in the thousands).

IDE vs SATA is quite like Single-Core vs Dual-Core. Whereas IDE is slower but cheaper, SATA is faster but more expensive. IDE drives can be 50$-300$ cheaper than a SATA drive, and for the average user, IDE is a much better choice than SATA. Really, you should only get a SATA drive if you have the money and want faster write/read/program speeds.

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Zenzerian

I have a SATA in my new comp

Thanks for the info.

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Emarian

No problem. I am also running under SATA right now.

Bit annoying to have to use my EXT HD as external only..can't use it internally because it's IDE.

__________________


"A stingy man hurries after riches, and doesn't know that poverty waits for him."
- Proverbs 28:22

www.myspace.com/emarian

Zenzerian

Too bad, you have a nice fat 2TB EXHD don't you. Lucky boy.

__________________
-There's a gamer in all of us-



Click here to feed me a Rare Candy!