ATA vs. SATA

Computers, gadgets, etc. Music/audio-related discussions should be posted in Audio Technology.
User avatar
balthazar
Posts: 146
Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2003 11:01 am
Location: Stoughton, WI, USA
Contact:

ATA vs. SATA

Postby balthazar » Fri Oct 21, 2005 2:19 pm

I've been looking into purchasing an additional hard drive for my computer, and have seen some SATA drives available. I looked into the SATA drives a little bit, and liked what I've seen so far. However, besides the obvious speed advantages of SATA over ATA due to a higher transfer rate and less risk of interference, what else do they have going for them?

I'm guessing I would need an SATA controller to connect it to, because I doubt it would be compatible with a regular ATA controller.

My current system is about three years old, but I don't see myself buying a whole new system anytime soon. Any advice on where this SATA thing is going?
"It's great how you can control 60 musicians with one just stick-- I can't control these fuckers with two!" -- Ian Paice

User avatar
Rspaight
Posts: 4386
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2003 10:48 am
Location: The Reality-Based Community
Contact:

Postby Rspaight » Fri Oct 21, 2005 3:09 pm

Yes, you will need a new controller.

Over and above the speed advantage, there's the minor but nice advantage of the cables being a heckuva lot easier to snake through the innards of your system, with less disruption of airflow than the ribbon cables that ATA typically uses.

I would guess that any system you buy in the foreseeable future will have SATA support built in to the motherboard, so you should be able to drop this new drive in.

Ryan
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney