anyone need an external hardrive?

[t-maxxracer32]

160gb western digital. brand new.


let me know before i ebay it tomorow!

SATA or IDE?

[squeeforever]

I was wondering the same thing, but 95% are gonna be IDE...

[suicideneil]

At the risk of sounding stupid, whats the difference?

[Arct1k]

From the web...

The ATA standard dates back to 1986 and is based on a 16-bit parallel interface has undergone many evolutions since its introduction to increase the speed and size of the drives that it can support. The latest standard is ATA-7 which supports data transfer rates up to 133MB/second.

In 2000 it was realized that parallel ATA was reaching the limit of it’s data transfer capability. 133MB/second is the limit of the technology due to data loss and electromagnetic interference. This prompted the invention of the Serial ATA interface (sata). sata is a fairly recent standard and has only been around for a few years. Because sata can support data transfers at about 150MB/second. Future versions of sata (like sata 2) will support data transfer of up to a projected 600 MB/second.

One benefit of sata for system builders is the fact that the cables which connect the drive are so much smaller than the regular tick grey ribbons which connect ide drives. The reduced size of the wires allow for better airflow which is becoming increasingly important as processors get faster and as systems support more RAM. All that speed and memory can make a lot of heat as you are well aware. Anything that helps keep your PC running cool is a good development.

Another noticeable change is the different power connector. Even though some drives still offer the 5v 4 pin power connector, most sata drives come with a 15pin 250mV power connector. This reduces the load on the computer’s power supply which will also help decrease in-case temperatures.

One final benefit of the sata interface is the ability to hot swap drives. Hot swap means that you can pull your drive from your machine and replace it with a different disk without restarting your computer. This will be especially helpful for people who are not familiar with configuring a RAID array for backups.

In conclusion it’s been almost 20 years since ide was introduced and it's about time the technology was updated.


esata is a different standard which enables use of external drives at native speeds i.e. not dropped to USB / Firewire levels.

[BrianG]

Short answer: the cable type and interface is the difference.

[Arct1k]

:)..

[suicideneil]

Hmm, interesting reading. I think I'll stick to things with USB cables, saves me getting headaches, lol.

[Arct1k]

You still can use USB with sata and ide - in that case there is a bridge interface which is making the drive look like a usb mass storage device and controlling the PC.

You can either use:

USB
Firewire
eSata

or you could rig up a drive with Sata / IDE.

Sata is I believe hot swapable - IDE is not.

[t-maxxracer32]

ok..................... it uses a usb to connect to the computer....

how can i figure out what type it is?

[Serum]

Yes, sata is hot swappable, ide is not;

It really doesn't matter unless someone is planning on taking the disk out and put insinde the computer. (and the the current prices of hdd's i wouldn't bother taking out a 160gb disk from an external housing)

While SATA is the new standard, IDE exceeds the speed of usb 2.0.

[brijar]

Hey, I'm in need of another HDD. I only have an 80 gig, which is almost full. I don't have much money because I just upgraded my computer though. I'll have a good bit when my rebates come in, but that could be a while. How much do you want for it, plus shipping to 64015? My birthday is the 17th, so hopefully I could get a bit of extra cash.

Thanks,
Brijar!!!

How fast is IDE data transfer? I know USB 2.0 is 480mb/s, but I thought IDE was only 100/133/166 mb/s. SATA can go up to 3gb/s, I think, the newer ones anyway.

[Arct1k]

brijar - with your rig i think you are barking in the wrong place you should spend 100 on this http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...ku=TSD-500AAKS

Take into consideration that 3 gb/s is only a theorectical speed. You wont get anywhere near that. My sata 7200 rpm WD Caviar SE16 500GB will transfer movies at about 70-75 mb/s over a gigabit ethernet connection.

[brijar]

@Arct1k
I would sure like to, but I just don't have $100 to spend. My dad was talking about getting me a real big HDD because I've got the nicest computer in the house, so we could store all our photos and movies and stuff on there, but he hasn't done anything about that yet. I could probably use the 500GB, as movie making/editing is quite a resource hog (esp. w/ FRAPS and LFS). I just wanted something to be able to stick stuff that I don't need right now, or store video data. I'll talk to my dad about the 500GB drive. You've been very helpful with my computer so far, so I'll look into this real good before I buy anything.

Thanx,
Brijar!!!

PS, I got my new video card today, and I have to say, going from ~20 FPS to 200FPS is quite an improvement !