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    ATA vs SATA

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by weiser701, Nov 24, 2006.

  1. weiser701

    weiser701 Notebook Consultant

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    how much of a difference in performance is there between ATA and SATA hard drives? how would a 7200rpm ATA compare with a 5400rpm SATA? which would drain more battery? thanks
     
    weiser701, Nov 24, 2006
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  2. jetstar

    jetstar Notebook Deity

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    In general, SATA is faster than ATA. I'm not sure about battery life though.
     
    jetstar, Nov 24, 2006
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  3. dragonesse

    dragonesse Notebook Deity

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    Heh. Both are ATA. What you guys mean buy "ATA" is P-ATA (P is for Parallel) as opposed to S-ATA (S is for Serial). And yes, serial is faster.
     
    dragonesse, Nov 24, 2006
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  4. weiser701

    weiser701 Notebook Consultant

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    so would the 5400rpm SATA still be faster (or more efficient) than the 7200rpm ATA? honestly, i'm not all that familiar with the workings of hard drives.
     
    weiser701, Nov 24, 2006
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  5. Jalf

    Jalf Comrade Santa

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    No, SATA is not faster (in real life).

    The bus is faster, yes (150MB/s for SATA vs 100 or 133MB/s for PATA), but that makes absolutely no difference since a 7200 RPM disk can only transfer around 70MB/S at peak.

    So in the real world (and unless you have RAID 0), they will perform exactly the same (Well, as far as it can be measured. To get accurate results, we'd have to compare the same harddrive model with both interfaces, but that's obviously impossible, since they would then both use the same interface)

    If you have RAID 0, there wil be (relatively rare) occasions where you transfer more data than PATA can handle, and then SATA will inch ahead a bit.

    So to answer your question, the 7200RPM drive would be faster. It would most likely also consume a bit more power, although from what I've seen, it's no big difference.
     
    Jalf, Nov 24, 2006
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  6. weiser701

    weiser701 Notebook Consultant

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    the reason i ask is because i was checking out Gateway and the particular model i could be interested in only offered ATA hd's. the other notebook i'm heavily considering, the HP dv6000t, offers SATA hd's but only at 5400rpm. the Gateway was offering 7200rpm ATA hd's. so by the off chance i end up with a Gateway, i want to make sure i'm not compromising efficiency or speed.
     
    weiser701, Nov 24, 2006
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  7. Jalf

    Jalf Comrade Santa

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    On the contrary, the 7200rpm will be quite a bit faster.
     
    Jalf, Nov 24, 2006
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  8. ajfink

    ajfink Notebook Deity

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    Definitely go with a 7200 RPM model.
     
    ajfink, Nov 24, 2006
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  9. dragonrage

    dragonrage Notebook Consultant

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    No, go with what your laptop supports.
     
    dragonrage, Nov 24, 2006
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  10. weiser701

    weiser701 Notebook Consultant

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    it's not an upgrade. it was an option for a Gateway model. they only offered ATA hd's but 7200rpm. i wasn't sure if the 5400rpm SATA was still better. i most likely won't be getting a Gateway, but just in case i still wanted to know. thanks for the help.
     
    weiser701, Nov 24, 2006
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  11. chewey

    chewey Notebook Enthusiast

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    u can get sata 7200rpm drives too for that HP sata will just be more expensive to upgrade.
     
    chewey, Nov 24, 2006
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