gwilks98

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148140
I'm looking to upgrade off the ATA100 20G and 60G drives that I have. I'm hating the lack of space and this one seemed pretty sweet. Do you have any opinions on the heat complaints or perpendicular drive technology?

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Markel

Not bad specs for $100. Be sure you can support SATA. And to get those stated speeds, you need to be able to support SATA II.

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Grubbie

I am either getting that drive or the WD one. Anandtech has a good comparison on the two.

http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2803

mechmike0034

Seagate = 5 year warranty!

Verify this to be sure, but I think this is true. I like them...

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gwilks98

OOOoooo....I didn't know WD had a competing model. I didn't look at their OEM stuff based on the 3 yr warranty.

which one to pick.....gah!

I've only got a SATA I controller on my PC, according to DF.
http://www.gotapex.com/1016043-post3.html (SATA question)

For the value, the 320 gig drive seems to make sense. There's not much of a price difference, plus I get a 16 MB buffer instead of the older 8MB standard.

MikeD

And this makes Seagate the most attractive manufacturer, IMO. I've had good success with their drives. Just picked up a 400 gig from Outpost for $120.

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Grubbie

The 5 year seagate warranty does look nice. I still think I'm going to get the WD just because it is a little quieter.

I'm not really concered about the HD failing in the 4th or 5th year and if it does, I could probably buy a 1.5TB hardrive for 100$ or so.

gwilks98

I had my finger on the ordering button, when I had a question google couldn't quite answer.

The drive says this:
Serial ATA 3Gb/s (300MB/s)
This product is configurable from SATA 1.5Gb/s to SATA 3Gb/s for easy interoperability.

I thought SATA 1.5Ghz was the same as SATA 150 MB. So what is SATA 1.5 gb/s? Are they saying it's backwards compatible?

Also, the cable connectors look different.
Scroll down at this site:
http://www.satacable.com/

Let's assume the drive is backwards compatible with my motherboard. Which cable type will fit? (I understand I'm not going to get the speed benefit of 3Gbs/s. I'm just looking for the correct form fit.

johnnymk

I believe the transfer speed of various drives has been discussed before. AFAIK, there are no drives that are faster than 80 MB/sec. And that includes IDE, SATA and SCSI.

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gwilks98

I don't think you understood.

ATA 66 and 100 use the same cable form fit, though the cables themselves are different. an ATA 66 cable won't run any faster than that for an ATA 100 drive, but an ATA100 cable will slow down for an ATA66 drive.

So, if I had an ATA66 motherboard, and bought an ATA100 drive, I could buy either ATA cable type and it would work fine, but only at 66Mb/s.

Since I'm wanting to buy a 3.0Gbs/s drive, I'm wondering:
1. If either SATA cable type will fit the drive
2. If the SATA II cable will fit my SATA 1 motherboard connection.

I wasn't really wondering about the drive transfer speed. I understand the theoreticals are NEVER seen in an actual environent.

johnnymk

Youre right, I misunderstood

So using an ATA 100 cable will actually slow down an ATA 66 hard drive?

bachviet

No, using an ATA100 cable will not slow down an ATA66 HD but using an ATA66 cable will slow down an ATA100 HD to ATA66 speed.

The key word from gwilks98's reply is slow down for.

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johnnymk

Thanks. What does an ATA 66 cable look like?

gwilks98

Heh...the same as an ATA100 cable, to my knowledge. There may be print on the cable itself that will tell you.

Markel

It looks the same as an ATA-100 cable, but with half as many conductors (the wires of an ATA-100 cable look finer/more packed).

gwilks98

....so can anyone answer my last question before I go new egging?

Markel

Lots of information here.

gwilks98

I broke down and bought the Seagate drive from NewEgg. (Got here in 2 days via standard shipping.)
Can't wait to get home and install it....!

the answer to the question I asked, for others that didn't know: SATA II cables will work in SATA 1 AND SATA II drives, but SATA 1 cables are not forwards compatible with the form fit of SATA II.

UserX

How do you tell the difference between a SATA cable and a SATA II cable?