Serial-ATA HD with 8MB cache

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pearlf
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Pearlf

I'm working with a tight budget, but I don't want to cut costs on those
components that will add to the overall speed of the PC.

That said, what kind of speed differences are we looking at if I purchase a
120GB HD with 8MB cache and, all things being equal, have to choose between
Serial-ATA and ATA133?

TIA.

Pearlf
Cape Town, ZA
 
Pearlf said:
I'm working with a tight budget, but I don't want to cut costs on those
components that will add to the overall speed of the PC.

That said, what kind of speed differences are we looking at if I purchase a
120GB HD with 8MB cache and, all things being equal, have to choose between
Serial-ATA and ATA133?

TIA.

Pearlf
Cape Town, ZA

its obvious isn't it,the speed of the hard disk and the rate at which it
Click to expand...
can transfer data,one is 133 and the other is 150.
 
original yido said:
purchase
can transfer data,one is 133 and the other is 150.
Click to expand...

Quite obviously. And also, quite obviously not what I'm asking. I want to
know how that faster rate will translate into the practical world. How much
of a performance edge does SATA give you, or is the consideration
negligible?

Pearlf
Cape Town, SA
 
can transfer data,one is 133 and the other is 150.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily, since some motherboards have SATA function via a
separate chip sitting on the PCI bus, so the PCI bus bottlenecks that
subsystem more than a PATA controller with direct link to the
southbridge, bypassing the PCI bus.

On the other hand, if the southbridge did have the SATA function
integral, it would provide slightly more bandwidth, but in current
generation drives the majority of drives themselves haven't exceeded
the PATA bandwidth yet, so only in certain situations would there ever
be a difference, like "some" benchmarks".

Overall it usually matters more which particular make/model of drive
is used, but for the best overall SATA the OP might consider something
like a Maxtor Plus 9, or for PATA a Western Digital JB series.. both
having 8MB cache.


Dave
 
kony said:
Not necessarily, since some motherboards have SATA function via a
separate chip sitting on the PCI bus, so the PCI bus bottlenecks that
subsystem more than a PATA controller with direct link to the
southbridge, bypassing the PCI bus.

On the other hand, if the southbridge did have the SATA function
integral, it would provide slightly more bandwidth, but in current
generation drives the majority of drives themselves haven't exceeded
the PATA bandwidth yet, so only in certain situations would there ever
be a difference, like "some" benchmarks".

Overall it usually matters more which particular make/model of drive
is used, but for the best overall SATA the OP might consider something
like a Maxtor Plus 9, or for PATA a Western Digital JB series.. both
having 8MB cache.


Dave
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Pearlf
Cape Town, ZA
 
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