Economics of SATA hard drive

Am in the UK. Running an old system which works quite well: Via 266
mobo with Duron 1800 processor and 768MB of SD-RAM.

Will upgrade the system when I need the extra power. Currently need to
add to my data storage. Don't want to get Parallel IDE (PATA) because
newer mobos will support only SATA.

Can get a 250GB Samsung hard drive (from Komplett) for about £60 inc
delivery which is a real bargain.

But a PCI SATA adaptor by Sunsway from the same dealer costs £19. It
supports 2 SATA devices. That is definitely not a bargain as it's one-
third of the price of the 250 GB drive! What a swizz!

What viable alternatives do I have?

"Warra" wrote in message
...
Am in the UK. Running an old system which works quite well: Via 266
mobo with Duron 1800 processor and 768MB of SD-RAM.

Will upgrade the system when I need the extra power. Currently need to
add to my data storage. Don't want to get Parallel IDE (PATA) because
newer mobos will support only SATA.

Can get a 250GB Samsung hard drive (from Komplett) for about £60 inc
delivery which is a real bargain.

But a PCI SATA adaptor by Sunsway from the same dealer costs £19. It
supports 2 SATA devices. That is definitely not a bargain as it's one-
third of the price of the 250 GB drive! What a swizz!

What viable alternatives do I have?
I wouldn't worry to much, many of the 'modern' sata boards also support
EIDE ) so you are unlikely to lose out when you need to upgrade
Derek

Warra wrote:

Will upgrade the system when I need the extra power. Currently need
to add to my data storage. Don't want to get Parallel IDE (PATA)
because newer mobos will support only SATA.

DVD drives are almost exclusively PATA, so its' unlikely many
newer mobos would drop PATA altogether for a while.

--
Mike

Mike Redrobe wrote
Warra wrote

Will upgrade the system when I need the extra power. Currently need to add to my data
storage. Don't want to get Parallel IDE (PATA) because newer mobos will support only
SATA.

DVD drives are almost exclusively PATA, so its' unlikely many newer mobos would drop
PATA altogether for a while.

Yes, but you may well see motherboards with not
enough IDE ports for the hard drives you want to use.

And there's the better cabling with SATA too.

"Rod Speed" wrote in message

Mike Redrobe wrote
Warra wrote

Will upgrade the system when I need the extra power. Currently
need to add to my data storage. Don't want to get Parallel IDE
(PATA) because newer mobos will support only SATA.

DVD drives are almost exclusively PATA, so its' unlikely many newer
mobos would drop PATA altogether for a while.

Yes, but you may well see motherboards with not
enough IDE ports for the hard drives you want to use.

For example, those with the Force5 chipset. It has only one IDE channel.

On Wed, 21 Jun 2006 23:48:36 +0100, Warra
wrote:

Am in the UK. Running an old system which works quite well: Via 266
mobo with Duron 1800 processor and 768MB of SD-RAM.

Will upgrade the system when I need the extra power. Currently need to
add to my data storage. Don't want to get Parallel IDE (PATA) because
newer mobos will support only SATA.

Newer boards will support at least one PATA channel because
OEMs (and others too) are still using and preferring PATA
optical drives.

Plus, the same argument you are making about the need for a
PCI SATA adapter could go the other way- that you buy a PCI
PATA adapter for the next system "IF" it ends up needing
one. If you don't plan on having more than one optical
drive in your next system and plan on purchasing it within
at least the next couple years, it is most likely it will
have PATA.




Can get a 250GB Samsung hard drive (from Komplett) for about £60 inc
delivery which is a real bargain.

But a PCI SATA adaptor by Sunsway from the same dealer costs £19. It
supports 2 SATA devices. That is definitely not a bargain as it's one-
third of the price of the 250 GB drive! What a swizz!

I don't know what all hardware costs over there, but trying
to equate it based on % of a budget grade drive is a bit
misguided. The card has, as any product does, a certain bit
over overhead in design, manufacture, delivery, marketing,
warranty coverage, etc, etc.


What viable alternatives do I have?

The best alternative is to buy a PATA drive. It will be
faster than an SATA, because not only will you be avoiding
use of a PCI SATA card (slower because it's on the PCI bus
instead of southbridge integrated as your PATA controller
onboard, is), but ALSO because your motherboard's Via
chipset is known to have a somewhat low realized PCI
throughput. In other words, your board is among the worst
to use a PCI SATA controller on.

Get the PATA drive and let tomorrow take care of itself.

In kony typed:
Newer boards will support at least one PATA channel because
OEMs (and others too) are still using and preferring PATA
optical drives.

Hi Kony, I aggree.
My last PC bought in Sep 2005 has a SATA HD as bootable
device and also IDE connectors for older HDs.
So there's no need for extra adapters!

Plus, the same argument you are making about the need for a
PCI SATA adapter could go the other way- that you buy a PCI
PATA adapter for the next system "IF" it ends up needing
one. If you don't plan on having more than one optical
drive in your next system and plan on purchasing it within
at least the next couple years, it is most likely it will
have PATA.

Yes/No, last motherboards have SATA "and" PATA connectors.

Can get a 250GB Samsung hard drive (from Komplett) for about £60 inc
delivery which is a real bargain.
But a PCI SATA adaptor by Sunsway from the same dealer costs £19. It
supports 2 SATA devices. That is definitely not a bargain as it's
one- third of the price of the 250 GB drive! What a swizz!

No need for SATA if PATA can be connected. Forget it.

The best alternative is to buy a PATA drive. It will be
faster than an SATA, because not only will you be avoiding
use of a PCI SATA card (slower because it's on the PCI bus
instead of southbridge integrated as your PATA controller
onboard, is), but ALSO because your motherboard's Via
chipset is known to have a somewhat low realized PCI
throughput. In other words, your board is among the worst
to use a PCI SATA controller on.

Don't understand. An onboard IDE will make no difference to
an extra PCI SATA card on performance.
And newer boards will already have a SATA interface.
I don't see any difference on adapter speeds.
Horst

Horst Franke nospam@invalid wrote
kony typed

Newer boards will support at least one PATA channel because OEMs (and others too) are
still using and preferring PATA optical drives.

Hi Kony, I aggree.

More fool you.

My last PC bought in Sep 2005 has a SATA HD as bootable device and also IDE connectors
for older HDs. So there's no need for extra adapters!

And some current motherboards only have a single IDE channel.

Plus, the same argument you are making about the need for a
PCI SATA adapter could go the other way- that you buy a PCI
PATA adapter for the next system "IF" it ends up needing
one. If you don't plan on having more than one optical
drive in your next system and plan on purchasing it within
at least the next couple years, it is most likely it will have PATA.

Yes/No, last motherboards have SATA "and" PATA connectors.

And some current motherboards only have a single IDE channel.

Can get a 250GB Samsung hard drive (from Komplett) for about £60 inc delivery which is
a real bargain.
But a PCI SATA adaptor by Sunsway from the same dealer costs £19. It supports 2 SATA
devices. That is definitely not a bargain as
it's one- third of the price of the 250 GB drive! What a swizz!

No need for SATA if PATA can be connected. Forget it.

No thanks.

The best alternative is to buy a PATA drive. It will be
faster than an SATA, because not only will you be avoiding
use of a PCI SATA card (slower because it's on the PCI bus
instead of southbridge integrated as your PATA controller
onboard, is), but ALSO because your motherboard's Via
chipset is known to have a somewhat low realized PCI
throughput. In other words, your board is among the worst
to use a PCI SATA controller on.

Don't understand. An onboard IDE will make no difference to an extra PCI SATA card on
performance.

He's claiming that a SATA drive and a PCI SATA adaptor
wont perform as well in that system as an IDE drive will.

And newer boards will already have a SATA interface.
I don't see any difference on adapter speeds.

Time for new glasses.

On Thu, 22 Jun 2006 04:41:00 +0200, "Horst Franke"
nospam@invalid wrote:

In kony typed:
Newer boards will support at least one PATA channel because
OEMs (and others too) are still using and preferring PATA
optical drives.

Hi Kony, I aggree.
My last PC bought in Sep 2005 has a SATA HD as bootable
device and also IDE connectors for older HDs.
So there's no need for extra adapters!

.... depends on how many drives one wants to use.
Those systems I use more often have more than 1 HDD and 1
optical.



The best alternative is to buy a PATA drive. It will be
faster than an SATA, because not only will you be avoiding
use of a PCI SATA card (slower because it's on the PCI bus
instead of southbridge integrated as your PATA controller
onboard, is), but ALSO because your motherboard's Via
chipset is known to have a somewhat low realized PCI
throughput. In other words, your board is among the worst
to use a PCI SATA controller on.

Don't understand. An onboard IDE will make no difference to
an extra PCI SATA card on performance.

Yes it will. PCI is normally a minor bottleneck but in this
case (Via KT266 chipset) the PCI bus is the weakest link by
far.

And newer boards will already have a SATA interface.
I don't see any difference on adapter speeds.
Horst


Forget the theoretical adapter speed and look at the
bottlenecks. One most major is the HDD itself but the PCI
bus on old generation Via board as OP has is a very real
bottleneck... in real uses moreso than just a synthetic
benchmark where the drive subsystem was isolated instead of
competing for bandwidth. On these old Via systems it can be
so bad one can't even play an audio file without stuttering
if they have a typical NIC and PCI IDE card... and I don't
mean the notorious SB Creative Labs cards. PCI latency
adjustment tools can alleviate the problem somewhat, but the
PCI is still far weaker than on nForce, Sis, Intel chipsets
of the same era.

kony wrote
Warra wrote

Am in the UK. Running an old system which works quite well:
Via 266 mobo with Duron 1800 processor and 768MB of SD-RAM.

Will upgrade the system when I need the extra power. Currently
need to add to my data storage. Don't want to get Parallel IDE
(PATA) because newer mobos will support only SATA.

Newer boards will support at least one PATA channel
because OEMs (and others too) are still using and
preferring PATA optical drives.

Yes, but one PATA channel may well not be enough,
most obviously if you want to have two optical drives,
you're stuffed, no where to put the PATA hard drives.

Plus, the same argument you are making about the need for a
PCI SATA adapter could go the other way- that you buy a PCI
PATA adapter for the next system "IF" it ends up needing one.

Yes, but the newer motherboards tend to be short on card slots too.

If you don't plan on having more than one optical drive in
your next system and plan on purchasing it within at least
the next couple years, it is most likely it will have PATA.

Going with SATA now does give you more future tho.

And you get the better SATA cabling now too.

Can get a 250GB Samsung hard drive (from Komplett)
for about £60 inc delivery which is a real bargain.

But a PCI SATA adaptor by Sunsway from the same dealer costs
£19. It supports 2 SATA devices. That is definitely not a bargain
as it's one- third of the price of the 250 GB drive! What a swizz!

I don't know what all hardware costs over there, but trying
to equate it based on % of a budget grade drive is a bit
misguided. The card has, as any product does, a certain bit
over overhead in design, manufacture, delivery, marketing,
warranty coverage, etc, etc.

Card can be surprisingly cheap anyway. Clearly
a lot easier to manufacture than a hard drive too.

What viable alternatives do I have?

The best alternative is to buy a PATA drive.

Nope, the best alternative is a cheaper PCI SATA adaptor.

It will be faster than an SATA, because not only will you
be avoiding use of a PCI SATA card (slower because
it's on the PCI bus instead of southbridge integrated as
your PATA controller onboard, is), but ALSO because
your motherboard's Via chipset is known to have a
somewhat low realized PCI throughput.

It isnt exactly a red hot performer, bet he wont even notice.

In other words, your board is among the
worst to use a PCI SATA controller on.

Oh bull****.

Get the PATA drive and let tomorrow take care of itself.

Mad.