what's the difference between SATA and ATA hard drives?

Answer 1

The main difference between SATA and PATA is the interface, not the hard drive.

Many models from Maxtor, Western Digital, and other manufacturers are available as both SATA and PATA drives, and perform roughly the same in both. However, SATA usually comes with more features like NCQ (Native Command Queueing) that can improve performance. Plus as the others have said, SATA has smaller cables that don't restrict as much air flow inside your case (and can add a pretty cool look if you care to have it).

But don't let the marketing hype fool you. Just because a hard drive is SATA doesn't mean it's going to be faster than any PATA drive. In fact, it's hardly noticeable even if it is. The only time it's makes more sense to have SATA is when adding multiple drives to a PC to form a RAID array (google search it). Arrays involving multiple hard drives can use the extra breathing room that SATA provides.

A car travelling down a 2-lane highway isn't going to get from point A to point B any faster than it would on a 4-lane highway if there was no traffic. Multiple cars might. That's another way to look at it...

Answer 2

certain, there's a distinction, and they don't look straight away interchangeable. PATA is Parallel ATA (or only established previous ATA), which makes use of the large ribbon cable. SATA is Serial ATA, which makes use of a a lot thinner cable. Their skill connections are distinct too. each gadget those days can use PATA drives. purely the newest structures use SATA. in case you want to apply SATA drives, and your pc don't have SATA ports on the motherboard, you should characteristic a SATA controller card for your pc. you could also could get SATA skill adapters besides.

Answer 3

SATA is very fast if you compare to ATA hard drives. Certain computers support different cables. The transfer rate for SATA is quite fast and can support up to 500 gb (right now)

Answer 4

There is a lot of differences. But the main ones are SATA have thinner cables, and it's faster than ATA. For more information click on my source.

Answer 5

ATA, PATA and IDE are one and the same. They all refer to the same type of technology. SATA is a different type of technology. The rate of data transfer and the way this data transfer takes place are the main differences.

ATA can handle upto 133Mbps while theoretically SATA can offer up to 600Mbps. Currently 150Mbps and possibly 300Mbps are standard among SATA drives.

Answer 6

you wont actually feel the difference between SATA and ATA speed.the difference is supposed to be different speed of transport data(ATA-133 MB/s ),the pins are different and the cable is different
(ATA-IDE cable)

Answer 7

not Sata and ata

Sata and Pata

Serial ata has more buffer and more speed

also their ports are different

some of new mother boards have an other type of SATA (sata2)

for more information pm me

Answer 8

1.plug connector is different and handing cable easier.
2.faster access
3. no jumper pin setting