what is the difference in a sata hard drive and a eide hard drive?

Answer 1

The connector is the main difference. You can get better through put (transfer rate) with a sata drive

You need to verify your motherboard supports sata. If it is a newer MB there should be no issue

Sata = Serial connection
EIDE = Parallel connection

Answer 2

IDE (and EIDE) is a technology that has been around since the early 90s. It uses a parallel connection to transfer data between the computer and the ahrd drive. The physical connector is about 2 inchs long, and has two rows of pins that connect to the holes in the IDE cable. It is older technology, and not able to handle the giant size hard drives being sold today - too slow.

SATA is a newer technology (about 3-4 years old), that uses a serial connection instead. They physcial connector is much smaller and has a single connector that inserts into a slot on the end of the SATA cable. It runs at a much faster speed, so it able to handle the demands of todays giant sized hard drives - much faster.

When purchasing a hard drive, you have to buy one that matches the connectors in your PC. Most SATA PCs will also be able to use an IDE drive. They usually have an IDE controller bacause CD and DVD drives are still IDE. But an IDE computer can not use a SATA drive.

Answer 3

The biggest difference is speed. An EIDE or IDE drive can transfer data at up 133 megs/sec. A SATA speed is either 150 or 300 megs/sec depending on what your motherboard is capable of supporting. Also, SATA drives use a much smaller data cable which promotes better air flow and therefor cooler internal case temperatures. And last, SATA's tend to run cooler and with much less noise.

Answer 4

The connector is different and SATA is much much quicker.

Answer 5

In simple:
SATA=thiner cable(better air flow in the cpu case) and faster speed
eIDE=IDE=broad cable and slower speed and messy.