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:
> 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?

Find a cheaper PCI SATA adaptor on ebay.

"Warra" <> wrote in message
news:Xns97E9F2357614B628D1@127.0.0.1...
> 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.

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.

Later on if you need to you can get a little adapter that plugs into the
pata and makes it sata.

--
Ed Light

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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.
>
> 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?
>


Consider getting a PATA drive of whatever size fits your needs. When
its time to move to another motherboard, look for one that will support
the hard drive. If it only has one PATA interface, it may be possible
to use it for both the hard drive and a DVD drive. Since DVDs typically
runs at 66mhz, the hard drive would probably run at that reduced
bandwidth. BUT the good news is that hard drives rarely transfer data
any faster than that except for burst from cache.

In news: 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

Merrill P. L. Worthington 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.
>>
>> 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?
>>
>
>
> Consider getting a PATA drive of whatever size fits your needs. When
> its time to move to another motherboard, look for one that will
> support the hard drive. If it only has one PATA interface, it may be
> possible to use it for both the hard drive and a DVD drive. Since
> DVDs typically runs at 66mhz, the hard drive would probably run at
> that reduced bandwidth. BUT the good news is that hard drives rarely
> transfer data any faster than that except for burst from cache.

What a crock of misinformation!
--
Shaun.