Goodbye IDE.....Hello Serial ATA!

[SteveDeBeave]

I can't wait for the new Serial ATA interface to become widely available. This looks like a big step in the future of drive interface for sure.

150 mb's a second now and 300~600 in the future! Not to mention the size of the cables, say goodbye to the damn ribbon, just think how cool my build would look inside. Ma's instead of 5v also, my Enchance will surely love that.

 

[hbkh]

Hecks yeah! its gonna be sweet.... i just wish i could get a drive! I wonder when they are coming out....

 

[TheWart]

yea, although I would not get to hyped up over the t-fer speed of 150mb/sec....seeing as that it will rarely go over 40-ish in a non-raid setup...but still, those cables are pretty nifty, and no more master/slave crud to worry about.

 

[AluminumStudios]

Serial ATA is more or less an inecremental step up from our current ATA, I don't see it as all that impressive myself. The current Ultra ATA specs exceede the transfrer rate of IDE drives, so I'm no excited over any speed bumps yet.

The cableing will be nicer (even though you can easily buy round IDE cables now.) I just hope they worked out issues with connectors coming loose. I read a number of reviews of early SATA devices where just touching the cable caused it to loose connection and froze up the machine.

 

[Tab]

Until we see actuall chipset support for S-ATA, our speeds will be limited.

 

[fyleow]

Doesn't really impress me at all until the drives start getting better. Practically no difference between ATA 100 and 133, Serial ATA won't make much of a difference....

 

[Duvie]

I agree...I wait patiently to actually see what is delivered.....ATA133 doesn't come anywhere close to delivering on its 133mb/s claim...avg transfers in the low 40's....So someone stating 150mb/s makes me think we will see something like mid 40's....

I am very skeptical when it come to high tech claims...most of the high tech landscape right now is a marketing scam....

IE
agp 8x...nothing is here to take advantage of it...
ata133...as mentioned above

 

[Sunner]

Im eagerly anticipating it, not for the speed, but for the features.
-Hotplug support
-Small cables
-Low pincount should make mobos cheaper, even if they have more channels
-No M/S problems
-TCQ is a standard feature with SATA

 

[ChefJoe]

I'm eagerly awaiting SATA drives. I do not plan on buying anymore of the 40 pin IDE drives so the manufacturers had better get moving.

 

[Dogsbody]

Has anybody heard as to when we are supposed to start seeing these serial drives available for purchase so that we can all see how they really perform?

 

[Byte]

with all the high tech stuff coming out, i can't believe we are so excited about a cable....BUT I'M EXCITED HEHEHE

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: Tabb
Until we see actuall chipset support for S-ATA, our speeds will be limited.

Until we see much faster drives (2-3 years down the line), our speeds will be limited by the drives, not the interface. By that time a faster interface will be available.

ATA133 doesn't come anywhere close to delivering on its 133mb/s claim...avg transfers in the low 40's....

Has nothing to do with ATA133, it's the drives. ATA133 is real world capable of much higher transfer rates than in the 40's.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Since the complete tranformation from parallel ATA to SATA won't be completed for a while (buil-tin to chipsets and stuff), ... I wanna see a combo FireWire/USB2/SATA PCI adapter. Hey, they are already 66% there!

-SUO

 

[Shamrock]

My Chipset supports Serial ATA (on the motherboard, not an addin card). And from what I understand Serial ATA is 150mb/sec CONSISTANT, not burst rate, that means 150mb/sec ALL the time? Dont quote me, just going by what i've read.


Oh yeah, my mobo is Asus A7v8x (KT400) with onboard serial ATA

 

[bgeh]

Originally posted by: Shamrock
My Chipset supports Serial ATA (on the motherboard, not an addin card). And from what I understand Serial ATA is 150mb/sec CONSISTANT, not burst rate, that means 150mb/sec ALL the time? Dont quote me, just going by what i've read.


Oh yeah, my mobo is Asus A7v8x (KT400) with onboard serial ATA

yes, but the interface is limited by the hard drive itself which is around 40-45mb/sec

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: Shamrock
My Chipset supports Serial ATA (on the motherboard, not an addin card). And from what I understand Serial ATA is 150mb/sec CONSISTANT, not burst rate, that means 150mb/sec ALL the time? Dont quote me, just going by what i've read.


Oh yeah, my mobo is Asus A7v8x (KT400) with onboard serial ATA

You got it wrong Shamrock, your A7V8X doesnt have serial ata built into the chipset,your board uses a promise chip for that.

So your serial ata speeds are limited by your pci bus.

The A7V8X features the PDC 20376 Promise RAID / SATA150 controller

 

[Tab]

Your board supports S-ATA, but doesnt use it to its full atvantage. The S-ATA controller isnt in the NorthBridge, so currently any S-ATA Controls are currently stuck to a PCI Bus. Which limits there speed. Seagate has their S-ATA Drives Barracuda Serial ATA V the prices are the same as many high-quality IDE drives, not to mention dont have the metallic whine of the WD SE's.

 

[bgeh]

yah, serial ata intergrated into the sothbridge will come in Q2 2003 with the intel southbridge ICH5

 

[Shamrock]

Ahh, I understand now, but I do have it...anyway, like bgeh said, it's the hard drive that limits it atm.

Sham

 

[AbRASiON]

Only SATA's plugs look weak, and you need a cable PER device.
Sure if you got 2 devices no issue, what if you have a DVD-ROM - CDRW and 3 hard disks - 5 devices? plus an IDE zip drive with SATA converter?


That's 6 devices - on a "normal" ide setup that's 3 rounded cables.

vs SIX damned cables AND judging by the shape / size / texture (thickness) of the cable, it doesn't look too easy to tie around itself (like an IDE cable is)

I really wish they daisy chained this standard, I'm very disapointed, plus making your own cables will be hard - so cable lengths will be an issue.
AND you need the damn molex - > serial ata power converter at the moment

AND cdrom's CDRW's and DVD's aren't serial ATA at the moment

_AND_ finally the serial attached SCSI standard - I'm not sure if they use the same power cable - it'd be REAL stupid if they didn't!

sigh x 10
Serial ATA isn't all it's cracked up to be.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: AbRASiON
Only SATA's plugs look weak, and you need a cable PER device.
Sure if you got 2 devices no issue, what if you have a DVD-ROM - CDRW and 3 hard disks - 5 devices? plus an IDE zip drive with SATA converter?


That's 6 devices - on a "normal" ide setup that's 3 rounded cables.

vs SIX damned cables AND judging by the shape / size / texture (thickness) of the cable, it doesn't look too easy to tie around itself (like an IDE cable is)

I really wish they daisy chained this standard, I'm very disapointed, plus making your own cables will be hard - so cable lengths will be an issue.
AND you need the damn molex - > serial ata power converter at the moment

AND cdrom's CDRW's and DVD's aren't serial ATA at the moment

_AND_ finally the serial attached SCSI standard - I'm not sure if they use the same power cable - it'd be REAL stupid if they didn't!

sigh x 10
Serial ATA isn't all it's cracked up to be.

I'd rather have 6 cables than 3 cables. It sucks having to relocate your drives just so the HD can be the master and the CD can be the slave.... 2 per cable causes massive problems.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: Jellomancer

I'd rather have 6 cables than 3 cables. It sucks having to relocate your drives just so the HD can be the master and the CD can be the slave.... 2 per cable causes massive problems.

me too. the cables are like 1/5th the size so who cares?

 

[AbRASiON]

Originally posted by: Jellomancer

Originally posted by: AbRASiON
Only SATA's plugs look weak, and you need a cable PER device.
Sure if you got 2 devices no issue, what if you have a DVD-ROM - CDRW and 3 hard disks - 5 devices? plus an IDE zip drive with SATA converter?


That's 6 devices - on a "normal" ide setup that's 3 rounded cables.

vs SIX damned cables AND judging by the shape / size / texture (thickness) of the cable, it doesn't look too easy to tie around itself (like an IDE cable is)

I really wish they daisy chained this standard, I'm very disapointed, plus making your own cables will be hard - so cable lengths will be an issue.
AND you need the damn molex - > serial ata power converter at the moment

AND cdrom's CDRW's and DVD's aren't serial ATA at the moment

_AND_ finally the serial attached SCSI standard - I'm not sure if they use the same power cable - it'd be REAL stupid if they didn't!

sigh x 10
Serial ATA isn't all it's cracked up to be.

I'd rather have 6 cables than 3 cables. It sucks having to relocate your drives just so the HD can be the master and the CD can be the slave.... 2 per cable causes massive problems.

Comedy gold... jumpers designate which hard disk is the master and which is the CD - not the location of the devices on the physical cable.
"massive problems" - in other words you're new to building your own PC right?

 

[AbRASiON]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: Jellomancer

I'd rather have 6 cables than 3 cables. It sucks having to relocate your drives just so the HD can be the master and the CD can be the slave.... 2 per cable causes massive problems.

me too. the cables are like 1/5th the size so who cares?

It's about 1/4 the width but about 4x thicker in depth which makes tying the cable "around itself" quite difficult.

 

[Lonyo]

Does serial ATA mean that we'll get CD drives etc on serial ATA as well, or will we end up with IDE and serial both on a mobo for HDD's and CD drives?
Plus, would serial ATA mean you could have, say 4 connectors for hdd's rather than the 2 currently offered, since the connectors are smaller. Mobo makers might be able to squeeze more on the motherboard.