PATA vs. SATA?

[cr8250]

Hi all, nevermind any theorettical advantages of the SATA interface, are the SATA drives faster than the available PATA drives? Are they equal, slightly faster, or significantly faster? Also, what about SCSI at this point?

[ThreeOnTheTree]

Really, spindle speeds have kept us from taking full advantage of SATA. Overall, I think SATA is only slightly faster than PATA, and that's just in some applications. Otherwise the difference is very hard to tell. Maybe someone else will correct me if I'm wrong.

[NetWerx]

Hi all, nevermind any theorettical advantages of the SATA interface, are the SATA drives faster than the available PATA drives? Are they equal, slightly faster, or significantly faster? Also, what about SCSI at this point?

My on board SATA configured in a non-raid is slightly faster when benchmarked then my older ATA-133 IDE with controller card. Real world doesn't really show this.

However, if you use a mobo or sata controller *and* hard drive that utilize Native Command Queuing (NCQ), you WILL see gains! Real world gains!

Aside from the speculations, I will never build/setup a non SATA PC because I can't stand the aero dynamic disadvantages with IDE cables (even those gimicky roung ones). Most people building a PC fail to think about smooth airflow inside a case.