Will PATA work with my pc. Hp pavilion 7955?

[Denvers Dawgs]

Found this Seagate 500GB drive for $190 http://shop2.outpost.com/product/4795159#detailed What is PATA? And would it work in my PC or in any external enclosure?

[kschang]

PATA is just IDE/EIDE, renamed slightly to match SATA.

[budz]

PATA is ATA parallel which is the most commonly used type for hard drives. It plugs into your IDE controllers on the mobo. If you want to use a external enclosure it has to be one that is ATA parallel. If you want to use it in your pc you need to have a ide controller available. most mobos have 2 IDE controllers. if all of them are taken you can always buy a PCI CONTROLLER CARD for the PATA hard drive. SATA hard drives supposedly are faster that PATA but not by too much. those are good for conducting better air flow in your computer case because the cables are thinner than the flat ide cables.