Hard Drives

[Jake802]

Hey I am just wondering what is the general preference for Video Editing and such? Should I go IDE or SATA? Thanks for any input?

[lgh529]

I would go with SATA. I've been using one for about 2 years without any problems. I also found that my encoding got faster (50% or so) when I upgraded. I can't say for sure if it was the drive or not, but it has worked perfect. I also use if for capturing and I haven't lost a frame of video the whole time I have used it.

Just my 2 cents

[redwudz]

Not really a lot of difference in actual use. SATA is becoming more common and most all motherboards seem to be using it. The prices between the types are about the same. Some of the newer motherboard only have 2 PATA (IDE) connections, so you may not have a lot of choice.

SATA has some advantages over PATA. It is hot pluggable. And it works great for external enclosures. Much faster than FireWire or USB 2.0. Most of the newer SATA drives are SATA 2 and if your motherboard or controller is SATA 2, you may see a little more speed gain over SATA 1.

[Scorpion King]

Just put 2 new SATA drives in tonight and have been testing them. I got 2 new WD 250G SATA drives and have them on onboard SATA RAID 0.

On write speed benchmarks my IDE single drives are about half as fast as my IDE RAID 0 array, and this new 2 drive SATA RAID 0 array is over half again faster than my IDE RAID. All my drives are WD 7800rpm.

My board I suppose is SATA 1. I guess the newer SATA 2 is quite a bit faster still yet. I'm satified, it rocks....

[edDV]

Just put 2 new SATA drives in tonight and have been testing them. I got 2 new WD 250G SATA drives and have them on onboard SATA RAID 0.

On write speed benchmarks my IDE single drives are about half as fast as my IDE RAID 0 array, and this new 2 drive SATA RAID 0 array is over half again faster than my IDE RAID. All my drives are WD 7800rpm.

My board I suppose is SATA 1. I guess the newer SATA 2 is quite a bit faster still yet. I'm satified, it rocks....

Many have been reporting frame loss problems with motherboard RAID0 and SATA in the past but maybe those problems are being resolved. Regaradless RAID isn't needed for most video applications and if you do need RAID, a purpose designed PCI RAID card is a better way to go. RAID zero is highly risky for data loss. Loose one drive and you have lost all data on both.

Motherboard RAID is driven by software and as such is subject to CPU interrupts. This may explain the frame loss issues. Hardware RAID is the way to go if you must have it.

[waheed]

I would go for SATA. Compared with IDE, it offers:

1. Hot Pluggable - no more restarting the PC to recognise the drive
2. No Jumper Configuration - does away with master/slave settings
3. Faster than IDE - whether you notice a difference is based on user opinion (SATA is 150MBps, IDE is 133MBps)
4. Runs cooler than IDE drive
5. Consumes less power than IDE drive
6. Uses smaller thinner cables which allows for more airflow inside your PC (not to metion it also looks neater)

[Jake802]

Thanks Everyone!

[Scorpion King]

Just put 2 new SATA drives in tonight and have been testing them. I got 2 new WD 250G SATA drives and have them on onboard SATA RAID 0.

On write speed benchmarks my IDE single drives are about half as fast as my IDE RAID 0 array, and this new 2 drive SATA RAID 0 array is over half again faster than my IDE RAID. All my drives are WD 7800rpm.

My board I suppose is SATA 1. I guess the newer SATA 2 is quite a bit faster still yet. I'm satified, it rocks....

Many have been reporting frame loss problems with motherboard RAID0 and SATA in the past but maybe those problems are being resolved. Regaradless RAID isn't needed for most video applications and if you do need RAID, a purpose designed PCI RAID card is a better way to go. RAID zero is highly risky for data loss. Loose one drive and you have lost all data on both.

Motherboard RAID is driven by software and as such is subject to CPU interrupts. This may explain the frame loss issues. Hardware RAID is the way to go if you must have it.

Yes, mine is hardware raid... both the IDE Raid0 and my new SATA Raid0 arrays. I know the deal about loosing one drive and loosing all the data on the array but I have my other single drives that contain all my critical stuff on. These arrays are only for working large video files and temp/long term storage of video/audio/etc. Pretty non-critical stuff when all this is anyway is a hobby.

I have been using Raid0 arrays for my last 2 systems and have captured many hours of video with them. I do agree with you that some controllers are better than others because my first system was an ABIT board and the onboard Raid controller was pretty fault ridden and I did loose my data a few times. I went with Gigabyte with this system and have been using it now for almost 3 years as a video capturing monster and the raid has never given me one second of problems. (knock on wood)

I know Raid is not needed even for capturing uncompressed 720x480 AVI because even my slowest drive in a removable drive tray can it without dropping frames, but the Raid is so fast and I am so spoiled I wouldn't want to live without it...

Good luck.

[JerryB]

Hey I am just wondering what is the general preference for Video Editing and such? Should I go IDE or SATA? Thanks for any input?

hi,
1. this site will probably give you the numbers you want... and some other info
http://www.answers.com/topic/serial-ata?method=6

2. now not just for video but for anything... sata the way to go, it outpurforms your pata (eide ata drives) ..... even the sata 1 outperforms most ata's and if you get the sata2 reall big increase in performance
3. keep in mind.... there different version of sata.... right now there a sata 1 (sata 150, sata II (sata 300), and next year be comming out with a sata 3 .....

3. in your further search... a new buzzword Pata, this was created because they came out with sata... pata (parallel ata) encompases the class of drives such as ( your ide, eide, ata ultra ata,) a lot of time instead of saying ata or ide the'll say pata!!

[julitomg]

I have a couple of SATA I drives in my PC; I´m planning to upgrade the MoBo and probably will buy a model that supports SATA II; will I be able to use my current drives?(I´d buy SATA II HDDs later), can SATA I and SATA II coexist in the same system if I decide to keep the older ones once I buy the new ones?(the MoBo supporting SATA II of course)

[edDV]

2. now not just for video but for anything... sata the way to go, it outpurforms your pata (eide ata drives) ..... even the sata 1 outperforms most ata's and if you get the sata2 reall big increase in performance

In theory but no drive hardware (actual spinning discs) perform at even the PATA133 level.

The 100/133/150/300 MB/s ATA specs are peak burst rates anyway and don't make any difference for sustained transfer rates that are important for video. Sustained rates vary inner to outer edge of the drive and are approximately

PATA/SATA Raptor 50-90 MB/s
PATA/SATA Typical consumer drive 30-55 MB/s
PATA Notebook 15-40MB/s

These are nowhere near the limits of the hardware PATA/SATA interface. ATA-100 will go just as fast as SATA II 300 with today's hardware.

Unless working with uncompressed video, most video rates are far less than these rates (e.g. DV/HDV @ 4MB/s, MPeg2 1-3MB/s ) so all that is affected is file copy.