Sata v.s IDE

[tapal]

I wanted to know which hard drive is better sata or ide and what is the difference between SATA and IDE

[edDV]

SATA is a serial version of ATA (EIDE).

It can transfer faster in theory but mechanical limitations keep current drives around 40-70 MB/s (7200rpm) to 90-120 MB/s (15000rpm) sustained transfer. With current drives, ATA133, SATA150 and SATA300 go about the same sustained speed except for cache memory reads. Most advantages for SATA apply to server duty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA

[redwudz]

SATA= Serial ATA, PATA= Parallel ATA. Not much physically different about the construction, both use mostly the same parts. The controller and and connections are the main differences. SATA has a bit higher transfer rate. It also generally uses less power and produces less heat. SATA can also use up to 1 meter cables, though PATA drives will also work with that long of cable, but maybe not as reliably. SATA also works well for external drives where the larger PATA cables might be a problem.

The SATA cables are smaller, helping out case airflow. SATA doesn't use drive jumpers to set MASTER/SLAVE. Just plug them in. There is one drive per cable, unlike PATA which can have two drives per cable, usually MASTER/SLAVE.

I believe PATA hard drives are being phased out as most PC manufacturers have gone to SATA drives. There are also SATA optical drives. No real advantage to them except for the cable sizes. Optical drives are relatively slow anyway.

More info, SATA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

More info, PATA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT_Attachment

[tapal]

What is AHCI what are the benefits of it

[redwudz]

ACHI = Advanced Host Controller Interface. This may explain it better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface

Basically, it's a set of commands to operate a SATA drive more efficiently for data transfers and to improve hot plug capability. But it needs to be implemented when the OS is installed or it can be fairly difficult to set up. Some newer motherboards are able to use it. I had mostly BSOD's (Blue Screen of Death) when I tried to use it and finally gave up. You implement it in BIOS and the OS. It's supported in Vista and some versions of Linux.