SATA cables

[eeps24]

correct me if im wrong, isnt there SATA and SATA II (which does 3Gbps) ... my question is , are all the cables for SATA the same speed or are there different cable speeds....

reason i ask is i have a few old SATA cables and im not sure which speed they can do, im not sure if its a SATA I or II

[EXreaction]

I don't think it would matter because drives are not nearly as fast as SATA 1 is...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA#SATA_1.5_Gbit.2Fs

[lost-and-found]

Edit...Ex beat me to it

Quote from Wikipedia, so take with a grain of salt:

Quote:

SATA/300's transfer rate is expected to satisfy drive throughput requirements for some time, as the fastest desktop hard disks barely saturate a SATA/150 link. This is why a SATA data cable rated for 1.5 Gbit/s will currently handle second generation, SATA 3.0 Gbit/s sustained and burst data transfers without any loss of performance.

[eeps24]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EXreaction

I don't think it would matter because drives are not nearly as fast as SATA 1 is...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA#SATA_1.5_Gbit.2Fs

just so i understand this, baiscly the type of cable doesnt matter because the drives themseleves cannot reach speeds of SATA 1 (1.5gbps) , .... i never knew that, then why would someone buy a SATA II (3gbps) hard drive if they drive itself can hit the 3Gbps barrier?

with all this said...then how much faster is SATA over PATA? wow this just threw a wrench into everything for me

[EXreaction]

Nope, current consumer drives can not reach those speeds.

SATA2 brings in support for other things, like NCQ.

For consumer drives, you won't notice a difference between PATA 100 or 133 and SATA. But SATA is much nicer with smaller cables and not having to worry about jumpers.

The drive matters the most for the speed you'll get. Higher RPMs, cache, and density means it will go faster.

[carl33p]

Since Sata II doesnt cost anymore than Sata I, might as well.

There is minimal to NO performance gain from PATA to SATA. One of the main benefits is the smaller wires.

[eeps24]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EXreaction

Nope, current consumer drives can not reach those speeds.

SATA2 brings in support for other things, like NCQ.

For consumer drives, you won't notice a difference between PATA 100 or 133 and SATA.

this whole time i thought i was at blazing speeds with SATA, then why do they sell these things if you cant even get these high rated speeds, ... what gives? this is like a total shock for me ...

[EXreaction]

Sorry, I edited my last posted and added some extra information I thought was important.

[eeps24]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EXreaction

Sorry, I edited my last posted and added some extra information I thought was important.

thanks for everyone replying back to my post.... im just still kinda puzzled about all this...i see your points about RPM's, cache, etc... but why do they come out with all this SATA crap about high speeds etc, if the drive cant even get that high...(lets forget the raptor drive lol) im talking about standard 7200 rpm drives, ...even if they came out lets say for example a SATA 10Gbps drive, why would anyone buy it since we all know its still the same speed as a PATA drive (and besides smaller cables lol)


...sorry if i keep asking questions about this, i just want to make sure i understand this concept 100%

[lost-and-found]

They came out with a new standard so that the delivery bus is not the bottleneck. Though the drives don't support the speeds now, they looked ahead and opened the door for faster drives.

Look at it this way. Before SATA 3Gbps, the bus itself became a bottleneck because the drives hit the 1.5Gbps maximum transfer speed of the bus. So they designed a new bus. Now the hard drives are the bottleneck and need to catch up, but at least they have room to grow now.

Plus, just because you can't transfer at those speeds yet, you have so many new features available that weren't with PATA, hot plugging for one.