ATA vs IDE

[Veli]

What is the difference between ATA and IDE hard drive? Is one of them to prefer instead of the other or is it just about how they are connected?

[techieMoe]

I've successfully connected ATA harddrives and disc drives using both "IDE" and "ATA" cables, so for practical purposes I consider them identical. The same gray ribbon can connect either a CDROM or a harddrive.

As for Serial ATA, that's a whole different animal. I like Serial ATA harddrives personally because the little SATA cables and their plugs take up a lot less space in my tower than the big gray ribbons. In theory SATA drives can run faster than IDE ones... but I've never had the money to buy a 10,000 or 15,000rpm drive to see.

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but here's a comparison of IDE/ATA and SCSI:

http://www.storagereview.com/guide20...d/if/comp.html

[Veli]

Thanks. It was a good website, but it was mainly about the difference between SCSI and IDE/ATA. Now that I know a bit more about it, my question should be:

What's the difference between serial ATA and IDE? Is it only the connection (you say it uses smaller cables) or are there any other differences?

And are S-ATA drives always more exspensive than IDE drives with the same storage capacity?

[d38dm8nw81k1ng]

Thanks. It was a good website, but it was mainly about the difference between SCSI and IDE/ATA. Now that I know a bit more about it, my question should be:

What's the difference between serial ATA and IDE? Is it only the connection (you say it uses smaller cables) or are there any other differences?

And are S-ATA drives always more exspensive than IDE drives with the same storage capacity?

SATA drives are more expensive than IDE but it is not by a lot (usually as little as £5). iirc the early SATA drives were just ATA drives with a SATA bridge which didn't take full advantage of the technology, but now i think they are true SATA drives. it's almost all in the cable, which allows faster transfer speeds than ATA. i think SATA drives are just the same technology as ATA, with some changes to take advantage of the improved transfer speeds.