Member Avatar for rcrevolution

ok heres my delima, I currently have a 40Gb HDD ata/133 and a 160Gb ata/133

the 160Gb I only keep music and dvds on so that can stay.
but I need a faster HDD to have my games and programs.

so which HDD type is the fastest I can get? I beleive it is SATA but I can be wrong.

and is it possible to find a 200Gb HDD for under $200 which is SATA
doesnt matter on the rpms (10,000 perferably)
and i would also like it to be quite and have a fast seek time.

also what performance boost can I be seeing from this faster HDD compared to my ata/133
will my games and programs load quicker, and will my windows boot time go down?

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Short version: a modern 200 GB 7200 RPM SATA will feel noticeably faster than an old 40 GB PATA drive for boot and game loads, but it won’t give a huge leap over a 160 GB 7200 RPM SATA of similar vintage. The real differences come from rotational latency, average seek time and sustained transfer rate — not the connector alone. This expands on points made by , , , and and gives a checklist to compare drives.

Rotational latency and seek dominate random-access performance. Average rotational latency = 60/(2×RPM) seconds, so 7200 RPM ≈ 4.17 ms, 10000 RPM ≈ 3 ms. Add the drive’s average seek time (manufacturers publish this) to estimate random-access latency. See the performance discussion for hard drives for details: Hard disk drive performance.

A larger-capacity 7200 RPM drive is often as fast or faster than a smaller 7200 RPM model because newer/high-density platters raise sustained transfer on outer tracks. Compare manufacturers’ specs (sustained MB/s, average seek, spindle RPM, cache) and independent benchmarks — the interface (SATA vs PATA) rarely becomes the limiting factor for single-disk desktop use. See the Serial ATA overview for interface compatibility: Serial ATA (SATA).

Features that matter beyond RPM:

  • Sustained transfer rate (MB/s) and “average seek” (ms) values on the spec sheet.
  • Acoustic rating (dBA) and whether the model supports acoustic management.
  • Native Command Queuing (NCQ)/AHCI support (helps multi-threaded/random workloads, may need drivers): Native command queuing.

Practical tips: check real-world reviews for noise and seek behavior, confirm your motherboard’s SATA support or plan a controller card, and if migrating Windows, install SATA/AHCI drivers or use IDE/compatibility mode during install. For a bigger jump in load/boot times than any HDD can give, consider a solid-state drive when budgets and availability allow.

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Member Avatar for Coconut Monkey

Either the 160Gb or 40Gb would be fine as one of the main system drives.
If you require additional space however, then a standard 7200rpm SATA drive of some capacity from Seagate, Western Digital or Maxtor should serve you well. I wouldn't bother with a 10000rpm model - the extra cost and reduced storage capacity isn't worth the minimal decrease in load times.

Member Avatar for rcrevolution

well I found a western digital and a maxtor both 200GB 7200rpms and sata , how does that sound?

my current primary hdd is a 40GB ata/100 old emachines HDD which serverly needs to be upgraded.

will a 200Gb sata hdd perform slower then a 160Gb sata hdd? and if so will the difference be great?

have a quick question too, will SATA II work in regular SATA?

Member Avatar for rcrevolution

still need help here

Member Avatar for jifiii

Well it will have some effect with the bigger HD, since it has to search through my sectors on the platter, but you will see very little difference in performace.

Member Avatar for rcrevolution

either way the sata 200Gb will load faster then my 40Gb ata/133 right?

Member Avatar for rcrevolution

I was looking at that,

is that a decent drive, and will it be loud? Like my maxtor 160Gb ata/133 makes like grinding sounds when write (nothing is bad its just loud) will that HDD makes those same sounds?

Member Avatar for alc6379

Did you check the reviews? they'd be the best things to consider befure purchasing the drive.

Now, I do just want to elaborate on something here. SATA150 is only 17MB/s faster than ATA/133. While it is a speed increase, I don't think you're going to experience some huge speed jump by installing a "faster" drive. At least, not some appreciable difference.

jifiii and Coconut Monkey are right-- pick a drive based on how much space you need. you're not going to get too much faster by having SATA drives.

Member Avatar for Dani

Just to add, RPMs aside, SATA does not go through the standard IDE bus that IDE/Parallel ATA drives do. I'm not sure how big of an impact that makes on performance.

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