Member Avatar for moderate_rock48

I am thinking about purchasing a new hard drive, I have a HP pavilion with an ASUS CUW-AM mobo. Now im not sure what the difference is between SATA, IDE, RAID etc. which one should I choose? and is there any thing else I should take into consideration before buying one(aside from the size)?

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A short, practical addendum tied to the replies from , , and .

For decision-making the single biggest facts to add are (1) interface raw throughput versus real-world drive limits, and (2) BIOS/OS support for large drives. Parallel ATA (IDE) tops out at about 133 MB/s while early SATA standards are 150 MB/s (SATA I) and 300 MB/s (SATA II); mechanical hard drives of the era typically deliver far less sustained throughput, so RPM, seek time and cache usually control desktop performance more than the interface (Parallel ATA, Serial ATA, Hard_disk_drive). Native Command Queuing can help some multitask workloads but requires controller and drive support (Native Command Queuing).

Actionable checklist that fills gaps in the thread:

  • Verify BIOS/controller capabilities and update BIOS before installing a large drive; older BIOSes require 48‑bit LBA support for drives >137 GB (Logical block addressing).
  • If using an IDE/PATA drive, set jumpers correctly (Master/Slave or Cable Select) and use an 80-conductor cable to enable UDMA modes.
  • Choose drive specs to match the use: 7200 RPM + larger cache for OS/apps; 5400 RPM for quieter bulk storage; enterprise needs different choices.
  • Check warranty, SMART support and run a surface/SMART test after install.
  • If planning RAID, confirm whether it will be hardware RAID, controller-assisted "fake RAID," or OS/software RAID and prepare drivers accordingly.

Practical recommendation: For an older Pavilion motherboard the least friction route is a quality IDE/PATA drive that supports ATA‑133, is 7200 RPM if responsiveness matters, and whose capacity is supported by the BIOS or after a BIOS update. If longer-term upgrade or RAID is the goal, plan for a platform/controller path that provides driver and BIOS support before committing to the drive.

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Member Avatar for Cup of Squirrel

IDE is good old classic connection, and as far as I know all mobo's support this. There may be a few exceptions for very very very uber leet new ones however.

SATA is much quicker than IDE, but not all mobo's support it, and it does add to the price tag. Only go for SATA if your looking for quick loading times for apps.

Member Avatar for Member #11424

That motherboard () does not have any SATA connections/controllers so if you want SATA you'll need a PCI SATA controller.
That should make for a fairly easy decision. Go for IDE. It's the hardware for the era of that motherboard. (Not that there's anything wrong with IDE).

Member Avatar for Coconut Monkey

SATA is much quicker than IDE

It's actually not much quicker at all (yet!), and the performance difference is hardly noticeable. You might be thinking of the 10,000RPM drives. ;)

I'd only choose SATA for the smaller cables, easier physical installation (no jumpers) and some degree of future-proofing. Considering SATA models don't cost much more than their IDE counterparts, why not? Unless of course your motherboard doesn't actually support them. :)

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