Which is better for storing/playing games - IDE or SATA?

[P4mustangtime]

Thought I'd ask that question. I'd image had been asked before by someone else here - right?

Anyway, I'm wondering if it does matter if I should go with IDE or SATA hard drives when I play with online games and store them in HD? Does that affects the speeds while loading up games to play?

I've already brought a couple of IDE drives and my Asus P4c800-E do have two SATA oulets on there if I need them, otherwise my mobo also have IDE connectors as well.

Thanks! :)

[Jon]

First off, IDE and SATA are the same. You're speaking about PATA and SATA.

If you already own the PATA, I wouldn't spend on SATA. There are some optimized commands in SATA that does make them a bit faster than PATA drives, but I can't say you'll see a remarkable difference. SATA allows for higher throughput, but the drive mechanisms are still limited to well below the alloted bandwidth for them.

I'm sure there will be contrasting opinions, but the performance/price ratio just isn't there for me, personally.

[P4mustangtime]

Thanks Jon, That's what I mean...PATA and SATA (what was I thinking?)!

Yeah, I've read many posts regarding about the compares of these cables and I don't see much difference between these 2 types of cables for game-storing.

[JTanczos]

I didnt notice any difference between 7200RPM PATA and 7200RPM SATA. I DID however notice a difference between an 80gig 7200RPM PATA and a 76gig 10,000 RPM Raptor SATA. :)

So if you have the money you can go for a raptor. Otherwise you probably wont see that much gain if you already have PATA.

JT

[P4mustangtime]

Ok, thanks for your thoughts - as long there's not much difference then I'll stay with what I already have at the moment. :)