Difference between Seagates

Steve_h · 14 Apr 2006 at 17:24

Hi,
just had my daughters hard drive die,which in a way isn't to bad as I was going to get a larger capacity drive soon for myself anyway.
I am currently using a Seagate (IDE)which has never caused me any issues so I would like to continue with this make.
My question concerns the different models of Seagate available.
I believe that I can only use SATA1 at present (on board raid controller) and have no plans to upgrade my m/board for 12-18mths,so I'm unsure if I should get a SATA2 for later upgrades.
The SATA2's don't seem to give seek times as seen here http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/discsales/marketing/detail/0,1081,720,00.html

But the SATA1's do, such as the http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/discsales/marketing/detail/0,1081,701,00.html

So are the SATA1's faster or do I not really need to worry about a few m/s?

Anyway any thoughts appreciated

jbloggs · 14 Apr 2006 at 18:38

Steve_h:

SATA II is backward compatable, so a SATA II HDD will run fine on your motherboard that is only specificied as SATA I.

Steve_h · 14 Apr 2006 at 19:24

Cheers jbloggs,I was really wondering what the seek times are on the SATA2's compared to the SATA1's
Ths SATA2 route does seem the obvious way to go for upgrading later but I don't want to be let down with slower seek times (if indeed the SATA2's are slower)?

As an example the NL35 Series (SATA1) is giving a 8ms seek time.

smids · 15 Apr 2006 at 18:50

All SATA drives (1 or 2) are virtually the same in terms of access/seek times. Basically they are everything a SATA drive is and more.

Steve_h · 15 Apr 2006 at 19:38

Thanks for the reply smids,so do you think I'm better of getting SATA2 even though my board doesn't support it? Or stick with a SATA1 drive to avoid any issues.
Also is there any point in getting SATA2 if i'm not going to upgrade for a good 12 months?I don't want to find that when I do there is SATA 3!! lol

smids · 15 Apr 2006 at 19:49

Steve_h said:
Thanks for the reply smids,so do you think I'm better of getting SATA2 even though my board doesn't support it? Or stick with a SATA1 drive to avoid any issues.
Also is there any point in getting SATA2 if i'm not going to upgrade for a good 12 months?I don't want to find that when I do there is SATA 3!! lol

Definitely get a SATA-II - there will be virtually no issues should you follow any jumper settings etc and you will get added features.