SATA optical drives?

JohnJSal · 12-11-2007, 07:19 AM

The book I'm reading (from 2006) warns against SATA optical drives because of compatibility issues, but I'm having trouble finding PATA drives on newegg. Or is PATA the same as E-IDE / ATAPI? Is IDE also the same?

Thanks.

Also, is it still the case that PATA is preferable for an optical drive?

ThatGuy16 · 12-11-2007, 07:30 AM

Get SATA, i love them. Nothing wrong with them, i havn't ever heard of compatibility issues. Im runnning two sata drives. Beats the heck out of having bulky IDE cables...

IDE is PATA, i do beleive.

PC eye · 12-11-2007, 07:44 AM

The first sata dvd burner in the new build here has been quite reliable so far. Many vendors will now stocking more sata models since boards are going sata for the most part with most now seeing only one ide channel. The term PATA represents Parallel ATA while sata represent Serial ATA using a thinner single data cable for each drive.

The image above is a typical sata data cabled included in the retail carton a board comes in. Those are 7pin connectors compared to the 80wire/80conductor seen with a standard ATA100/133 drive.

[-0MEGA-] · 12-11-2007, 12:35 PM

PATA = IDE

I have two SATA DVD burners and I've never had a problem. They work fine for loading OS's as well.

StrangleHold · 12-11-2007, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PC eye

Those are 7pin connectors compared to the 80wire/80conductor seen with a standard ATA100/133 drive.

The IDE cable has 80 wires with 40 pins. It has 40 extra ground wires to add to stability

JohnJSal · 12-11-2007, 06:09 PM

Thanks again everyone. I guess at this point I can only hope that the parts I'm choosing will just come together and work for me.

But don't worry, you will all be blessed with my final parts list in another few days.

PC eye · 12-11-2007, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StrangleHold

The IDE cable has 80 wires with 40 pins. It has 40 extra ground wires to add to stability

40pin VS 80pin "Ultra" IDE Cables? Wha does that have to do with sata optical drives?

If I need a dictionary,

Ultra DMA (80-Conductor) IDE/ATA Cables
There are a lot of issues and problems associated with the original 40-conductor IDE cable, due to its very old and not very robust design. Unterminated [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]flat [COLOR=blue! important]ribbon [/color][COLOR=blue! important]cables[/color][/color][/color] have never been all that great in terms of signal quality and dealing with reflections from the end of the cable. The warts of the old design were tolerable while signaling speeds on the [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]IDE[/color][/color]/ATA interface were relatively low, but as the speed of the interface continued to increase, the limitations of the cable were finally too great to be ignored.
In the ATA/ATAPI-4 standard that introduced the Ultra DMA transfer mode set, a new cable was introduced to replace the old standby: the 80-conductor IDE/[COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]ATA [COLOR=blue! important]cable[/color][/color][/color]. The name is important: the new cable has 80 conductors (wires)--it does not have 80 pins on each connector, though, just 40. This means that the new cable is pin-compatible with the old drive. No change has been made to the IDE/ATA connectors, aside from the color-coding issue (see below). http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/id...Cable80-c.html

StrangleHold · 12-12-2007, 12:34 AM

80 Conductor means 80 wires not 80 pins, it still has 40 pins. Read the last 3 lines in your copy and paste

PC eye · 12-12-2007, 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StrangleHold

80 Conductor means 80 wires not 80 pins, it still has 40 pins. Read the last 3 lines in your copy and paste

Where did I say "80pin"?

The most commonly used term is 80conductor/40pin that replaced the old 40conductor/40pin cables. Again you never bother to fully read anything.

**The_Other_One** · 12-12-2007, 01:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PC eye

Where did I say "80pin"?

Quote:

Originally Posted by PC eye

40pin VS 80pin "Ultra" IDE Cables?

Right there

But to add to the question, either will be basically the same. For the most part companies are moving over to SATA. I believe it was Seagate who no longer produces IDE hard drives anymore. Optical drives will soon follow. However, besides smaller cable sizes and being slightly easier to configure(IE no jumpers) there's no advantages. Most optical drives peak around ATA33 speeds.

12-11-2007, 07:19 AM	#1 (permalink)
JohnJSal Platinum Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Hoboken, NJ Age: 28 Posts: 527	SATA optical drives? The book I'm reading (from 2006) warns against SATA optical drives because of compatibility issues, but I'm having trouble finding PATA drives on newegg. Or is PATA the same as E-IDE / ATAPI? Is IDE also the same? Thanks. Also, is it still the case that PATA is preferable for an optical drive? Last edited by JohnJSal; 12-11-2007 at 07:27 AM.

12-11-2007, 07:30 AM	#2 (permalink)
ThatGuy16 Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: USA Posts: 5,152	Get SATA, i love them. Nothing wrong with them, i havn't ever heard of compatibility issues. Im runnning two sata drives. Beats the heck out of having bulky IDE cables... IDE is PATA, i do beleive. __________________ CPU: C2D E8400 @ 4Ghz 1.23v HSF: Apogee GTX MB: Gigabyte X38-DS4 Ram: 2x2GB G. Skill DDR2-1068 HDD: 320GB Seagate PSU: OCZ GameXStream 700w OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit GFX: HD3870 @ 837/1152 LCD: LG 22" L226WTQ My Old 3DMark06: 20008 =(

12-11-2007, 07:44 AM	#3 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 19,333	The first sata dvd burner in the new build here has been quite reliable so far. Many vendors will now stocking more sata models since boards are going sata for the most part with most now seeing only one ide channel. The term PATA represents Parallel ATA while sata represent Serial ATA using a thinner single data cable for each drive. The image above is a typical sata data cabled included in the retail carton a board comes in. Those are 7pin connectors compared to the 80wire/80conductor seen with a standard ATA100/133 drive. __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1

12-11-2007, 12:35 PM	#4 (permalink)
[-0MEGA-] Diamond Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Concord, NH Age: 19 Posts: 27,069	PATA = IDE I have two SATA DVD burners and I've never had a problem. They work fine for loading OS's as well. __________________ Desktop // Laptop Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 4.0GHz // Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26GHz Asus Rampage Formula X48 // Intel PM45 ATI 4870X2 2GB GDDR5 // 512MB GDDR3 9800M GTS 4GB (2x 2GB) DDR2 940 // 4GB DDR3 800 750GB SATAII w/32MB // 200GB SATAII 7200RPM Creative SB X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty SilverStone 750W +12V@60A 3DMark06: 21391 // 9179

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

12-11-2007, 06:09 PM	#6 (permalink)
JohnJSal Platinum Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Hoboken, NJ Age: 28 Posts: 527	Thanks again everyone. I guess at this point I can only hope that the parts I'm choosing will just come together and work for me. But don't worry, you will all be blessed with my final parts list in another few days.

12-12-2007, 12:34 AM	#8 (permalink)
StrangleHold Diamond Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: In a realm of unknown Wonders Posts: 7,219	80 Conductor means 80 wires not 80 pins, it still has 40 pins. Read the last 3 lines in your copy and paste

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Do I Need Two Optical Drives?	PresidentJFJ	Desktop Computers	6	07-06-2007 02:19 AM
Is it possible to have 3 optical drives in one computer?	ADE	CD/DVD Technology	3	08-06-2006 11:27 PM
Need Help w/New SeaGate Barracuda SATA drives	ChrisHarris	Computer Memory and Hard Drives	9	04-12-2006 08:54 PM
Ghost issue with sata drives	ianmullan	General Software	3	04-06-2006 08:27 PM
Windows recognizes half of the space of my Sata Drives..	SicilianBoy	Computer Memory and Hard Drives	5	07-10-2005 02:57 PM