Hard drive standards of today and tomorrow

**jrwap** · 02-04-2002, 08:55 PM

So, you are building a new system and need to decide on a hard drive. Most everyone will end up with an ATA 66 or ATA 100 hard drive running at 5400RPM to 7200RPM. Recently, a new standard has arrived and is being pushed by manufacturers like Maxtor, Compaq, IBM, Microsoft, and Via Technologies. Before I explain a little about this new standard, lets try to understand why we even need it.
IDE, also known as Integrated Drive Electronics, has been the standard for quite a long time now. It has given the PC industry fast read/write times as well as abundant storage capabilities. IDE drives are currently on the market sporting sizes of up to 120 - 130 GB's. These capacities are near the maximum of 137GB for the 28-bit addressing mode scheme known as ATA or Advanced Technology Attachment. Maxtor has developed the Big Drive technology which uses a 48-bit addressing scheme and can theoretically support drives of capacities of up to 144PB's (Petra bytes or 144 million GB's). Now, drives this size are years away, but don't count them out. With Microsoft supporting the new standard, you can count on the next version of windows to support 48-bit addressing.
Ok, so we agree that storage won't be a problem anytime soon, but what about hard drive speeds? ATA 100 is the current standard and is definitely much faster than any IDE drive in the past. Great for today, but with tomorrow's newer technology not far away promising greater interfaces, it won't be long until we need more speed.
Enter ATA 133. Maxtor's new drives feature an ATA 133 interface which is still backward compatible with older ATA 66/100 systems, but will give your system that added bit of performance that everyone always tries to obtain. Many people have reported slight gains with the new drives, but others have complained about slower speeds especially in RAID 0 configurations.
The hard drive interface story doesn't stop there though. In the not too distant future, the IDE standard will be laid to rest to make way for Serial ATA. This new technology will allow for transfer rates of up to 150Mbps...

Now, that I like!!

-JRW

If you want more information on this topic check out the following:

Feb edition of PC Magazine - "Hard Drives reach the next Plateau" by John R. Delaney

Maxtor Hard Drives

Please reply with your comments and suggestions!!

john80y · 02-05-2002, 10:38 AM

A very interesting piece ... Especially to me who is totally obsessed with scsi !

**jrwap** · 02-05-2002, 01:01 PM

SCSI is great, but also more expensive. Serial ATA should be here by the end of the year, and I can't wait. I have not gotten the best performance from my Maxtor ATA 133 Raid 0 config so far and I know that I'm not the only one out there with this problem. Everyone passes the blame from Abit to VIA to Maxtor. It seems that no one is at fault. Oh well!!!

-JRW

**NUTNDUN** · 02-05-2002, 01:30 PM

Now you know what all this means though don't ya, we will all rush out to buy the newest mobo's, serial hard drives to replace our not even one year old machines, LOL

john80y · 02-05-2002, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by NUTNDUN
Now you know what all this means though don't ya, we will all rush out to buy the newest mobo's, serial hard drives to replace our not even one year old machines, LOL

Face facts ... All us hard core hardware people are going to do this regardless of new hard drives

**NUTNDUN** · 02-05-2002, 01:36 PM

That is true but it gets a little too exspensive after a while!

john80y · 02-05-2002, 01:41 PM

There should be help for tech heads .... If you spent all you spare cash on Drugs/beer you could do rehab ... We all have to live our lives in poverty ... But atleast we have the best computer on the block !

**jrwap** · 02-05-2002, 01:50 PM

I think I forgot to mention the greatest feature of Serial ATA .... no more of those rediculous flat cables that take up your entire case and keep system temperatures high. Will I update right away? Probably not. I don't plan on making any additions to my present system for quite a while... especially since I plan to put together a server this summer.

If you enjoy posts like these, I'll be sure to get a couple out every week..

-JRW

john80y · 02-05-2002, 01:57 PM

I like statments like this because it starts objective/subjective conversations ... Its what makes forums worthwhile !

**NUTNDUN** · 02-05-2002, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jrwap
If you enjoy posts like these, I'll be sure to get a couple out every week..

-JRW

Now you know you should have said that

Now we will expect em, and we'll let ya know when your falling behind

**NUTNDUN** · 02-05-2002, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by john80y
I like statments like this because it starts objective/subjective conversations ... Its what makes forums worthwhile !

John, you are very right, one of the main reasons I wanted to start this site is not for a bunch of behind the scenes higher ups to be posting the latest reviews and the hottest hardware, yes it would be nice and I'm sure we will get there as the site progresses, but the main reason behind me starting this site is so other PC enthusiasts could share their experiences and talk about and help others with their problems. The visitors and users are whats going to be what makes the sites content, take for example the downloads, if ya know of a new download for some kind of software or a new driver for a paice of hardware visitors and users have the ability to add em, and it will eventually help someone.

Cw_strife · 02-07-2002, 05:57 PM

haha the funny thing is on benchmarks your hard drive running ata 100/133 don't go any faster than a transfer rate of 40MBPS. So I don't see why we don't just keep our ATA/66 drives.

**jrwap** · 02-07-2002, 06:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Cw_strife
haha the funny thing is on benchmarks your hard drive running ata 100/133 don't go any faster than a transfer rate of 40MBPS. So I don't see why we don't just keep our ATA/66 drives.

Oh come on now... this is not true at all. I will post back with some statistics to prove my point. Also, its not just about speed. The capacity of ATA 66/100 drives is limited to 137GB... where as ATA 133 can go up to 144 million GB.

Will be back with stats...

-JRW

Cw_strife · 02-08-2002, 09:23 AM

Well except for the hard drive size I don't think there is a difference. LOL

02-04-2002, 08:55 PM	#1 (permalink)
jrwap Admin Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Gorham Me Posts: 242	Hard drive standards of today and tomorrow So, you are building a new system and need to decide on a hard drive. Most everyone will end up with an ATA 66 or ATA 100 hard drive running at 5400RPM to 7200RPM. Recently, a new standard has arrived and is being pushed by manufacturers like Maxtor, Compaq, IBM, Microsoft, and Via Technologies. Before I explain a little about this new standard, lets try to understand why we even need it. IDE, also known as Integrated Drive Electronics, has been the standard for quite a long time now. It has given the PC industry fast read/write times as well as abundant storage capabilities. IDE drives are currently on the market sporting sizes of up to 120 - 130 GB's. These capacities are near the maximum of 137GB for the 28-bit addressing mode scheme known as ATA or Advanced Technology Attachment. Maxtor has developed the Big Drive technology which uses a 48-bit addressing scheme and can theoretically support drives of capacities of up to 144PB's (Petra bytes or 144 million GB's). Now, drives this size are years away, but don't count them out. With Microsoft supporting the new standard, you can count on the next version of windows to support 48-bit addressing. Ok, so we agree that storage won't be a problem anytime soon, but what about hard drive speeds? ATA 100 is the current standard and is definitely much faster than any IDE drive in the past. Great for today, but with tomorrow's newer technology not far away promising greater interfaces, it won't be long until we need more speed. Enter ATA 133. Maxtor's new drives feature an ATA 133 interface which is still backward compatible with older ATA 66/100 systems, but will give your system that added bit of performance that everyone always tries to obtain. Many people have reported slight gains with the new drives, but others have complained about slower speeds especially in RAID 0 configurations. The hard drive interface story doesn't stop there though. In the not too distant future, the IDE standard will be laid to rest to make way for Serial ATA. This new technology will allow for transfer rates of up to 150Mbps... Now, that I like!! -JRW If you want more information on this topic check out the following: Feb edition of PC Magazine - "Hard Drives reach the next Plateau" by John R. Delaney Maxtor Hard Drives Please reply with your comments and suggestions!!

02-05-2002, 01:30 PM	#4 (permalink)
NUTNDUN Registered Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: PA Posts: 1,465	Now you know what all this means though don't ya, we will all rush out to buy the newest mobo's, serial hard drives to replace our not even one year old machines, LOL __________________

02-05-2002, 01:36 PM	#6 (permalink)
NUTNDUN Registered Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: PA Posts: 1,465	That is true but it gets a little too exspensive after a while! __________________

02-07-2002, 05:57 PM	#12 (permalink)
Cw_strife Registered User Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: New Joisey Posts: 110	haha the funny thing is on benchmarks your hard drive running ata 100/133 don't go any faster than a transfer rate of 40MBPS. So I don't see why we don't just keep our ATA/66 drives. __________________ signatures are stupid so I am not going to have one.

02-08-2002, 09:23 AM	#14 (permalink)
Cw_strife Registered User Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: New Joisey Posts: 110	Well except for the hard drive size I don't think there is a difference. LOL __________________ signatures are stupid so I am not going to have one.

02-05-2002, 10:38 AM	#2 (permalink)
john80y Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 261	A very interesting piece ... Especially to me who is totally obsessed with scsi !

02-05-2002, 01:01 PM	#3 (permalink)
jrwap Admin Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Gorham Me Posts: 242	SCSI is great, but also more expensive. Serial ATA should be here by the end of the year, and I can't wait. I have not gotten the best performance from my Maxtor ATA 133 Raid 0 config so far and I know that I'm not the only one out there with this problem. Everyone passes the blame from Abit to VIA to Maxtor. It seems that no one is at fault. Oh well!!! -JRW

02-05-2002, 01:41 PM	#7 (permalink)
john80y Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 261	There should be help for tech heads .... If you spent all you spare cash on Drugs/beer you could do rehab ... We all have to live our lives in poverty ... But atleast we have the best computer on the block !

02-05-2002, 01:50 PM	#8 (permalink)
jrwap Admin Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Gorham Me Posts: 242	I think I forgot to mention the greatest feature of Serial ATA .... no more of those rediculous flat cables that take up your entire case and keep system temperatures high. Will I update right away? Probably not. I don't plan on making any additions to my present system for quite a while... especially since I plan to put together a server this summer. If you enjoy posts like these, I'll be sure to get a couple out every week.. -JRW

02-05-2002, 01:57 PM	#9 (permalink)
john80y Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 261	I like statments like this because it starts objective/subjective conversations ... Its what makes forums worthwhile !

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