What is Serial ATA?
 

I'm completely lost on the subject. I have an A7N8X-E Deluxe and there is a great deal on a Maxtor 300 GB Serial ATA/150 Hard Drive for only $89.99 at Fry's.

Can somebody briefly describe the installation and setup differences between SATA and IDE drives? Is there a noticeable difference in performance between the two? And can I run both an IDE and a SATA drive simultaneously?

Re: What is Serial ATA?
 

Quick Summary on about.com

Re: What is Serial ATA?
 

That is most helpful. Any comments on ease and simplicity of installation for a first time SATA user?

Re: What is Serial ATA?
 

Haven't used one yet, should be automagic with XPSP2. I haven't heard anything bad from my friends.

Re: What is Serial ATA?
 

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That is most helpful. Any comments on ease and simplicity of installation for a first time SATA user?

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I just built a new computer and both hard drives are SATA. I had hell with the first one, but I eventually figured out it was a dead hard drive. After figuring this out, I am using just the second drive while the first gets replaced. Setup of the second drive went pretty smoothly. The only thing to be aware of is if you are planning to boot from the SATA drive, you will need to install the SATA drivers for your motherboard before installing windows. When you boot to the Windows install CD, watch for it to ask you to press F6 to install SCSI drivers. Press F6 here and insert the floppy with your SATA drivers on it. Otherwise, I think it should be the same as setting up a PATA drive. This may not even apply to you since it sounds like you'll be adding it as an additional storage drive.

Power is also worth mentioning. One of my SATA drives had both a SATA-specific power plug and a standard molex power plug. If you drive has both, only connect one or the other. Connecting both can damage the drive. I believe my Maxtor only had the SATA plug on it, but I don't remember for sure. If this is the case, make sure your power supply has the correct plug available.

Re: What is Serial ATA?
 

were you using XP SP2 when you had to load the SATA drivers? I've heard the new corp discs do it fine without.

Re: What is Serial ATA?
 

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were you using XP SP2 when you had to load the SATA drivers? I've heard the new corp discs do it fine without.

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No I was not. I think you may be right about SP2 not requiring the drivers. Older copies will still require it though. I was using an old copy of XP home from shortly after it came out. I was planning to install SP2 manually, which I just remembered that I never did. I forgot to do it in safe mode, so it didn't work. I should do that...

Re: What is Serial ATA?
 

Well that was easy.

The power supply on my computer didn't have any SATA power connectors, but fortunately for me, it exploded last night. That give me reason enough to shell out $49.99 for a new ThermalTake power supply with SATA power connectors.

Haven't really used it much yet, but everything seems to be working smoothly. $89.99 for 300GB hard drive with 16MB cache is hard to pass up.

Re: What is Serial ATA?
 

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$89.99 for 300GB hard drive with 16MB cache is hard to pass up.

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Nice deal. If it's the MaxLine III then you got it $31.50 cheaper than me, and I just got mine a week and a half ago from Newegg. And at the price I paid, it was still a good deal.