Replacing SATA hard drive in Gateway SX2800-01?

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hbograd

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May 5, 2014
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The hard drive failed in my Gateway SX2800-01. It was a 640 GB SATA drive (7200 rpm). I don't need so much hard drive space for the replacement, since I have a new desktop and will just be using this as an extra for guests - but it looks as if smaller, older drives are hardly less expensive than newer ones.

Is it better to find an original SATA drive, or is it OK to buy one with a newer SATA III or Sata 6 drive? I'm looking at the Western Digital WD10EZEX that is listed as Amazon's best seller internal hard drive, for only $60 - WD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache.

Thanks. Harriet

 
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Paperdoc

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Oct 19, 2006
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Do not buy a very old SATA 1.5 Gb/s drive - there are virtually none on the market that are brand new, they are all used and more likely to fail.

Names: First generation of SATA was just called SATA, communication rate max was 1.5 Gb/s When other versions came out, this was called SATA I. More recently, naming system was changed (see below).
Second Generation was called (surprise!) SATA II, max comm speed 3.0 Gb/s
Most recent is now called SATA 6.0 Gb/s (some persist in calling this SATA III), max communication speed is 6.0 Gb/s. With its release, the SATA organizations want us all to adopt the names SATA 1.5 Gb/s, SATA 3.0 Gb/s, and SATA 6.0 Gb/s.

Important note on speeds: NO mechanical drive (with spinning disks and moving heads) can find and deliver data faster than about 180 Gb/s on a sustained basis. This is entirely limited by the mechanical components. So no matter whether you get a SATA 3.0 Gb/s or a newer SATA 6.0- Gb/s unit, neither can actually deliver even that lower speed. Those ratings are for the communications channel only, not the overall unit performance. The newest SATA 6.0 Gb/s system was created for use with new and yet-to-come storage devices like SSD's. These have NO moving parts and are much faster - the newest ones can exceed the 3.0 Gb/s performance specs. But with this design history, the current SATA 6.0 Gb/s communications system will not limit the performance of the new storage devices for a while.

So, it's not necessary to spend extra money on a SATA 6.0 Gb/s HDD. But you MAY find that the SATA 3.0 Gb/s units are no cheaper.
 
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