Question about a PATA HDD

[durandal]

Hello all. Sorry to be a bother but I've got a question regarding a couple of seagate 7200rpm 200gb "ultra ata/100" drives I picked up while getting a case last night. I was at compusa because the case (an antec p-180) was on sale, but while I was there I noticed these drives were marked down to 30 dollars a piece after rebates, and I figured I'd buy a couple now and return them later if they're no good.

My first question is whether getting PATA drives is a good idea. I would be using them for my first full build, and I'm not totally clear as to the difference in performance between SATA and PATA. Will there be mobo compatability issues (I am looking at buying an asus 8an-sli)? Should I keep these 2 drives and use them for storage, and get a better HDD for primary use (I plan to use my computer for gaming and entertainment purposes). Or can I save money and use these as my primary HDD. Also, would raid configurations work/make sense with these drives?

Overall, should I keep these things or return 'em? I'd really appreciate the help.

 

[pat]

You wont have problem with those drive on current motherboard. What,s good with SATA is that they use smaller cable that make cable routing easier and looks better. For the price you got them, you make a good buy.

SATA drive don't perform significantly better that PATA one right now. Maybe in benchmarking, but in real life, you won't notice anything.

RAID will work just well with these drive too. For that price, if you are not really satisfied with them as system drive, just keep them as storage, because storage space is never enough..

But definitively give them a try and take the time to play with them to see if a RAID array could be better than single drive...

 

[durandal]

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll keep 'em for the time being; it'll be a little while before I order the rest of the components.

 

[pat]

Oh.. and you could even use one in an external USB2 or Firewire enclosure for mobile storage. I do have 2 with inexpensive Bytecc enclosure that I really find usefull for either storage or moving lots of data between 2 distant computer..

But seriously.. a 200 gb HDD for 30$ is not something that you call wrong...