A bit confused

[blueglow]

Hello,

I have a new Hard Disk and it will be installed next week, but I am slightly confused over something and hope someone can help

The Hard Disk I have is a Seagate Barracuda 160 Gig 7200.9 Ultra ATA..........but what I want to know is is this an ATA 133? all I found whilst searching and entering the serial number for it on Google was that it is an ATA 100 and the last thing I want to do is go backwards as my old and still to remain Hard Disk in the PC is a Maxtor 80 Gig and that is an ATA 133.

I hope this makes sense to someone as I really need to know that I have got the right HD!

I found a Seagate on a website that was the one I have and it stated that it is an ATA 133 but the word Ultra was missing?!?! can someone please help me as I am puzzled to say the least! :?

The Serial/Model Number for it is ST3160212A

Cheers

BG

 

[chunkymonster]

Check it out...go to Seagate's website and plug in that serial number to find the drive specs. For future referrence, anytime you need specs, you can go to the manufacturers website.

Good luck!

 

[blueglow]

I did do that but only two came up and one is something called SATA (I don't have that) and the other is ATA 100........so I'm afraid it does'nt help much.........but I was told for sure that it is an ATA 133........so I am really none the wiser.............do they even exist? lol :?

Does it matter what it is anyway? I mean what is the difference what does it mean ATA 100 against ATA 133? am I losing anything if I am stuck with an ATA 100?

I have no technical understanding of PC's and their hardware.........so its all greek to me

BG

 

[theaxemaster]

Ultra ATA could mean anything from 33 to 133. Most likely it is ATA 100. THe manufacturer specs should say ATA 133 or UDMA 133 if it is. Since the advent of SATA I have rarely seen an IDE drive that is 133, most of them are 100 (cost vs. performance thing).

 

[blueglow]

Ok but the guy that built my PC has been building them for over 25 years and he assured me that it is ATA 133..........now if its not and is ATA 100 then I'm not sure if it is an improvement over my current Maxtor Disk as that is ATA 133..........I don't get it, sorry if I sound ignorant here

BG

 

[jap0nes]

there's no real difference between ata100 and ata133. none can deliver full 100 or 133MB/s bandwidth (not even sata 150 or 300).
intel does not even use ata133 controllers on their mainboards... they're all ata100.

so, no problem if your disk is ata100 or 133, no performance loss at all.

 

[mesarectifier]

As long as the Seagate is 7200RPM (which it is) and it isn't below ATA100 there shouldn't be any real issue. The Seagate is twice the size of your Maxtor; depending on how full your 80gb is you may be freeing up space for your swapfile with a larger drive, which would have a positive impact on performance.

Unless your after benchies (and you don't sound like you are) just go with the Seagate, you probably won't notice the difference and you'll have twice as much space to play with.

 

[blueglow]

Many thanks

I just remember a long time back that I had a 10 gig Seagate, when I first got a PC and after awhile people told me to get a drive with ATA 133 as my games would be not so slow.........I guess these people were telling me nonsense then..............I was at the time getting jerky gameplay and I was told that if I got a ATA 133 it would be better..........it turned out that it was better and I guess I am just worried that as the Barracuda is going to be my gaming disk that I may lose speed..........please note that I am not knowledgable in this at all and if what I say sounds nonsense I am only repeating what others told me elsewhere on the Net.

Cheers

BG

 

[mesarectifier]

If you're concerned about losing that extra 'edge' of ATA133 (which is pretty much non-existant now) you could always use it as a slave for playing games off on another IDE channel.

Bear in mind that IDE channels are slowed to the slowest drive on the cable - so don't put it with your 160gb HDD or a DVD/CD. If you move your DVD/CD drive to Primary Slave position with 160gb as Primary Master (and boot drive) and then use the Maxtor as Secondary Master, you could use it to install all of your games and just boot Windows and store stuff on the 160gb.

 

[jap0nes]

well, it may possibly have ocurred in that 2mb cache era, where 2mb of cache was the "standard" for drives... then if you bought a 8mb cache ata133 that would give you a boost. mostly because of 8mb, not because ata133.
if you look for some disk benchmarks (you can even run in your new drive), you'll see that ata133 can deliver like 70-80MB/s when it was supposed to deliver 133.

 

[blueglow]

The chap who is installing it for me next week is intending to make the Seagate the main drive and have Win XP on it then my games and virus scanner and my old Maxtor will be simply the storage area, he was going to put XP on that aswell I think but in the end we decided not to and so it will be a dumping ground for other minor things...........I just hope I'll be happy with it like that :lol: or rather the Computer will be better off for it :lol:

BG

 

[blueglow]

One last thing, I read on the back of the pakaging of the Barracuda that you should use an 80-Connector ATA Cable with the drive to achieve the best performance..............I have no idea if it will be connected with this cable...........as my Computer chap gave me the drive to hold onto until next week as he is forgetful and might have sold it otherwise :lol: and he did'nt give me any cables...........so would this drive have come with that cable or is it an extra that I'd need to buy?

If it is an extra is it expensive?

BG

 

[mesarectifier]

Eggs is (usually) eggs here. If you've got some IDE cables lying around, chances are they're all 80 conductor. Just use the one you have at the moment and if on the off chance it comes up with an error at BIOS (saying 'Primary IDE: No 80-conductor cable installed') then just try another.

And if you don't have any and the one you already have isn't 80-conductor, you can get an IDE cable for probably about $2? I'm not sure on American prices but they ain't expensive fo' sho'.

It'll still work even without the cable, though, so don't worry too much.

 

[blueglow]

Right ok thank you........I'm in the UK btw sorry should have mentioned that before

So is it likely then that my old Maxtor is connected with that cable? the only cables I have are in the case I have no others.

I just realised that that's a daft question, I mean how the hell would anyone know! :roll: :lol:

BG

 

[mesarectifier]

I can't say anything for definite, but im 99% sure your cable can run full speed. Just go on eBuyer if you're in the UK and get an IDE cable. Hey, treat yourself to a rounded one!

 

[blueglow]

Thanks mate, I'll check it out if I have too

I appreciate all the help given to me

Thank You one and all

BG

 

[chunkymonster]

I did do that but only two came up and one is something called SATA (I don't have that) and the other is ATA 100........so I'm afraid it does'nt help much.........but I was told for sure that it is an ATA 133........so I am really none the wiser.............do they even exist? lol :?

Does it matter what it is anyway? I mean what is the difference what does it mean ATA 100 against ATA 133? am I losing anything if I am stuck with an ATA 100?

I have no technical understanding of PC's and their hardware.........so its all greek to me

BG

Dude...I just pulled this from the Seagate website...

ST-3160212A (Barracuda 7200.9 160, Ultra ATA/100)

Here's the page on Seagate's website to see for yourself.

 

[mesarectifier]

Your point being?

 

[chunkymonster]

Your point being?

Point being, I'm just as willing to offer an opinion or advice to anyone who needs it, but it's expected that once people are given the means, that they take the proper time to research and demonstrate some cognitive ability to find the answer.

I think the more appropriate question is, what's the point of this thread?

Even more appropriately, what the eff do you care?