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Hard Drive ATA100/ATA133, much difference?

Discussion in 'Storage and Networking' started by acidosmosis, Apr 17, 2003.

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  1. acidosmosis TechSpot Chancellor

    I am about to buy another hard drive (120gb). What is the difference between ATA100 and ATA133?
  2. RustyZip TechSpot Paladin

    The difference is 33...

    Sorry, i couldn't resist...LOL

    Actually, from what i've heard, there isnt much difference at all. Just a small performance jump, and that becomes negligible if you buy a 7,200rpm ATA100...
  3. Nic TechSpot Paladin

    The difference in interface speed isn't going to be noticed at all, as both ATA-100 and ATA-133 are faster that current hard drives.

    However, as for the controller on your mainboard, ATA-100 controllers can normally only support hard drives up to around 137GB, whereas ATA-133 can support sizes that are 100,000 times larger (144PB).
  4. acidosmosis TechSpot Chancellor

    Ah, well I figured it was just a transfer speed as far as the IDE cables. So if I get this hard drive, does it matter if I use a ATA133 cable or do I have to use a ATA100 cable?
  5. ---agissi--- TechSpot Paladin

    Thats exactly what it is - tansfer speed. ie: ata133 can move 33 more megs then ata100 ;) An ATA133 or ATA100 cable will work with your HD (backwards compatiblie). Just dont do what I did and realize 2 years later your HD is operating at ATA33 cuz of the cable your using :dead:
  6. Rick TechSpot Staff

    133 vs 100 should certainly not affect your HDD buying decision.

    The performance is virtually identical.. The only difference might be a 100 HDD might be OLDER than a 133 HDD, which in turn means it is probably slower.. But this is not because of the interface speed.

    When buying a new hard disk, look for large platters, fast RPMs and low seek times.
  7. LNCPapa TS Special Forces

    The cables between ATA66, 100, and 133 are the same unless it's Serial ATA.

    LNCPapa
  8. acidosmosis TechSpot Chancellor

    I normally go by hard drive size, and rpms. I am not going to buy anything less than 120GB 7200rpm. I actually thought about 10,000rpm at one time but I spoke to a Network Admin and he said it wouldn't really make a difference in games. Most of the difference he said would be in graphics and media applications.
  9. poertner_1274 secroF laicepS topShceT

    Yes I agree, since those are the most demanding apps out there. They would also require the most memory, etc.
  10. ßas']['arD Newcomer, in training

    There's really no noticeable difference between ATA 100 and ATA133. Technically, you have a fatter pipe from the HD. But a bottleneck still exists which more or less negates the 33Mbps performance gain.

    In my opinion, it's not worth the price difference.
  11. acidosmosis TechSpot Chancellor

    Thanks guys. I got the information I need now :). Much appreciated.

    Woot! I just hit post #200 :)
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