# 7200 rpm harddrive versus 7200 rpm Sata harddrive



## Jan Iye (Apr 13, 2011)

Hey Guys,
Appreciate a feedback.

Which is better,
a) 750gb 7200 rpm harddrive 
or 
b)640gb 7200 rpm Sata harddrive.

I understand the space difference but am trying to understand which is better, a 7200 rpm harddrive or a 7200 rpm Sata harddrive.

This is a customization being offered by Dell with its laptop model, XPS14

Thanks in advance for all feedback


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

no difference at all, only a SIZE


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## houskamp (Sep 14, 2006)

"A" doesn't say what the interface is (connector type).. could be IDE or sata..


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

houskamp said:


> "A" doesn't say what the interface is (connector type).. could be IDE or sata..


If you did configure of your PC/NB at Dell site, you should know - those options are fully compatible with base model.
So, no IDE type will not be proposed to you.


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

Before about 5 years ago, most hard drives were "IDE" or what we now call "PATA", for Parallel-ATA. They have connectors on them that are a row of pins, and are connected with a ribbon connector. This is a pic of a lap top hard drive, with 40 data pins and a few additional power pins, all in a row:










This type of interface has been replaced, for several reasons. Its maximum transfer speed as 1.33 Gb/s, though many were slower (.66 and 1.0 Gb/s were common). Also, the cables were wide and difficult to work with, and blocked airflow, an increasingly big problem as components get more powerful and generate more heat. Finally, the location of the connectors were not standardized on regular drives, though they were on laptop drives.

SATA, or Serial-ATA, uses a cable with a much smaller number of conductors, so it is thinner and smaller. The connectors are also standardized, making it possible to plug the drive into a fixed connector for power and data and be assured a perfect fit. Laptop drives use the exact same connector in the same configuration, so those too can be plugged right in to a desktop-sized interface.

But SATA's biggest benefit is the increased speed of the interface. The first SATA devices were 1.5 Gb/s, a little faster than PATA's top speed, but SATA 2.0 doubled that to 3.0 Gb/s, and now you can get 6.0 Gb/s. The actual drive mechanisms aren't that fast, of course, but the on-board cache memory on the drive is also increasingly larger in size, and some newer drives have a small amount of Flash RAM as well, all allowing faster real-world performance when coupled to the faster interfaces.




























Your modern laptop will require a SATA drive, and as someone else mentioned, if you were searching on Dell's site for compatible drives, only SATA drives would be options. But you can use any 2.5" SATA hard drive; you don't need to buy from Dell.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

> and some newer drives have a small amount of *Flash *RAM as well, all allowing faster real-world performance when coupled to the faster interfaces.


If you mean SSD drive, then I would say that way instead of confusing "Flash RAM" words .


> and as someone else mentioned


 it's, umm, sort of bad smell ...


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## RasputinAXP (Jan 23, 2008)

P Smith said:


> If you mean SSD drive, then I would say that way instead of confusing "Flash RAM" words .


I believe he's actually referring to Hybrid Drives; they keep the boot sector on a 4 or 8GB flash memory partition and the full storage on regular platters.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

BZ-

I'd say that's a much better explication and illustration to answer the question than one would find on most boards dedicated to PC hardware! Nice.....


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

The largest PATA desktop drive that you can get from NewEgg is 500GB. The largest PATA laptop drive is 320GB.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Mark Holtz said:


> The largest PATA desktop drive that you can get from NewEgg is 500GB. The largest PATA laptop drive is 320GB.


That should cut sidetracking discussion about IDE/PATA drives as artificial.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Jan Iye said:


> Which is better,
> a) 750gb 7200 rpm harddrive
> or
> b)640gb 7200 rpm Sata harddrive.
> ...





P Smith said:


> That should cut sidetracking discussion about IDE/PATA drives as artificial.


Ok... so does that mean both drives are SATA drives? Why wouldn't the OP tell us that.

IF both are SATA drives operating at the same speed and one has more space than the other... isn't the answer to "which is better" obvious?

Without more information, how can anyone give a meaningful answer?

For example... maybe a is an external drive while b is an internal one... or maybe there is a difference in the cache on each drive.

The answer is either painfully obvious (if the only difference is storage space) or we don't have enough info to say.

Which is better:

a. Spoon
b. Spork

Need more info!


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## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

Stewart Vernon said:


> Ok... so does that mean both drives are SATA drives? Why wouldn't the OP tell us that.


I think the OP probably didn't know, and was therefore asking for more information or clarification.

Since both drives are listed as options on the same model laptop, logic would dictate that they are both SATA drives, and Dell simply has a poor naming scheme in their system.

Jan,
For absolute clarification you could call Dell or chat with them and ask there, but I suspect you've already figured out the answer and moved on.... having already cast your signature Spam seed across these fertile grounds. :lol:


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

If this is a new laptop by Dell, then it is a SATA drive. Go with the 750GB drive.


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