[alyndivine]

I need to upgrade my drivespace, I'm running incredibly "thin" with an 80 GB drive and a 40 GB Drive. In the next few months, I plan to buy a G5, but for now I need to buy another HD, I'd like to get a Serial ATA drive, like a 160 GB, but will it work with my current G4? After I get the G5, i'll just remove it and put it in there, but until then, what...

Thanks for any help,
Alyn D.

[benb]

You can buy a SATA drive and buy the FrimTek SATA PCI Host adapter. I have it, and it works well.

www.firmtek.com

[alyndivine]

I have another question, I've heard something about "native" SATA drives and ones with a bridge. Will I only get good performance with a native drive, or does it not make a difference?

Where's a good place to get these drives for reasonable prices?

Thanks,
Alyn D.

[D'Espice]

The ones with a bridge are P-ATA drives with a built-in S-ATA bridge so you can hook them up to a S-ATA controller - that's the trick. However, like you said, these are a tad slower since they're not native S-ATA drives and all the system calls have to be translated from S-ATA to P-ATA.

I have another idea though which might save you some money: Get a 160GB S-ATA drive plus a S-ATA -> P-ATA adapter. These are cheaper than S-ATA controllers. Sure, they make your drive a tad slower but we're talking like 1% here.

[CatOne]

Originally posted by D'Espice:
The ones with a bridge are P-ATA drives with a built-in S-ATA bridge so you can hook them up to a S-ATA controller - that's the trick. However, like you said, these are a tad slower since they're not native S-ATA drives and all the system calls have to be translated from S-ATA to P-ATA.

I have another idea though which might save you some money: Get a 160GB S-ATA drive plus a S-ATA -> P-ATA adapter. These are cheaper than S-ATA controllers. Sure, they make your drive a tad slower but we're talking like 1% here.

It's probably not going to be slower at all, since all drives (PATA and SATA) are far slower than their bus speeds (100 MB/sec and 150 MB/sec respectively).

But if I wanted to add a SATA drive to a G4 I'd get a PCI card and go that route, and then use a "real" SATA drive.

[ChrisB]

Really the safest, and best route would be to get the PCI adapter, and the SATA drive. That way you can directly transfer the drive to the G5 no problem, and then you have the controller card for adding more drives to your new Mac later.

[Spliffdaddy]

Except for the fact that his new Mac will only hold 2 hard drives - making the SATA expansion card useless for internal drives.

Well, I suppose there's room in there for adding more drives - nothing that some imagination and some wire-ties won't fix.