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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Desktops > Serial ATA and Booting

Serial ATA and Booting
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aapljack
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Apr 22, 2004, 01:13 AM
 
I am about to purchase a new HD for my upgraded Sawtooth machine. I thought I might wanna get a Serial ATA drive so I can migrate it into a G5 in the future. I know that I need a Serial ATA PCI card to get the drive working in my Mac now. My question is...

Is it a good idea to have your startup drive being run thru a SATA PCI card? Does it even make a difference? Should I just get a regular IDE drive for the time being?

As you can tell, I want the SATA drive to be my startup drive. I also have a 10GB internal drive on the original ATA channel and an external FW drive for extra storage and backups.

Any advice?

Thanks!

-b
     
tooki
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Apr 22, 2004, 01:37 AM
 
I wouldn't bother with SATA. For half of the sum of the increased drive cost and SATA card, you could buy a FireWire case to let you use a regular ATA drive when you get the G5.

tooki
     
aapljack  (op)
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Apr 22, 2004, 01:47 AM
 
Yeah, that was my first thought. It just seemed alot nicer to be able to take the drive outta one machine and pop it into another.

I will probably just pick up a regular IDE drive. I don't like the idea of my machine relying on the function of a PCI card.

-b
     
jwblase
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Apr 22, 2004, 07:42 PM
 
In case anyone cares, there's a nice article at xlr8yourmac.com about sticking a standard ATA drive in a G5. I migrated my 60GB ATA drive from my old B/W G3 to my G5, and it works GREAT! I store all my "disposable" media on it, and also use it as a scratch disk during photoshop work.

You can run it as a slave on the Superdrive ATA channel, but need a longer cable to run it, as well as a power splitter. I think I bought both at Radio Shack for $8 total.

If you're thinking of migrating later, might as well max out on the ATA drive now, and migrate it this way later down the road.

I've had no performance or speed hits.

JB
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"Time will tell. It always does."
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Lateralus
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Apr 22, 2004, 08:33 PM
 
Originally posted by tooki:
I wouldn't bother with SATA. For half of the sum of the increased drive cost and SATA card, you could buy a FireWire case to let you use a regular ATA drive when you get the G5.

tooki
A new SATA setup costs less than a new IDE setup. The cards are about $15 cheaper, and the drives are about the same price now.

Go SATA. Glad I did.
I like chicken
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tooki
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Apr 22, 2004, 10:58 PM
 
Everywhere I've looked, SATA drives are about $10 more than the same model in PATA.

And how exactly is a $65 SATA controller card cheaper than a $40 FireWire enclosure?

tooki
     
aapljack  (op)
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Apr 22, 2004, 11:31 PM
 
When I priced the SATA drive and card it came out to be about $180. I ended up buying a 120GB IDE drive for $116 which includes overnite delivery. I think I made a good decision. And I'll have the drive by tomorrow afternoon!

-b
     
galarneau
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Apr 29, 2004, 11:29 PM
 
Yes, but for future reference, how is a SATA card for:

1) Booting

2) Sleeping the machine

I've considered getting a SATA card with a SATA drive as well for future use in a future G5.
     
   
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