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I keep seeing these fancy new motherboards coming out with Serial ATA, 8X AGP, etc. I want to know what exactly Serial ATA is, do they make hard drives that use it now, when will they, how much will they cost, and is it worth it? I am ready to upgrade my computer and I want to go top of the line this time. I am all about the fastest, so tell me, is this worth the wait?
Serial ATA is a new hard drive interface designed to replace the aging parallel ATA type.
The cables are MUCH thinner and can be made longer than the parallel type. The interface speed far exceeds what drives today can put out.
There are a few drives using it right now but I don't know how much they cost. Performace-wise there wasn't much difference in the few tests I've seen. There is however no longer any 'master / slave' dilemma in your drive arrangement. That's a plus :)
You WILL see a difference in future drives as paralel ATA is made obsolete. I'd personally get a MB that supported both interface types if possible.
IMHO I'd still get a parallel type but if you don't plan to upgrade for quit a while after this time then I'd lean serial ATA.
You could always add a serial ATA card to your system but then your cpu utilization would possibly go up and you'd be sharing the PCI bus with other things.
Just a thought though. I have no personal experience with this interface.