Vintage computer enthusiasts are well versed in the debate over whether 5 1/4″ or 3 1/2″ drives are better. But there’s another drive-related question that has split the community for nearly thirty years: should you use IDE drives or SATA drives?
This is an important decision to make when selecting vintage computer hardware for your next project. And many people are unsure which way they should go. Some people go with IDE because that’s what their old computer used or because it acts as the hard drive on their current computer. Others pick SATA because of its speed and compatibility with modern computers.
Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of each drive type to help you make the right decision for your vintage computer project.
Is IDE or SATA Better?
IDE and SATA are both standards of drive interfaces. Most PCs use the SATA standard, but older PCs often use IDE. Unfortunately, the two standards aren’t compatible with each other; if you hook up a SATA hard drive to an old PC’s IDE interface, it simply won’t work.
SATA hard drives are very similar to 2.5″ laptop HDDs. They use a standard interface to plug them into any PC’s SATA drive bay, and they will work. But early PCs used IDE, an older standard that isn’t as fast or compatible with modern computers.
IDE drives are slow by today’s standards, but they are still perfectly usable. If you’re using DOS or another operating system developed before the turn of the century, an IDE drive is likely to be your best option. The ATA standard used by IDE drives is still quite prevalent in modern machines, so it’s more compatible with newer software than a SATA drive. However, it is much slower than a SATA drive.
Several factors are involved in choosing whether to go with IDE or SATA when you’re building a vintage machine. If you’re using an OS that supports only one of the standards, that’ll be the deciding factor for you. The rest comes down to compatibility and speed. If you’re building a machine that needs to be compatible with older software, you should use IDE. On the other hand, if you need really quick access to your data or use modern software, go with SATA.
Pros and Cons of Both Standards
There are good and bad points to using either standard.
IDE hard drives have been around for much longer, so they provide a better level of compatibility with older software. In the DOS world, this is a very big deal – there’s a lot of great DOS software out there that simply won’t work if you use SATA drives instead of IDE.
However, using IDE drives means they are limited to either PIO or UDMA modes, depending on their interface speed. This is much slower than the speeds SATA drives can achieve in UDMA and AHCI modes. However, this isn’t an issue unless you’re doing a lot of data-intensive tasks that require very quick access to your files.
As for SATA drives, they have the advantage of compatibility with modern operating systems. However, this isn’t important unless you’re using software that requires a lot of data transfer or uses advanced disk caching features like ReadyBoost. Most vintage computer users only use their machines for playing older games and running old applications; this isn’t likely to factor into the equation.
IDE drives will work in almost any vintage PC, while SATA is pickier. You can use an IDE drive on virtually any computer without even opening the case, but you may have problems plugging a SATA drive into some older machines. Most PCs made after the turn of the millennium support both standards, but you should do some research before buying a drive.
Final Word
According to the folks at Tekeurope, a UK-based PC components specialist, if you’re planning to use older software and save games, IDE is the way to go. However, SATA is your best option if you need compatibility with more modern OSes – especially Windows. Compatibility issues aside, they both have pros and cons; it’s up to you to decide which is more important.