What is the difference between SATA2 and SATA?

[vaxop23]

Im confused >_<

[KriLL3.8™]

1.5GB/s and 3.0GB/s, clear enough?

Uses the same cable and connector, but the bus is faster.

[vaxop23]

but i mean.. will having sata2 improve the speed of my hard drives? or are the hard drives themselves the current bottleneck?

[KriLL3.8™]

You need both a SATA2 mobo and SATA2 drives to get any benefit, most new drives and mobos are SATA2, it's listed in their specs.

[re8]

I'm not sure why this post is on a UT3 forum... try Tom's Hardware or AnandTech or a real computer forum please.

[da ghost]

The forums are filled with these kind of posts... I do understand epic's stance against OT posts (anything not relating to their games) and i can see why they have that rule, but sometimes, these things are somehow related as well. The new HDD he's buying could be for UT3, after all.

[ViperGrendal]

Most new drive models these days are Sata 3.0gbs (Sata2) and most new motherboard models support this. The drives themselves aren't really faster but if you've got multiple dives the extra speed helps when copying files from one drive to another or running RAID setups. You can run SATA1 drives on SATA2 boards and vice versa.

In short, just get everything SATA 3.0GBs and you'll be up to the latest tech.

[Taboen]

You only actually benefit from SATA2 mobo's if you use RAID0. Because the current hd's cant ever get to the speed of 3.0 Gbs (some people write GBs but it's Gbs).
3.0 Gbs = 0.375 GBs or just 375 MB a second. A normal harddisk goes to about 75/100 MB a second. With 4 or more harddisks in RAID0 setting you benefit from the technology.
Nevertheless sometimes buying SATA2 is cheaper because SATA isn't nearly being produced as much as SATA. Just try to go for the cheapest solution!

[SetOfAllSets]

I don't know what all this exposition is about. It's obvious to me; one has a 2 at the end.

[oldkawman1]

You only actually benefit from SATA2 mobo's if you use RAID0. Because the current hd's cant ever get to the speed of 3.0 Gbs (some people write GBs but it's Gbs).
3.0 Gbs = 0.375 GBs or just 375 MB a second. A normal harddisk goes to about 75/100 MB a second. With 4 or more harddisks in RAID0 setting you benefit from the technology.
Nevertheless sometimes buying SATA2 is cheaper because SATA isn't nearly being produced as much as SATA. Just try to go for the cheapest solution!

There is no advantage using raid on games using modern hardware.

Raid only helps where you have data storage and data transfer. Data backup, data aquisition, and data transfer to a hard drive applications.

[Stroggy]

you want faster hard drives?
Raid a couple of Western Digital Raptor drives together, that way UT3 will load a lot quicker.

(You see how I got this thread to relate to UT3?)

[oldkawman1]

I don't know what all this exposition is about. It's obvious to me; one has a 2 at the end.

SATA =150
SATA2 = 300
SATA2 plugged into a pci slot = 150

[musilowski]

You need both a SATA2 mobo and SATA2 drives to get any benefit, most new drives and mobos are SATA2, it's listed in their specs.

But you can mix SATA and SATA2 mobos and drives and they'll work fine?

[Luseferous]

You only actually benefit from SATA2 mobo's if you use RAID0. Because the current hd's cant ever get to the speed of 3.0 Gbs (some people write GBs but it's Gbs).
3.0 Gbs = 0.375 GBs or just 375 MB a second. A normal harddisk goes to about 75/100 MB a second. With 4 or more harddisks in RAID0 setting you benefit from the technology.
Nevertheless sometimes buying SATA2 is cheaper because SATA isn't nearly being produced as much as SATA. Just try to go for the cheapest solution!

Quoted for truth.

[KriLL3.8™]

But you can mix SATA and SATA2 mobos and drives and they'll work fine?

Yes but you lack the benefit of the added speed.