PARALLEL ATA vs.

SERIAL ATA HARD DRIVES

Parallel ATA (PATA) has been the industry standard for connecting hard drives and other devices in computers for well over a decade. However, due to a few major limitations, PATA could be a quickly dying breed with the introduction of Serial ATA (SATA). To compare, PATA cables are limited to only 18 inches long, while SATA cables can be up to 1 meter in length, which is less than 40 inches. It is possible to have longer cables but, due to attenuation, these longer cables are generally more trouble than they are worth.

Description

Parallel ATA

Serial ATA

Hard Drives

Transfer Speed

ATA 33MB/s or UDMA-2 ATA 66MB/s or UDMA-4 ATA 100MB/s or UDMA-5 ATA 133MB/s or UDMA-6

SATA-1 150MB/s SATA-2 300MB/s

Cable Length

36 inches

40 inches

Cable Pins

40

Power Connector Pins

15

Power Consumption

5V

250mV

Hot Swappable

No

Yes

Device per cable

Hardware, Configurations & Pictures The following pictures show where to connect a Parallel ATA Hard Drive and a Serial ATA Hard Drive in the motherboard

PATA controllers Primary and Secondary IDE controllers

Serial ATA controllers SATA and PATA Cables

7 pin SATA Cable, 40 pin PATA Rounded Cable and 40 pin PATA Flat Cable

PATA 4 pin Molex Connector and SATA 15 pin Power Connector

Parallel and Serial ATA Pin and Power Connectors

Parallel ATA cables

Serial ATA cables CONCLUSION As you can see Serial ATA Hard Drives are faster and more convenient than most of the Parallel ATA Hard Drives. Expect most computers to ship today with the newer Serial ATA Hard Drives.