# Question on HardDrive!



## bigfishy (Jun 19, 2009)

so which transfer rate is faster????

a 500G SATA (interface 3.0GB/s)

or

a 500G SATA II (interface 300mb/s)



and what's the difference between SATA and SATA II?


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

I believe most new 500G drives support 3Gb/s transfer rate. 300MB/s is effectively another way to describe 3Gb/s transfer rate. SATA II just means 3Gb/s, but this isn't technically new. The first batch of SATA drives only supported up to 1.5Gb/s and most manufacturers use SATA II for 3Gb/s, causing confusion over these terms.

There are several different models of 500GB drives from each manufacturer, at least one with less power consumption/heat and another with more performance, through combination of things such as rotational speed, number of platters, on-board cache size..


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## bigfishy (Jun 19, 2009)

this is the hard drive on sale

WEstern Digit 500G SATA II for $50

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=010671&cid=HDD.443.877


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

why not just go for a 1TB for just under $100?

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4306125&CatId=2459


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## bigfishy (Jun 19, 2009)

Riceburner said:


> why not just go for a 1TB for just under $100?
> 
> http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4306125&CatId=2459


Yes!!! Why not go for 1TB?

Tigerdirect sell them at $90,

and

CanadaComputer sell them for $76 (still cheaper than your link) Sales start today too!

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=024109&cid=HDD.443.877


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

there ya go.


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

conix67 said:


> 300MB/s is effectively another way to describe 3Gb/s transfer rate.


I thought 1000MB = 1GB. Then again, I'm a computer noob .


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## bigfishy (Jun 19, 2009)

wtac said:


> I thought 1000MB = 1GB. Then again, I'm a computer noob .


That's what I thought too!

so I am lost!!


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

wtac said:


> I thought 1000MB = 1GB. Then again, I'm a computer noob .


actually...
1000MB = 0.9765625GB 

....so rounding up makes you correct.

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=16014
...makes it more confusing?

wait...found something. I think they mean 3 Gbit/s...not 3gigabytes/sec.

3 Gb/s=3 Gbit/s=300MB/s

Gb=gigabit 
GB=Gigabyte

or maybe ....



> Gigabit per second
> 
> A gigabit per second (Gbit/s or Gb/s or Gbps) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
> 
> ...


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Riceburner has hit the nail on the head. 

It should be 3 Gb/s, not GB.


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

These are all approximate numbers. Since 1 Byte requires 8 bits, you can have a little more than 300MB/s at 3Gb/s transfer rate. However, SATA stands for Serial ATA, where all data gets serialized into a bitstream, and requires additional bits to build up packets (headers, CRC, markers, etc) and ends up being approximately 10bits for 1Byte of data transferred.

Anyway, don't be hung up on these numbers. You'll never get that throughput anyway.


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

Yeah...now I remember some of my uni comp course conversion subtilities. 

10b (bits) = 1B (bytes)

Lost a bunch of marks there


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

that makes sense then.

these bits and bites are easier ...


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

Tastier too


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## KnaveTO (May 13, 2007)

LOL... and cheaper


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Not for 500 gigabytes. 

Let's see how fast you can transfer those to your mouth. 3 gigabits per second would be something to see...


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