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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.

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.

special thanks to western digital, seagate, maxtor, directron