First Look At S-ATA Optical Storage Drive

An anonymous reader writes "CD Freaks has a first look at a S-ATA optical storage drive. Although several S-ATA HD's have been released lately there have been no signs of S-ATA CD-RW and DVD-R/DVD+R drives. S-ATA seems to be the solution for the data transfers involved with 16x DVD recording and the fast 52x CD-RW drives. However there seem still to be some compatibility issues. "

Comments

Compatability Issues

[Allen Zadr]

I found the most interesting part (the second half of the article) was that SiiG has "no interest in supporting optical drives", when the reviewer was having problems using this drive with a SiiG controller.

I guess I can now confirm that I have no interest in buying anything from SiiG.

Re:Compatability Issues

[DarkBlackFox]

For the majority of users, there is no need to use further bandwith on optical drives. Even my 52x32x52 CDRW only runs at ATA-33. Why spend money to develop an ATA-150 model if it doesn't even use that much bandwith to begin with?

Even 52x CD burning is only 7,800 kb/sec. I can see where a SATA drive would be helpful for high speed DVD burning, but even then, if they even developed an ATA-133 model, that should suffice for a number of years.

Don't get me wrong, I love to see newer/faster/better, but I know why companies would want to create a faster transfer method for a device which barely uses the capability of the bus provided anyway.

Re:Compatability Issues

[moreati]

Rounded IDE is a hack. the length of the cable is even more limited than normal because of increased cross talk (interference between signal wires). Also, in my experieince, the rounded cables are even less flexible than the ribbons.

SATA can go longer distances, at faster speeds, with less bulk, more routing flexiblity & it works for all drives (PATA is too big for 2.5" drives). Additional it's electrically safe for hotplugging. As a bonus we finally get rid of those damn molex connectors.

At the moment it's more expensive, that will change.

Where SATA will of most use is in compact form factor machines - mini/nano-itx, micro-atx, laptops, high density rackmount storage servers etc.

Re:Compatability Issues

[knewman_1971]

What I do see being a huge problem is that Windows XP setup doesn't seem to support SATA devices without using a driver floppy to allow it to recognize SATA ports as a Mass Storage Controller. -- an annoyance for people who have discarded their floppy drives long ago.

Not a problem. Make your own unattened install, and add the SATA drivers. Been doing it for a year now, and it's a wondrous thing.
Check out MSFN.org for more info.

My unattended install (which has grown to a DVD) installs WinXP fully patched, DirectX 9.0b, Office 2k3 (customized to my settings), all of my apps except Firefox, and tweaks my system out. It does it in 45 minutes, with only 1 user intervention (carving drives). It mtakes a couple of days to set it up initially, but once you're done, the maintenance is very low.

Computer Builders may soon rejoice!

[Vandil X]

I think SATA-based optical drives will be a huge boon to people who build their own PCs, especially those who use AMD processors and/or overclock various elements of their systems.

The reduced cable clutter alone will improve airflow over RAM and around the drives themselves.

What I do see being a huge problem is that Windows XP setup doesn't seem to support SATA devices without using a driver floppy to allow it to recognize SATA ports as a Mass Storage Controller. -- an annoyance for people who have discarded their floppy drives long ago.

But, as with all new technology, we'll see how things turn out in the coming months. Hopefully, this will make an official appearance on the first x86-compatible mobos with PCI-Express slots.

Re:What is taking so long?

[2nd Post!]

What huge demand?

Every time we have an article on DVD+/- media, or BluRay, or something, we have all these moaners complaining about optical compatibility; they are avoiding, rather than buying, due to some mystical compatibility issue.

If your system can read and write it's own disks, that's all you need! If you can't read someone else's disks, why exactly would *not* buying a DVD+/- drive change that?

I've been using DVD-R for 1 and a half years now, and it's great. Backup of my home directory (which is only 12gb) is easy and convenient.

As per lifetime... my data becomes obsolete within a year, and then it's time for another backup. If you want serious data backup, you'll need a good sized hard drive array and use some data center type software, not optical drives.