Difference between SATA and PATA

There is not major difference between SATA (Serial ATA) and PATA (Parallel ATA) drives if you consider the hardware. The only difference between both the drives is that the type of connectors they use.

Hardware difference between PATA & SATA :

In PATA, there a are two connectors and a slot for the jumpers. There is a big 40-pin connector which used for data transfer and a small 4-pin connector used to connect the power cable from the SMPS (switched-mode power supply) to supply power for the hard disk to run.

While in SATA, there are two small slots [flat connectors like a usb plug] used for connecting the hard disk. The bigger slot from the two connectors is used to supply the power to the hard disk from the SMPS and the smaller slot is used for connecting the data transfer cable (Mostly red colored cable).

This two are the only differences in the hardware of the SATA and PATA drives and I hope you can easily distinguish between SATA and PATA drives just by looking at the slots they use. Now lets see the difference in the performance of the drives and Why you should opt for SATA.

Performance of SATA V/S PATA :

There might not be much difference in the looks of the PATA and SATA hard disks but there's a big difference in performance. PATA hard disks usually run at low speed of 133 Mbits/s. While SATA can be classified in 3 categories based on the speed.

1. SATA I : The speed of this type of sata drive ranges from 150 Mbits/sec to 1.5 Gbits/sec.

2. SATA II : The speed of this type of sata drive ranges from 300 Mbits/sec to 3.0Gbits/sec.

3. SATA III : The speed of this type of drive ranges from 600Mbits/sec to 6.0Gbits/sec.

I hope that now you might have come to know the difference between SATA drives and PATA drives, and it would help you while choosing a drive for your pc.