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Posts Tagged ‘Video Cards’

Hard Drives: ATA versus SATA

The performance of computer systems has been steadily increasing as faster processors, memory, and video cards are continuously being developed. The one key component that is often neglected when looking at improving the performance of a computer system is the hard drive. Hard drive manufacturers have been constantly evolving the basic hard drive used in modern computer systems for the last 25 years, and the last few years have seen some exciting developments from faster spindle speeds, larger caches, better reliability, and increased data transmission speeds.

The drive type used most in consumer grade computers is the hearty ATA type drive (commonly called an IDE drive). The ATA standard dates back to 1986 and is based on a 16-bit parallel interface has undergone many evolutions since its introduction to increase the speed and size of the drives that it can support. The latest standard is ATA-7 (first introduced in 2001 by the T13 Technical Committee (the group responsible for the ATA standard)) which supports data transfer rates up to 133MB/sec. This is expected to be the last update for the parallel ATA standard.

As long ago as 2000 it was seen that the parallel ATA standard was maxing out its limitations as to what it could handle. With data rates hitting the 133MB/sec mark on a parallel cable, you are inviting all sorts of problems because of signal timing, EMI (electromagnetic interference) and other data integrity issues; thus industry leaders got together and came up with a new standard known as Serial ATA (SATA). SATA has only been around a few years, but is destined to become “the standard” due to several benefits to be addressed in this Tech Tip.

The two technologies that we will be looking at are:
ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) – a 16-bit parallel interface used for controlling computer drives. Introduced in 1986, it has undergone many evolutions in the last 18+ years, with the latest version being called ATA-7. Wherever an item is referred to as being an ATA device, it is commonly a Parallel ATA device. ATA devices are also commonly called IDE, EIDE, Ultra-ATA, Ultra-DMA, ATAPI, PATA, etc. (each of these acronyms actually do refer to very specific items, but are commonly interchanged)
SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) – a 1-bit serial evolution of the Parallel ATA physical storage interface.

Basic Features & Connections

SATA drives are easy to distinguish from their ATA cousins by the different data and power connections found on the back of the drives. A side-by-side comparison of the two interfaces can be seen in this PDF from Maxtor, and the following covers many of the differences…

Standard ATA drives, such as this 200GB Western Digital model, have somewhat bulky, two inch wide ribbon cable with 40-pin data connections and receive the 5V necessary to power them from the familiar 4-pin connection. The basic data cables for these drives have looked the same for years. A change was made with the introduction of the ATA-5 standard to better improve the signal quality by making an 80 wire cable used on the 40-pin connector (these are commonly called 40-pin/80-wire cables). To improve airflow within the computer system some manufacturers resorted to literally folding over the ribbon cable and taping it into that position. Another recent physical change also came with the advent of rounded cables. The performance of the rounded cables is equal to that of the flat ribbon, but many prefer the improved system air flow afforded, ease of wire management, and cooler appearance that come with them.

SATA drives, such as this 120GB Western Digital model, have a half inch wide, 7 “blade and beam” data connection, which results in a much thinner and easier to manage data cable. These cables take the convenience of the ATA rounded cables to the next level by being even narrower, more flexible and capable of being longer without fear of data loss. SATA cables have a maximum length of 1 meter (39.37 inches), which is much greater than the recommended 18 inch cable for ATA drives. The reduced footprint of SATA data connections frees up space on motherboards, potentially allowing for more convenient layouts and room for more onboard features!

A 15-pin power connection delivers the 250mV of necessary power to SATA drives. 15-pins for a SATA device sounds like it would require a much larger power cable than a 4-pin ATA device, but in reality the two power connectors are just about the same height. For the time being, many SATA drives are also coming with a legacy 4-pin power connector for convenience.

Many modern motherboards, such as this Chaintech motherboard, come with SATA drive connections onboard (many also including the ATA connectors as well for legacy drive compatibility), and new power supplies, such as this Ultra X-Connect, generally feature a few of the necessary 15-pin power connections, making it easy to use these drives on new systems. Older systems can easily be upgraded to support SATA drives by use of adapters, such as this PCI slot SATA controller and this 4-pin to 15-pin SATA power adapter.

Optical drives are also becoming more readily available with SATA connections. Drives such as the Plextor PX-712SA take advantage of the new interface, although the performance will not be any greater than a comparable optical drive with an ATA connection.

Performance

In addition to being more convenient to install and drawing less power, SATA drives have performance benefits that really set them apart from ATA drives.

The most interesting performance feature of SATA is the maximum bandwidth possible. As we have noted, the evolution of ATA drives has seen the data transfer rate reach its maximum at 133 MB/second, where the current SATA standard provides data transfers of up to 150 MB/second. The overall performance increase of SATA over ATA can currently be expected to be up to 5% (according to Seagate), but improvements in SATA technology will surely improve on that.

The future of SATA holds great things for those wanting even more speed, as drives with 300 MB/second transfer rates (SATA II) will be readily available in 2005, and by 2008 speeds of up to 600 MB/second can be expected. Those speeds are incredible, and are hard to imagine at this point.

Another performance benefit found on SATA drives is their built-in hot-swap capabilities. SATA drives can be brought on and offline without shutting down the computer system, providing a serious benefit to those who can’t afford downtime, or who want to move drives in and out of operation quickly. The higher number of wires in the power connection is partially explained by this, as six of the fifteen wires are dedicated to allowing the hot-swap feature.

Price

Comparing ATA drives to SATA drives can be tricky given all of the variables, but in general it is the case that SATA drives will still cost just a bit more than a comparable ATA drive. The gap is closing rapidly though, and as SATA drives gain in popularity and availability a distinct shift in prices can be expected. Considering the benefits of SATA over ATA, the potential difference of a few dollars can easily be justified when considering an upgrade. Computer Geeks currently has a limited selection of SATA drives, but several technical sites, such as The Tech Zone and The Tech Lounge, offer real time price guides to see how comparable drives stack up.

Final Words

The current SATA standard provides significant benefits over ATA in terms of convenience, power consumption and, most importantly, performance. The main thing ATA has going for it right now is history, as it has been the standard for so long that it will not likely disappear any time soon. The future of SATA will be even more interesting as speed increases will help hard drive development keep pace with other key system components.

In the spirit of their ongoing head-to-head competition, AMD and Nvidia served up their spring volley of mid-priced, performance video cards on the very same day in April, 2009. AMD’s offering is the ATI Radeon HD 4890, their new high-end single GPU based graphics card.

The card is actually a narrow update of the popular ATI HD Radeon 4870, mirroring the product in many ways but sporting an updated version of the well-received RV770 GPU. The result is a faster overall experience and increased performance as seen below. Hitting the shelves at around $250, this card is offering top-rate performance at a price that won’t break the bank.

The new GPU, the RV790, increases the number of transistors over the legacy RV770 to support higher clock speeds that now trip the radar at 850 MHz, or even higher given the Radeon HD 4890′s overclocking potential. (This is one of the attractive features of the card, with some users easily reaching 1000 MHz.) The memory clock has also been bumped up as part of the redesign, now hitting 950 MHz. AMD also states that power consumption and heat generation should be reduced in comparison with the HD 4870, a claim that has been found true in many bench tests.

Cutting to the chase, while updates have been made and performance has increased, an off-the shelf ATI Radeon HD 4890 really isn’t all that groundbreaking in comparison with the Radeon 4870. In fact, given that the HD 4870 has been well received and will probably hurt your wallet about fifty bucks less than the 4890, it’s hard to make the recommendation. But the Radeon HD 4890 really starts to shine as the experienced user tweaks the card, pushing performance to the ceiling. At this point the card becomes an expensive sports car at the price of a used mini-van with Cheerios wedged behind the seats.

Other bells, whistles, and assorted details:

* 956 million transistors on 55nm fabrication process

* PCI Express 2.0 x16 bus interface

* 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface

* Microsoft

The proper graphics card can help speed up almost any system by taking the responsibility of many visual functions, allowing the CPU to work more effectively in other areas. Let’s take a look at a few of the key features to look for in a graphics card.

Most all graphics cards are based on an Nvidia or ATI Radeon chip set. For the casual home or office user, any of today’s video cards are adequate. If you’re just doing Excel spreadsheets you might not need to spend $500 on a video card, but if you have a 21″ monitor and want to view that spreadsheet at 1600 x 1200 with a high refresh rate, it may be worth the investment. Where things start to change is on high end games, that’s where the Geforce and Radeon cards make the difference.

Memory Matters

As with every other facet of computing, more is always better. However, you don’t need a 256MB card if you’re just going to be using Quickbooks. For most office applications, a 32 or 64MB card is adequate. For gamers or those doing some sort of video production work, a minimum of 128MB is recommended, with a strong lean to 256. The more memory your video card has, the higher the resolution, and the larger the number of colors it can display.

Connectors and Interfaces

A standard SVGA card is going to have a single VGA connector. Higher end cards will have an S-Video and a DVI connector as well. What this means is that you have to pay attention to what type of monitor you have. DVI is all digital, like HDTV. The S-Video can be used to output to your TV for gaming on a larger screen.

Now a days, you will have either a PCI or an AGP slot for your video card. AGP stands for Advanced Graphics Port and as you might have guessed, means there are enhancements in performance when using and AGP slot. If your current video card is built into the motherboard, it is likely robbing the system of valuable memory because the system RAM is shared with it. This is another good reason to upgrade your video card.

So we went and upgraded from a GTX260 to this. Our goal and aim were to get frame rate improvement while playing Bioshock. The GTX260 was barely hitting mid 35 to 45 frames per second using medium configurations. Our GTX 285 is evidently processing much faster and more smooth.

While using the same settings we are now pushing around 55 to 65 frames per second. I have been able to over clock the regular 285 with not a single problem at all. It’s truly great, really is.

This operates with a little more heat in some games than the 260 with the fan manually set at around 90. But the performance is definitely worth it I would be the first to say.

People love talking about problems with installing this video card, yet no one at all ever talks mentions how problematic they are to get removed. The PCI Express x16 connector has this locking mechanism that goes into a slot on the video card.

Since this video card is double the overall size of these 200 series video cards. You cannot get to the latching mechanism tab to relocate the video card without messing up your fingers on the motherboard parts.

We are running a dual Xeon motherboard however, so perhaps some other people will not encounter this same particular situation. But I do believe that the latching mechanism tabs are the standard on most motherboards of this class.

You cannot argue it does cost a little bit more for the improvement, however since I cannot begin to run dual cards this has to be the closest to the most awesome singular card solution I can use for right now. We are yet to be ready to stand up and pay for the 295 video card at practically double the money, plus concern about dual card issues.

Yesterday, AMD has officially presented its new family of video cards top of the range. Talk models ATI Radeon HD 3870×2, solutions that easily as the name suggests are the combination of two of the series GPU Radeon HD 3870 mounted on the same PCB.

Such a solution requires a complex cooling system; two heat sinks are mounted on each of the GPU, with a plastic cover that covers the card for its entire length and strength to the movement of air blown by a fan turbine. This approach leads to good overall effectiveness, but for the most fans there right now the prime alternatives.

We speak of the kit to liquid CoolIT Systems, the Canadian company specializes in cooling solutions for processors and video cards, is developing solutions specifically for the ATI Radeon HD 3870×2. As can be seen clearly from the cooling system was designed to occupy only one slot on the motherboard, against the 2 required by the traditional system of cooling air chosen by AMD.

CoolIT Systems has announced that it has obtained, with the same levels of temperature, clock frequencies of 900 MHz for both GPU and 1000 MHz (2000 MHz effective) for 1024 Mbytes of video memory, respectively, against the values equal to 825 MHz and 900 MHz (1800 MHz effective) for the reference design developed by AMD.