SATA or PATA for Dell 4600?

My music server is a Dell Dimension 4600 running Ubuntu Linux. I'm
looking at 500 GB drives because I'll need more space soon. Should I
go with SATA or stick with PATA? (I assume that the mobo doesn't have
SATA ports & that I'll need a controller.) TIA for your views on this.

Jim Breslauer wrote:
> My music server is a Dell Dimension 4600 running Ubuntu Linux. I'm
> looking at 500 GB drives because I'll need more space soon. Should I
> go with SATA or stick with PATA? (I assume that the mobo doesn't have
> SATA ports & that I'll need a controller.) TIA for your views on this.


The choice makes no performance difference. Rarely one may find SATA
controllers like the JMicron JMB363 unsupported by older Linux kernels like
2.6.16. Using Ubuntu 7.04 or later is the solution.

See support.dell.com.

Your mainboard has two SATA connectors, off the ICH5 controller. (There may
be an ICH5R version with RAID capabilities, but I believe that the 4600 does
not have it..)

I have not tried Ubuntu, but I presume that there would be no problem using
SATA drives. I doubt that the SATA drives would show much performance
advantage over the PATA versions of the same drive.

Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

"Jim Breslauer" <jimbres@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:vvvji3hjj9hbip92o5a7kreskq5lskajkc@4ax.com...
> My music server is a Dell Dimension 4600 running Ubuntu Linux. I'm
> looking at 500 GB drives because I'll need more space soon. Should I
> go with SATA or stick with PATA? (I assume that the mobo doesn't have
> SATA ports & that I'll need a controller.) TIA for your views on this.

Thanks, Brett. That's pretty much what I suspected.

I'm running 7.10 so I'm not worried about kernel support.


"Brett Kline" <m5i4@16m76ydi.ljf> wrote:

>Jim Breslauer wrote:
>> My music server is a Dell Dimension 4600 running Ubuntu Linux. I'm
>> looking at 500 GB drives because I'll need more space soon. Should I
>> go with SATA or stick with PATA? (I assume that the mobo doesn't have
>> SATA ports & that I'll need a controller.) TIA for your views on this.
>
>
>The choice makes no performance difference. Rarely one may find SATA
>controllers like the JMicron JMB363 unsupported by older Linux kernels like
>2.6.16. Using Ubuntu 7.04 or later is the solution.
>

Thanks, Bob. Didn't know about the SATA ports on the mobo. I
appreciate that info. (I inherited this machine from another family
member. Had to replace the PSU a couple of months ago but didn't do
much looking around while I was in there.)


"Bob Knowlden" <nkbob@comcast.net> wrote:

>See support.dell.com.
>
>Your mainboard has two SATA connectors, off the ICH5 controller. (There may
>be an ICH5R version with RAID capabilities, but I believe that the 4600 does
>not have it..)
>
>I have not tried Ubuntu, but I presume that there would be no problem using
>SATA drives. I doubt that the SATA drives would show much performance
>advantage over the PATA versions of the same drive.
>
>Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
>
>"Jim Breslauer" <jimbres@optonline.net> wrote in message
>news:vvvji3hjj9hbip92o5a7kreskq5lskajkc@4ax.com.. .
>> My music server is a Dell Dimension 4600 running Ubuntu Linux. I'm
>> looking at 500 GB drives because I'll need more space soon. Should I
>> go with SATA or stick with PATA? (I assume that the mobo doesn't have
>> SATA ports & that I'll need a controller.) TIA for your views on this.