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SATA question

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 7:51 pm
by metricus
Which SATA standard does the fit-PC use?
1.5Gb/s or 3Gb/s?

Also I understand that it uses an IDE to SATA bridge? Wouldn't this be a bottleneck? I am not too good with computer technology but still..

Re: SATA question

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 8:38 pm
by fluffycloud
As far as I know, It does not use either standard. It will be a bit slower than either. You can put in a 1.5 or a 3.0 drive, they should both work fine. Yes, it's a bottleneck, but the cpu isn't a speed demon either, and you can find MB/s reports from other users on this forum that show the performance is reasonable even with this bottleneck.

There are important technical reasons for doing so: the Fit-PC2 uses the Intel "US15W" chipset to run the io, which is a much lower wattage chipset than the 945 chips... one of the things Intel did to get it to run at a lower wattage, was remove SATA support.

In order for any computer manufacturer to provide actual SATA support with this chip and chipset, they will have to build a bigger computer than the Fit-PC2 to include a chip that provides sata support, as well as provide that chip with power. It would also be more expensive, of course, but the size and power requirements are what make the Fit-PC2 unique, in my opinion.

-Fluffy

Re: SATA question

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:07 pm
by metricus
Thanks for the prompt reply. Did not know all that.

Yes definitely the low power and mostly the absence of a fan are the biggest pluses of the fit-PC.

So if I hear u well native SATA would require a fan? or just generate more heat?

Re: SATA question

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:53 pm
by yogev_ezra
Generate more heat, require more power and bigger computer size.
You can see the measures of Hard Disk performance under Linux at: http://www.fit-pc2.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=396

Re: SATA question

Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 9:28 pm
by teetee1
Another possible bottleneck is the disk access time(in terms of disc rotation speed). In my experience the data channel interface(IDE/SATA) is never the bottleneck, even for the 3.5" drives with less or equal 7200rpm.