With a mixture of both SATA2 and IDE drives, and assuming the SATA2 format provides for faster data transfer, if I wish to install WinXP (or maybe Vista later) on one drive and FS9 onto the other, I assume that I'm better off utilizing the faster protocol (SATA2) for the FS drive. Am I correct in thinking that the FS drive will get a lot more data to transfer than the one with the OS?Thanks- Bruce.

Bruce,Yeah its almost always better to go with the newer standards. However the thing with SATA is that even with having SATA2 the only thing that it has over SATA is the bandwith. SATA = SATA1 = SATA150 = max speed over the interface 150MB/Sec SATA2 = SATA300 = max speed over the interface 300MB/Sec max. Understand it has nothing to do with the real raw data transfer rate that the HD's are capable of.You will not see really much different in performance since both drives it being SATA or SATA2 both when running @7200rpm. The caching though will go faster giving it a marginal advantage but don't expect it to be twice as fast when running FS.

Same goes for comparing IDE to SATA2.. forgot to mention that in my reply above. youll get a slight performance boost..but not alot

Thanks Davis,I appreciate your help.Bruce.

Sent you a PM, Davis.Thanks for all your help,Bruce.

No probs Bruce, u got a PM