Serial ATA hard drives have been dominating the market, since their arrival about a year ago.  Most people won't even consider an IDE hard drive any longer.  Does that mean that you should be like most people?  Seagate still thinks there's life left in the IDE format.  Their new Barracuda 7200.7 200GB hard drives still come in IDE format.  Is there really a point to keep IDE lingering around?  I mean can the IDE drives even be worth your money?  Let's do some testing and find out.

Specifications

     The 7200.7 comes in 4 sizes; 80, 120, 160, and 200gb. Our particular drives are the ST3200822A, 200gb drives.

Models
	ST3200822A
Capacity and Interface
Formatted Gbytes (512 bytes/sector)	200
Interface	Ultra ATA/100
Performance
Internal Transfer Rate (Mbits/sec)	683
Max. External Transfer Rate (Mbytes/sec)	100
Avg. Sustained Transfer Rate (Mbytes/sec)	>58
Average Seek (msec)	8.5
Average Latency (msec)	4.16
Multisegmented Cache	8196
Spindle Speed (RPM)	7200
Configuration/Organization
Discs/Heads	2/4
Bytes per Sector	512
Logical CHS	16383/16/63
Recording Method	16/17 EPRML
Contact Start-Stops	50000
SeaShield System	No
Reliability/Data Integrity
S.M.A.R.T. capable	Yes
Nonrecoverable Read Errors per Bits Read	1 per 1014
Service Life/Limited Warranty (years)	5/3
Power Requirements
+12 VDC +/-10% (amps typ operating)	2.8
+5 VDC +/-5% (amps typ operating)
Power Management (watts)
Seek	12.5
Read/Write	12
Idle	7.5
Standby	0.9
Environmental
Operating Temperature (°C)	0 to 60
Nonoperating Temperature (°C)	70 to -40
Operating Shock (Gs) @ 2 msec	63
Non Operating Shock (Gs) @ 2 msec	350
Acoustics,Idle (Bels-typ sound power)	2.5
Physical
Height (mm)	26.035
Width (mm)	101.6 >
Depth (mm)	146.99
Weight (kg)	0.635