Definition of Serial ATA

Also known as SATA or S-ATA

A middle of the road hard drive type. Better performance than IDE hard drives, but less than the performance received by SCSI hard drives.

It has faster spindle speeds and seek times than the IDE hard drive, but I don't believe the extra cost when compared to IDE hard drives is justified yet.

Current Averages

Spindle Speed (RPMs): 7200 -> 10000
Buffer Size: 8 MB
Seek Time: 5 -> 10 seconds

For more information on hard drives, check out these pages:

Computer Hard Drive Reviews - Install a Hard Drive