Volker Kuhlmann wrote:
In all honesty, I'd buy an AMD64 based ATA machine, and use software raid to enhance performance. That's what I see as best value for a grunty machine atm. I'm sure that view will be out of date by next week, but we'd never get any new toys if we kept thinking that!Serious question: suppose I intend to buy a new computer. Why should I get SATA drives? They cost more but perform the same, afterall it's the same disk just with a different interface. What exactly is the point?
Thanks,
Volker
If you want ultimate performance, then SATA disks will work better because
1. The top end disks are re-jigged SCSI disks, and can act more asynchronously given the right drivers ( getting further away from IDE ), as Delio said. They also tend to spin faster - up to 15,000rpm.
2. They're the up and coming standard, so prices will tumble
3. Hardware raid is (allegedly) available.
I find the hot swap ability to be really useful ( I've got a dedicated backup server on debian that I use removeable SATA caddy that works a treat ). I've also done similar with usb external disks ( like Rik ).
Personally, I think that the bandwidth of firewire may well raise it's head a bit more for major storage.
If I've misunderstood the SATA interface, could someone please put me right.
Cheers,
Steve.
