No. ATA drives are just as fast (you're bound by the 66Mhz bus speed
in the B&W anyway) and vastly cheaper and far less fiddly.
Gotta disagree with at least some of that, Bruce. The average user
can get performance somewhat comparable to SCSI systems from newer
7200 RPM+ ATA drives, but they're not truly "just as fast" as many
folks believe. The more demanding the load you put on your Mac,
the more you'll begin to appreciate Ultra SCSI (especially Ultra2
LVD).
Well, if you're that demanding of your Mac's performance, why the
heck are you using a B&W?
Because:
1) the B&W is still a surprisingly capable machine that fits my
laughable excuse for a budget;
2) I can get performance that amazes my PeeCee friends without spending
an arm and a leg.
Ultra and Ultra2 SCSI are platinum-plated gold and diamond encrusted
solutions; you don't stick 'em on an old, slow system; it's not worth
spending ten times the worth of the system on drives.
And I never recommended doing so.
The only way this is faster is if your transferring data from one
drive to another. Either solution (SCSI or ATA133) is faster than
you can get data to the CPU through the system bus.
If you say so it must be true. I know that there was a *noticeable*
performance boost when I replaced a 7200 RPM Maxtor (running on an
UltraATA/133 card) with a 7200 RPM Barracuda (running on an Apple OEM
ATTO UL2D LVD card). Virtually everything seems to be a bit snappier
and more responsive. I've no hard empirical data to support this
claim, though; just my own experience. But it's not merely my own
opinion on this; my PeeCee-head friend commented on it (BEFORE I'd even
told him of the upgrade!). The performance was sufficiently impressive
to convince my (now former) PeeCee-head friend to come back from the
Dark Side and go Mac. He asked me to custom config a B&W for him, as
his "Intro to Mac" system. When given the choice of either: a) 80 GB
7200 RPM Maxtor and UltraATA/133 controller or b) 50 GB 7200 RPM
Barracuda and Ultra2 LVD controller, he unhesitatingly chose the
smaller Ultra2 drive config.
Performance isn't the only criterion; there's also price and ease of
use.
I agree. Price is *always* a major consideration for me, as I'm on a
small fixed income. I've never found ATA to be that much easier to
use, though. More ubiquitous and easier to find, certainly - but ease
of use...? PUH-leeze!
I added a 200G drive to my system for $72 for the drive and $28 for
the external firewire case.
And I added two 10K Cheetahs (36 and 18 GB) and an Ultra2 LVD
controller to my B&W for about the same total expenditure. While I may
have only about one quarter as much storage as your config, it's more
than adequate to my needs. AND I get the aforementioned noticeable
performance boost - which is real, no matter what any specs and/or
"experts" may say.
It takes real shopping smarts to keep it affordable, but it's possible
if you're willing to do the homework first.
Being able to install ATA drives into a number of different external
cases (especially FireWire) is very cool....score MAJOR bonus points
for ATA here.
No it's not as fast as an Ultra2 LVD scsi drive, but I didn't have to
mortgage the house to get it, either.
Neither did I.
Lighten up, Bruce.
Gene, a.k.a. G-Man
Never swallow anything bigger than your pride
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