[mythtv-users] Best Hardware

[Steven Adeff]

On 5/10/06, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> On May 10, 2006, at 6:59 AM, Steven Adeff wrote:
> > On 5/9/06, MythBox <mythtv at glassdragon.org> wrote:
> >> SATA DVDRW DL
> > Don't bother, get a regular ATA and a round ATA cable. I bought the
> > Plextor SATA drive and it has forced me to stick with 2.6.13 because
> > newer kernel SATA drivers are not compatible with the drive
> > apparently. More hassle than its worth, espcially when excellent ATA
> > drives can be had for <$50.
>
> I have been trying to figure out what, if any, advantage a SATA
> optical drive might offer. One might argue that a hard drive would
> benefit from the supposed higher speed (though none do as of yet) but
> that's obviously not a factor with a DVD drive.

hard drives benefit more from being serialized than the increased
speed available. It's the reason SCSI is going serialized as well.
Right now SCSI must increase the bus speed (U320, etc) to allow for
all the drives possible on its bus to have enough bandwidth for its
data. This requires better quality cables, etc. Serialized allows for
cheaper, smaller cables and removes the need for simultaneous data
requests that SCSI has held over ATA's head for so long.


> So what would be the advantage, except in the rare case where you had
> an open SATA port but not a parallel IDE opening??

I can't think of one, other than eventually it would be nice to not
have any ATA devices at all, and no ATA controller card. You can fit
~8-10 SATA ports in the space of two ATA ports (which only let you
have 4 devices).

--
Steve
Before you ask, read the FAQ!
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions
then search the Wiki, and this list,
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/
Mailinglist etiquette -
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List_etiquette