SCSI vs IDE: Why SCSI HDDs Cost More

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SUMMARY

SCSI hard disk drives (HDDs) are more expensive than IDE HDDs primarily due to their superior data transmission speeds and flexibility in system configurations. While both types may have similar capacities and RPMs, SCSI supports up to 15 drives compared to IDE's limit of 4, making it ideal for servers and graphic workstations. Additionally, SCSI often includes RAID capabilities, allowing for hot-swapping of drives without system downtime, which is crucial for data integrity and uptime. The need for an additional SCSI adapter card further contributes to the overall cost.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of SCSI and IDE hard drive technologies
  • Knowledge of RAID configurations and their benefits
  • Familiarity with server architecture and data integrity practices
  • Basic concepts of data transmission speeds and RPM in HDDs
NEXT STEPS
  • Research SCSI RAID configurations and their advantages over IDE
  • Explore the differences between SCSI and SATA technologies
  • Learn about SCSI adapter cards and their installation
  • Investigate the impact of HDD speed on server performance
USEFUL FOR

This discussion is beneficial for IT professionals, system administrators, and anyone involved in server management or data storage solutions, particularly those comparing SCSI and IDE technologies.

Saint
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why SCSI HDD is more expensive than IDE HDD? The capacity and spinning speed are the same, but price varies.
 
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The capacity and r.p.m. may be the same, but SCSI transmits the data faster, hence the larger price.
(edit: Also, I believe, RAID capability is usually incorporated with SCSI.)

You often need an additional adapter card as well, since most motherboard manufacturers don't include SCSI capability except for servers.
 
SCSI is faster. But you should try S-ATA, I heard it really rocks...
 
scsi is more flexible then ide. you can only have 4 ide drives in a system vs. 15 scsi drives in a system, which can be important in a server or a graphic workstation. one reason why servers use scsi is that is one of the hard drives goes, you can keep doing what ever it was you were doing and replace the drive without turing off the systen, and with a good backup program program you lose very little data
 
You can do that with IDE as well, Raid 5 - Stripe set. This feature is not a part of scsi hard drives, but may be a part of the scsi controller card depending on what you buy.

I personally have not seen an IDE drive spinning at 10k rpm. 7200 is the fastest I have used.

As far as the 4 device IDE limit, you can buy IDE expansion cards that allow you more devices.

SCSI is faster than a normal IDE drive...I have not seen any S-ATA devices, I'll have to go check that out
 

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