"David Brenner, Ph.D." wrote:
>
> In the past SCSI was preferred because of higher data throughput and
> therefore less buffer over/under run problems. Anyone with IDE CD-RW
> experience care to jump in on that??

This is much less of a concern now than it used to be as recently as a
year or two ago. Current CDR/CDRW software is much more robust and
better written than it used to be. Most now allocate a relatively large
RAM buffer to make sure there is always enough data available to avoid
the dreaded buffer underrun within the recorder. (I don't think buffer
OVERrun is or was ever a possibility.) In short, SCSI is slightly
faster, uses slightly less system resources, can have 7 or 15 devices,
but costs significantly more, especially when you add the cost of the
controller. EIDE/Atapi is easier and more convenient to install, costs
slightly less, and is way more than 'fast enough' to get the job done*,
but is limited to a maximum of 4 devices. Both obviously have their
advantages, and each user will have to sum it up and make his/her own
choice.

*Regarding speed, keep in mind that 2x is only 300K/sec, 4x is 600K/sec,
etc. Even the slowest IDE-based system is easily able to move data at
such a slow rate.

As always, comments and corrections are welcome.

Jeff Delzer

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