[ILUG] Hardware queries

[Paul Jakma]

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004, kevin wrote:

> Thanks for all the advice. As people guessed there isn't a clear answer coming
> out so on the completely unscientific basis that we have one dead Maxtor
> drive and several older, but still working Seagate drives it looks like
> another couple of sales for Seagate.

Ehmm.. I've had a Seagate fail on me[1]. :)

> On a slightly different tack. After googling around it seems the 
> Silicon Image 3112 SATA chip is supported under linux and the Dabs 
> generic SATA controller is 3112 based so I might give a SATA drive 
> a whirl. Anybody any major reasons not to switch to SATA?

Well, the fact that SCSI is faster than P-ATA is one major reason to 
not switch to S-ATA.

Also, SCSI disks are far more reliable, see the recent RAID thread. 
SCSI disks are completely different to SATA disks, eg they come with 
built-in gnomes to carry out internal maintenance, lube the bearings, 
etc.. Some of the disk manufacturers who have recently stopped making 
SCSI disks altogether in favour of SATA only have tried persuading 
these gnomes to work inside SATA disks, but they refuse, because SATA 
disks suck and are very smelly inside. SCSI also gold-plates your 
bits for you.

So, you want SCSI.

> Kevin.

1. Not a SCSI drive, oh no, they never fail.

regards,
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