35 Comments(s). 1 Pages(s). Showing page 1. [ 1 ]

   #17. Posted at 04:14 PM on Oct 3rd 2006 Edit   Reply

Hopefully this will cut down on the coaster rates.

IDE has a number of problems other than form factor that SATA will clear up for optical devices. Many of us know how badly 40-pin IDE cables were. They caused data corruption and hang-ups. With the 80-pin insulator cables, the noise that caused data corruption became less of an issue. But still, IDE only does ECC on data, leaving status and command signals naked in a breeze.

If you manipulate an 80-pin cable enough (as most of us builders do, manhandling these unweildy ribbons into folded or twisted klumps) it loses its ability to really keep the signal clean. One thing I've seen that's really stupid is all of the ribbon cables that have 80 pins, but they're just wire-wrapped spaghetti. They don't even seem to be twisted into conductor-to-signal pairs, which defeats the purpose of the extra 40 ground lines. The ribbon itself may be shielded, but at the end points, the cables fray out into the connector, leaving them exposed to the elements at either end.

SATA encodes all information on the serial line in an 8b/10b ECC signal, including command, status and data. Hopefully SATA(HDD)-to-SATA(CD) and ECC on all traffic, as well as the beefy buffers on most SATA devices today will improve these rates of failure.
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   #34. Posted at 01:49 AM on Oct 4th 2006, Edited at 01:53 AM on Oct 4th 2006 Edit   Reply

The Samsung SH-W163A SATA (black) is quite affordable, and has been for a while.

Review:
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=16341

Current cost in Europe (/wo sales tax): Around $35-$40.
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   #1. Posted at 02:01 PM on Oct 3rd 2006, Edited at 02:02 PM on Oct 3rd 2006 Edit   Reply

It's about time. Now can we get rid of the floppy drive forever?
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   #30. Posted at 08:59 PM on Oct 3rd 2006 Edit   Reply

Beware what you wish for...

Current SATA chip-sets do not all support SATA DVD/CD-rom drives, regardless of BIOS updates. Check with your friendly motherboard (or SATA-peripheral) vendor before investing in such a drive.
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   #11. Posted at 02:34 PM on Oct 3rd 2006 Edit   Reply

Wasn't SATA originally to have a benign adapter to convert from IDE to SATA and viceversa?
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   #22. Posted at 05:24 PM on Oct 3rd 2006 Edit   Reply

Good riddance.
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   #16. Posted at 03:57 PM on Oct 3rd 2006 Edit   Reply

I will spend $30 on a new DVD drive if it has SATA. It will make cable routing a lot easier, that's for sure.
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   #5. Posted at 02:21 PM on Oct 3rd 2006 Edit   Reply

Yay! Finally!

*dance in rejoice*
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   #14. Posted at 03:24 PM on Oct 3rd 2006 Edit   Reply

I've been looking forward to this as I like the thin red SATA cables over the bulky IDE Ribbons. (Only reason as performance is not going to change)
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   #2. Posted at 02:04 PM on Oct 3rd 2006 Edit   Reply

That Lite-On is a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive, not a DVD burner.

It's about time. I've got an Intel motherboard with the ICH8 that will be coming shortly, I need an optical drive to go with it, and I don't want an overpriced Plextor.
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   #7. Posted at 02:24 PM on Oct 3rd 2006 Edit   Reply

:"D

^ tears of joy
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   #3. Posted at 02:06 PM on Oct 3rd 2006 Edit   Reply

Thank god. I am just sick of running cluttery IDE cables, even the round ones, through my case. Sata cables are so much nicer to organize and help keep airflow fully efficient.

And yes, I second the "no more floppy drives" sentiment. Luckily all it's really needed for anymore is bios flashing, and even then it's not always required.
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