Hi there. I don't know much about HDD and SCSI, but my dad does some video editing and he was told that in order to get better quality and reliability, he should get a SCSI hard drive. I'm just wondering, will a SCSI hard drive really improve performance that much and does it need anything extra (like what are all these SCSI adapters and controllers)?

Thanks.

Better drives are available only for SCSI. Also they say that, in general there is less system overhead to operate a SCSI system than IDE. Also you can have up to 15 devices on 1 IRQ, whereas with 15 IDE devices you'd run out of IRQ's before you ever got anything else installed.

The reason the world doesn't instantly switch is probably because of cost. SCSI parts command a premium.

Probably for the non proffesional home video editor, SCSI isn't really cost effective. For a corporate enterprise server, or high end workstation which needs the speed and reliability, it is probably the best solution.

To be honest, I use it, and love it. It just depends on your priorities. Mine was having something a little better, and more expensive. I would never go back. Then again I spend a large amount of time staring at my monitor, and notice the small performance enhancements.

Normally in these threads we get a bunch of rabid IDE supporters trying to justify their purchases to themselves by dogging SCSI, most of them have never even tried both therefore have completely unsubstantiated *opinions*. Beware.

I'm a SCSI convert also. Everything seems to work better (multi-tasking, CD-burning, etc.) with SCSI.
On the other hand, ignorance is bliss. If you haven't tasted it, you may want to save some money. The price difference could buy a lot of beer and cheeseburgers.

Sweating like a rancid chunk of pork

Ok, so basically if it's just for hobbiest use, stick with standard IDE?

"seems to work better (multi-tasking, CD-burning, etc.) with SCSI."

Do you mean you have a SCSI cd-burner as well? Still I must ask, is there anything else extra one would need in order to use a SCSI hard drive? Thanks for all your replies so far

You would need a scsi controler that could handle what you want to use. It's comparable to ide contolers in that u need a ata100 controler to run a IDE HD at ata100. There are also different pin sizes, ex. 68 pin and 80 pin. You can alos get scsi raid controlers. And running scsi raid 0 you'd get some real nice speed or raid 1 for some exellent backup, but then you're looking at even more cost. Whatever you do, make sure your controler can handle the HD you purchase.

As for my opinion I think pretty much everything scsi is a step up from IDE. Like the cd burners discussed, they tend not to use as much system resources and so you can multitask a whole lot better. When I burn w/ my IDE burners I'm always a little hesitant to do other things until I'm done burning (although w/ newer systems and better ide burners, this situation is getting better.)

Good luck on your endevor. Hope my ramblings have helped.