[ The PC Guide | Systems and Components Reference Guide | Hard Disk Drives | Hard Disk Interfaces and Configuration | IDE/ATA vs. SCSI: Interface Comparison ]

Device Availability and Selection

SCSI leads IDE/ATA in terms of the number of different types of devices available, but often trails behind it in terms of the number of different models available for each device type. Since the IDE/ATA market is so much larger than the SCSI market, there are many more brands and types of various devices available for the IDE/ATA market than for SCSI.

One area where this can be an issue is with hard disks. Hard disk options for the IDE/ATA interface range from small value models to large performance units. For SCSI, there are fewer choices, particularly on the low end of the scale. This means that you will have more difficulty finding economical drives for SCSI setups unless you go with older units (which is certainly an option). Of course, if you want the fastest technology, SCSI gives you more choices.

Of course, this isn't to say that your choices with SCSI are necessarily few; there are many different companies producing SCSI hardware. You will have more difficulty trying to set up SCSI inexpensively, but that's sort of par for the course. :^)

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