I’m going to be building a new computer, and was wondering whether or not I should get SATA optical drives for my DVD burners (2 total). Assuming that there will be enough room for all my drives in either case, and the prices are about the same, would there be any benefit in getting the SATA over the PATA?

Thanks,
Kevan

cables are easier to install and manage.

I've seen a number of posts from people that seem to run into problems with the SATA, more than with the PATA. Right now I'm sticking with PATA given how long it's been around, it's about as "standardize" as it can get. Just not sure all the bugs are worked out with the SATA

SATA has much nicer cables than PATA. Also, most motherboards nowadays have just one IDE channel, so if you have PATA hard drives, SATA optical drives are pretty much the way to go.

I have both "LG" SATA ( BestBuy.com) & "ASUS" PATA, (Newegg.com) There's no performance advantage only updated cables. Also it's nice not to need an audio cable.
Asus P4P-E Deluxe M/B

If you buy a PATA drive today and want to use it in a system a couple of years from now, you might find that your mobo does not have the older style port. I looked inside a new HP system last week and was surprised they are now using SATA CD drives - no older style port on the mobo at all, I wanted to put in a PATA DVD drive to install Office 2007 from a DVD but could not, I needed to use this crappy USB DVD I have laying around.
I vote SATA if you can find one with the features & price point you like.

A new HP didn't even have a DVD drive? Wow, that is some serious corner-cutting to keep the price down.

I have heard problems with SATA optical drives not being able to be used as a boot device. This is a problem if you are trying to install Windows!

I would research your drive before buying. But hey, you'll only be out $30 if there's a problem. Optical drives are nice and cheap!

Optical drives haven't needed audio cables any time this decade. CD audio is played by digital extraction. Basically, your CD player program plays the tracks as it rips them, just like your favorite MP3 converter. DVD audio is decoded by the DVD player program, not the drive itself.

Your are right about SATA optical drives though. There is no performance benefit because an optical drive can't hope to approach the transfer speed limits of PATA, so the added bandwidth of SATA is worth nothing.

I have been using a SATA DVD burner for several months now with no trouble at all. I imagine that most of the bugs in SATA have been solved by now.

I'd go SATA for future proofing and ease of cable management.

Not really future proof as PATA will be around for a while, why won't it die. Optical drives don't use enough bandwidth to fill all of the PATA cable never mind the SATA.

But there is one key thing missing that everyone has failed to mention, no new motherboard (or a high end model anyways) has 2xPATA connectors. In otherwords if you do want 2 optical drives you'll probably be forced into going SATA.

James

Yeah, motherboard manufacturers aren't stupid enough to not put atleast one PATA port on their motherboards. Especially since every SATA hard drive and DVD burner has a PATA counterpart. That floppy drive connector is going to disappear long before the PATA port does. Well I hope to God it does.

*imagines floppy ports on motherboards what support 80-core CPU's*

I guess the main question you need to ask would be, how old is your system, what board are you using, can it support loading windows off a Sata drive. I have a sata HDD and had to use my pata dvd drive just to load the drivers to use the sata chipset for installing XP. I have never done vista, but I would think it could natively install off a sata optical drive.

<<Business class machine, lots of times they just have a regular CD. Many companies don't want users to have CDR. DVD is becoming needed now, Vista & Office come on DVD.

As long as Windows XP is around and new raid drivers exist and can only be accessed by a floppy, the floppy interface will stick around a little while longer!

For an optical drive, pretty simple decision, get for the cheapest. That tends to be a drive with a PATA interface. As for being obsolete, would you trust a 3 year old dust sucking mechanical drive? I barely trust them when they are new. The drive will be junk long before it's interface will be considered obsolete!

Other issues are compatability issues with SATA optical drives that still exist, and why waste a perfectly good SATA slot on a slow assed optical drive!

Either interface should work though, you are not going to have painful regret picking one drive over the other, either will do the job.