...

IDE/ATAPI drive? Unless money is really tight, don't go for anything but Absolutly right ;) Only the really tight isn't appropiate anymore nowadays :(, I've just calculated the ratio for big discs, and it comes to 2.73 :(

36400MB IBM DRHS-336400LVD 2.85 cent/MB 25000MB IBM DJNA-352500 Janus 1.04 cent/MB

I know, you get completely two different kinds of discs, but both basically store data.

Well, I'm not even sure the comparison was worthwhile (fyi, floppy disks basically store data, too ;). Without wanting to go into an extremely detailed, esoteric discussion... [I tried to match your model numbers with the IBM catalogue, I hope I got this right] DRHS-336400LVD (IBM Ultrastar 36XP): 36.4GB U2W Low-Voltage Differential 7200RPM?, 7.5 ms avg seek time 19.7MB/sec sustained transfer rate 4.0MB cache SCSI controller on-deck DJNA-352500 (IBM Desktar 25GP) 25GB Ultra DMA/66 5400RPM, 8.5ms avg seek time 15.5MB/sec sustained transfer rate 2.0MB cache Brainless

...

SCSI. SCSI is a much more flexible solution, and generally faster, less CPU-intensive, and more compatible. That is not really true. Well done DMA is about the same level than SCSI,

If you have one disk or two disks on separate chains -- yes. Now, exactly how realistic is that? Not to mention you can't have more than four devices in total, two of which can never be accessed concurrently because of IDE design limitations. You can chuck in more controllers, but you have only so many PCI slots. ;) And never mind the fact that ATA66 pushes 66MB/sec max, whereas U2W now is at 80MB/sec with standard SCA-2 cabling, up to 200MB/sec with FCAL. And never mind the fact that they simply don't make really fast ATAPI drives. ;) -- Alexander Staubo http://www.mop.no/~alex/ "QED?" said Russell. "It's Latin," said Morgan. "It means, 'So there you bastard'." --Robert Rankin, _Nostramadus Ate My Hamster_