DVD burner = CD/DVD reader/burner?

[zmatt]

Technically speaking when the first sata drives came out they were the same ide drives but with a sata interface, so there wasn't much improvement. That is different today and there really is no reason not to go sata unless you don't have a sata controller, and at that point you should probably upgrade anyways.

 

[ricanflow]

Agreed..sata II is very fast, especially the 32mb cache driver, or the perpendicular 16mb wd's.

In terms of optical drives, the difference isnt as big but its still there.

And with pata you are limited to 4 devices....sata allows for many more, and most modern mobo's come with at least 4-6 sata connectors or more....and only one pata channel for two devices.