SATA or IDE

I was wondering whether there's a difference in speeds between SATA and IDE optical drives. Or is the price difference merely due to the fact that SATA drives have a more convenient cable?

Thanks, WhOOmpa260

I have no reason to use IDE unless don't have SATA port on mobo.

IDE sucks. Its bulky and took forever to arrange them in my case to not block airflow. Get SATA whenever possible and save yourself time and avoid airflow problems.f789790

I'm guessing you mean the IDE cable is bulky and restricts airflow as both SATA and IDE are the same size. As for the difference between both of them, it is mainly the speed. SATA tends to be faster due to it's use of serial transmission instead of parrallel transmission that IDE uses. This removes the issue of cross-talking and removes the need of re-sending the data do to errors caused by Cross-talking/EMI.