Up Close - Continued
 

     I'm sure many of you have experience the tedious task of assembling a computer from scratch, or simply installing a hard drive. Ribbon cables, regardless if they are rounded or not, are a pain in the butt to install and remove. Many times an IDE cable will become damaged just by removing them from an IDE port. Sometimes if you are not careful, you can even bend or recess a pin, which can be a very expensive mistake. With SATA cables, the frustration is gone. The cables are keyed and can only be installed in one direction. There is also almost no chance that you can damage a SATA cable or SATA port. Best of all, SATA cables can be installed and removed with almost no effort at all.

     The difference between a SATA cable and a IDE cable is huge! Say goodbye to ribbon cables! Now if we can just get SATA to move to other devices like CD ROMs and burners, we could finally dump these ugly ribbon cables for good.