UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

SCSI, when it was started, was seen as complex. But the complexity did not rise much, and today SAS (serial SCSI) is quite similar to SATA (serial ATA), only the command set is still richer, requiring some more logic in the embedded disk controller.
Therefore I think the SAS prices are artificially kept high.

Not entirely. The defining quality of a disk is not the connection (SCSI, FC, SATA) but the MTBF (mean time between failure, the average time the disk will work before having to be replaced) the disk is designed to handle. The $59.99/TB disk sold at the Penny-shop will perhaps not do more than 20000h (~3years) MTBF at all. Data center quality disks have MTBFs of 100000h and more. If you have a DC with, say, some thousands of disks in it you will apppreciate the fact that only 5 disks a week give up instead of 50.

Because SCSI is traditionally used in professional equipment (read: data centre equipment) they tend to be somewhat more expensive - not because of the SCSI, but because they are usually better quality too.

bakunin