external sata drives?
 

i just came across extrernal sata drives didn't know they existed, any reason why people would still use external usb and firewire drives instead when they could get an external sata that works just as fast as an internal drive
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10572

Because not all Pc's have a SATA Controller(or external), and the good thing with external disk's it that you can take it with you and plug it in enywhere... but if they dont have a SATA plugin

I know that there is USB -> SATA controllers, but then what is the poing if you cant have the speed of the SATA? why pay for SATA?

well these drives do come with the pci card so you can get external sata

Yes I know, and that is why my point was, when you go to a customer, your aunt Susan or the office, you don't want to buy 4 spare pci-cards to take with you, in case the pc dont have a external STAT port... get it?

well i really wasn't talking about the average consumer but webmasters

why bother to make it extrernal if you can't take it with you because there is no extrernal sata ports on most pc units. I think these drives are about 2 years before their time.

In two words, 'portability' and 'compatability'.

It seems same reasons as others whom have responded. When I go somewhere, I can just plug my ext HD into another cpu w/o having compatabilty issues. All newer computers have a USB either back, front, or both.

:pimp