Does scsi still have that much of a difference to be worth the price anymore? Or is just going ultra ata 133 ide's just fine?

I was always a big SCSI supporter, but I now feel the new IDE -100+ drives running 7500 - 10k RPM are just fine for hosting. If you can, I would recomend getting extra ram for the server to use as a cache (512MB).

It depends on how "misson critical" the server is going to be.

If your building a box for NAS (Network Attached Storage), then scsi could be a good idea. Depending how busy its going to be...

Dont forget theres SATA (Seriel), just entering the market. Which is a bit of an improvement from IDE. Keep an eye out for the 2nd generation versions.

It really depends on your the type of application and audience you're expecting. But EIDE *should* handle most applications effectively. However, SCSI is more scalable and uses dedicated channels for transfers.

Serial ATA do not offer that much of an improvement (last time I read an article it was about 1-2%).