No they are not better... about the same, with similar short term reliability of about a year or less. But they are easy to install, and are nearly necessary on installing some motherboards. They cost more to install because the cables are generally more expensive. Should be $3.50 for the necessary SATA cable, but a lot of places are charging $8.95 to $12.50 for them. I have not seen any that come with the SATA cable.