Recomendations...

[Somban]

I'm looking for a fast hard drive for my next setup. The motherboard I'll be buying has SATA2 on it. I also could add an a U160 scsi adapter. I will mainly be using this machine to play games on so the volume of the drive shouldn't be much of an issue - Anything 74GB+ is fine. Would it be better as far as price/performance for me to buy a nice 10k sata2 drive (Will last a couple years prolly) or a relatively cheap 10k scsi drive since I already have an adapter? I want a 10k drive with 16mb cache that will maximize my performance, but not minimize my wallet.

What do you recommend?

Somban

 

[Datman]

NewEgg - Raptor 150

There is this over priced recomendation.

 

[mesarectifier]

Hard drives are pretty cheap now, so get a 250gb drive for storage and invest in a cheaper Raptor (not the 150 it's way overpriced and you don't need the extra space) or a small pair of SCSI drives.

To be perfectly honest it won't make the world of difference, but if you ask for a fast drive, SCSI is fast and reliable, and Raptors have a very good rep.

 

[hiddendog]

RAID w/ SATA2

 

[1Tanker]

If you're comfortable with SCSI , then go that route. If you're like 99%

of us, then then stick with SATA. If games are you preference, then SCSI

won't make a difference.Get a Raptor, or WD/Seagate 500GB drive, as the

higher capacity drives are generally faster, due to the higher density platter

size. ie: 125 GB/platter vs. 100-83 GB/platter. This rating means faster

access time, and more MB/S read off the HD. Example": 100gb/Platter=

~64MB/S....125GB/platter= ~71 mb/s....roughly. :?

 

[Datman]

Cheetah 15K.5
SEAGATE ANNOUNCES NEW CHEETAH 15K.5 HARD DRIVES FOR CUSTOMERS THAT REQUIRE THE WORLD'S FASTEST, MOST RELIABLE ENTERPRISE STORAGE

Out in June.

 

[mesarectifier]

The fact that there's a fibre-channel option tells me that it's going to be migty expensive.

It's not marketed against the Raptor, either.

If they made an SATA2 15k small-capacity home hard drive then it'd sell, but only the most rich/dedicated consumers are going to bother with fibre channel interfaces. Few people even have Ultra320 in their home systems.

 

[sdrawkcaBgoD]

Budget?

 

[GherkinPekul]

I am going with the 250 GB WD SATA2 drive with 16 mb onboard cache on my build. The money I'm saving on a high end C: is going into ddr500 ram, and an x1900xtx. Since I've cut back on the caffeine, I shouldn't notice the extra milliseconds.

 

[4745454b]

Read and follow GherkinPekul's advice in the post just above mine, he is making a lot of sence.
You said it yourself. "I will mainly be using this machine to play games on so the volume of the drive shouldn't be much of an issue " This is 100% correct, you just didn't take it far enough. If your not needing lots of room on the drive, then you aren't moving enough data to make raptors/RAID worthwhile. The performance difference between AID0, Raptors, and normal drives for games isn't much. When it comes to games, spend your money on GPUs, CPUs, RAM (for higher overclocking), and motherboards. Hdds just don't make enough of a difference for gaming to justify going "overboard" on them.

 

[Codesmith]

I like my setup
74 GB Raptor
2x 400 GB WD Raid Edition 2 in RAID 1

This was the best solution for me because.
1) I had money to spend on my PC and I was happy with the other components in my system.

2) I personally did not feel the hassle and lower reliablity of RAID 0 was worth the real-world performance increase.

3) I perform regular backups of my OS (True Image) and personal/business documents (Retrospect) on a regular basis. But I am very lazy about transfering those backups to DVD+RW, so I wanted the redundancy of RAID 1.

4) I chose the WD RE2's because they are supposed to be especially suited to RAID operation. (At least all of my RAID controller problems vanished after the I upgraded to them.).

5) I chose the 74 GB Raptor because it offered enhanced performance without the hassles or risks of RAID 0,

6) Pllus the Western Digital Enterprise drives all have 5 year warranties.

Of course now there are WD 500 GB RE2's and WD 150 GB Raptors.
---

However what I generally consider the best for most people is a big SATA drive from Seagate.

Seagate offers 5 Year Waranties on all their drives, are fast, a bit quieter than WD and resonably priced.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148131

 

[wun911]

Either way WILL burn a hole in your pocket

 

[1Tanker]

Either way WILL burn a hole in your pocket

Not many computer components that don't,even the cheap ones. This is

a hobby for most of us in here, and as such, sometimes common sense

takes a backseat.LOL

 

[RichPLS]

Your chances of a regular hard drive failing after a few days of use is very small, and the risk of a Raptor, which is built to higher quality standards and components, plus backed by a longer 5 yr warranty, is even smaller of failing... multiply that by two, and you still have very good chances of having no problems with your RAID 0 array, and you will most likely then just reap the benefits of a faster performing drive.

 

[moparman390]

I like my setup
74 GB Raptor
2x 400 GB WD Raid Edition 2 in RAID 1

This was the best solution for me because.
1) I had money to spend on my PC and I was happy with the other components in my system.

2) I personally did not feel the hassle and lower reliablity of RAID 0 was worth the real-world performance increase.

3) I perform regular backups of my OS (True Image) and personal/business documents (Retrospect) on a regular basis. But I am very lazy about transfering those backups to DVD+RW, so I wanted the redundancy of RAID 1.

4) I chose the WD RE2's because they are supposed to be especially suited to RAID operation. (At least all of my RAID controller problems vanished after the I upgraded to them.).

5) I chose the 74 GB Raptor because it offered enhanced performance without the hassles or risks of RAID 0,

6) Pllus the Western Digital Enterprise drives all have 5 year warranties.

Of course now there are WD 500 GB RE2's and WD 150 GB Raptors.

Here, Here!

I did the same thing, I have a WD 74GB Raptor as my system drive and two WD 320GB RAID Edition drives in a RAID 1 for more redundent mass data storage.

 

[ZOldDude]

I'm looking for a fast hard drive for my next setup. The motherboard I'll be buying has SATA2 on it. I also could add an a U160 scsi adapter. I will mainly be using this machine to play games on so the volume of the drive shouldn't be much of an issue - Anything 74GB+ is fine. Would it be better as far as price/performance for me to buy a nice 10k sata2 drive (Will last a couple years prolly) or a relatively cheap 10k scsi drive since I already have an adapter? I want a 10k drive with 16mb cache that will maximize my performance, but not minimize my wallet.

What do you recommend?

Somban

There is no SATA2...every one uses it as a saleing point but it is a non-offical standard.

Even a SATA (1) interface is far above the fastest DRIVES tranfer rate.

In real life a RAPTOR (84/85 MBps substaind speed) drive will give you no advantage that you will ever see in real life useage as a gamer.

The simple truth is that PATA 100 is able to transfer more than any HD can use each sec.

Z