Best Hard Drive.

masticore said:
You can use a SATA2 drive on a SATA connector. Obviously, you won't get the benefits of SATA2.

You can use a SATA drive on a SATA2 connector. Obviously, you won't get the benefits of SATA2.

From the above, it's obvious that there's no visible way to see if a connector is SATA or SATA2 (they are physically the same.) Check your motherboard / controller documentation to see what it supports.

FYI: SATA2 does not only mean 300mb/s. There are other requirements (such as hotswap) for full SATA2 compliance.
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Can I assume the only way to sort out the SATA2 is get a new motherboard.
 
No you can just get a SATA2 controller card ...

I prefer WD Raptor SE16 they seem to run cooler than my maxstor and seagate drives
 
What price are we looking at for a controller card and is it worth that extra bit?
 
masticore said:
You can use a SATA2 drive on a SATA connector. Obviously, you won't get the benefits of SATA2.

You can use a SATA drive on a SATA2 connector. Obviously, you won't get the benefits of SATA2.
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Not always. I've seen many boards where the SATA controllers don't see the SATA2 drives at all. Most of the time a BIOS update can fix it, but sometimes the manufacturers simply don't care enough (ASUS for example) to make the relevant updates available.

From the above, it's obvious that there's no visible way to see if a connector is SATA or SATA2 (they are physically the same.)
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They're not. The SATA2 connectors have a plastic guider thingy around the bit that has the metal bits on. The part in the middle is the same (so you can plug in either SATA or SATA2) but the connector is made different enough to distinguish them visually.

FYI: SATA2 does not only mean 300mb/s. There are other requirements (such as hotswap) for full SATA2 compliance.
Click to expand...

Hostswap is part of the SATA spec too. Unfortunately many SATA controllers can't do it because they're nothing more than vanilla IDE controllers with a SATA converter. Even worse, some controllers are software based, so they perform even worse than IDE.
 
tibby.dude said:
Western Digital Raptor.
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lol, um tibby. I'm sure everyone know this is best, but when you want to buy a new 200gig harddrive are you going to buy a Raptor? They are very expensive and only for real gaming enthusiasts. I'd love one too though :D

For this guy I think the Seagate 320gig 7200.10 is best.
 
Ekhaatvensters said:
lol, um tibby. I'm sure everyone know this is best, but when you want to buy a new 200gig harddrive are you going to buy a Raptor? They are very expensive and only for real gaming enthusiasts. I'd love one too though :D

For this guy I think the Seagate 320gig 7200.10 is best.
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If I had the money, all the drives in my PC would be Raptors.
 
koffiejunkie said:
Not always. I've seen many boards where the SATA controllers don't see the SATA2 drives at all. Most of the time a BIOS update can fix it, but sometimes the manufacturers simply don't care enough (ASUS for example) to make the relevant updates available.
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OK ... assumptions making an ass outta me :D The one time I did move a SATA drive to a SATA2 controller and a SATA2 drive to a SATA controller, it worked flawlessly. Both were Gigabyte boards.

koffiejunkie said:
They're not. The SATA2 connectors have a plastic guider thingy around the bit that has the metal bits on. The part in the middle is the same (so you can plug in either SATA or SATA2) but the connector is made different enough to distinguish them visually.
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I've seen SATA connectors that use the guides as well. Hence, I didn't mention them since they don't mean anything. I was of the (self created) opinion that these were simply the new style SATA connectors (because people were complaining about the original ones working loose) and their introduction just happened to coincide with the general release of SATA2.

Does the SATA2 mandate the use of guides around the connectors?

koffiejunkie said:
Hostswap is part of the SATA spec too. Unfortunately many SATA controllers can't do it because they're nothing more than vanilla IDE controllers with a SATA converter. Even worse, some controllers are software based, so they perform even worse than IDE.
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Ah, I didn't know hot swap was included with SATA (SATA spec confirms it was) ... that opens a can of worms for a whole bunch of manufacturers who advertised SATA but didn't provide hotswap support. If I was a yank I'd sue 'em all ;)


Thanks for your corrections. I prefer to be corrected than wrong all the time :)
 
Ekhaatvensters said:
lol, um tibby. I'm sure everyone know this is best, but when you want to buy a new 200gig harddrive are you going to buy a Raptor? They are very expensive
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Well that and the little annoying fact that they don't come in those sized. Biggest is 150GB at the moment.

As far as I know the Raptors really use SCSI drive internals - thus the higher platter speed, smaller platter size, longer warranty (initially, they've upped the warranty on some of the SATA drives lately), the available sizes (36GB, 72GB, 150GB), and, of course, the price.

I wouldn't put them in an external enclosure anyway - the heat will be too much.
 
masticore said:
OK ... assumptions making an ass outta me :D The one time I did move a SATA drive to a SATA2 controller and a SATA2 drive to a SATA controller, it worked flawlessly. Both were Gigabyte boards.

I've seen SATA connectors that use the guides as well. Hence, I didn't mention them since they don't mean anything. I was of the (self created) opinion that these were simply the new style SATA connectors (because people were complaining about the original ones working loose) and their introduction just happened to coincide with the general release of SATA2.
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Assumption on my part - sorry. You're probably right about the guides.

masticore said:
Does the SATA2 mandate the use of guides around the connectors?
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No idea.

masticore said:
Ah, I didn't know hot swap was included with SATA (SATA spec confirms it was) ...
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The whole idea behind SATA was to bring the features of SCSI to IDE in an affordable manner. Mechanically, SATA drives are identical to IDE. They've just given it features like hotplugging, NCQ (another features that neither the controller makers or drive makers offered initially) and a few more (can't really remember).

SCSI drives tend are usually made of higher quality mechanics, they're built to last much longer under much higher load, they're more fault tolerant, when they do go bad the warning signs show up earlier, etc.
 
koffiejunkie said:
Well that and the little annoying fact that they don't come in those sized. Biggest is 150GB at the moment.

As far as I know the Raptors really use SCSI drive internals - thus the higher platter speed, smaller platter size, longer warranty (initially, they've upped the warranty on some of the SATA drives lately), the available sizes (36GB, 72GB, 150GB), and, of course, the price.

I wouldn't put them in an external enclosure anyway - the heat will be too much.
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Ja, I know. I'm not sure how useful the 36GB one is. You can hardly keep all your games and a Windows installation on there, especially not when Vista comes out and games get even bigger.

But the price for those isnt really worth it unless you are building your PC from all the best parts. It performs better than other hard drives, but a better graphics card, CPU, or ram would be money better spent that on a Raptor.
 
Ekhaatvensters said:
Ja, I know. I'm not sure how useful the 36GB one is. You can hardly keep all your games and a Windows installation on there, especially not when Vista comes out and games get even bigger.
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They were never intended to be desktop drives. They were advertised as "Enterprise" drives when they came out. They're extremely useful in situations where you need fast drives that will last under heavy load, but don't want to spend SCSI money.

In my line of work they're good for mail scanning smtp relays - disc heavy stuff.
 
koffiejunkie said:
They were never intended to be desktop drives. They were advertised as "Enterprise" drives when they came out. They're extremely useful in situations where you need fast drives that will last under heavy load, but don't want to spend SCSI money.

In my line of work they're good for mail scanning smtp relays - disc heavy stuff.
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I had a 36GB Raptor as my system drive (or C:, or Windows drive) and loaded all my games on there - and never had less than 20GB free?

The reason for that is a seperate 'Data' drive (185GB IBM as D:), where I stored all my Docs, mp3s, movies, pictures, etc. So if there was a problem with Windows, just a quick format & reinstall - all my data is on the other drive. So basically my games and Windows on my Raptor.

I would still prefer to use a 36GB Raptor as my system drive, because it's much quicker when you want to do a defrag. Unfortunately when my insurance claim paid out, they just gave me four new 200GB Seagates.

Really miss my Raptor, loading time for a game was extremely quick...
 
kingrob said:
I would still prefer to use a 36GB Raptor as my system drive, because it's much quicker when you want to do a defrag.
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Thankfully in my OS I don't have to defrag - ever! :-)

I would still like a 7200rpm disc in my notebook though..
 
duderoo said:
Is the price that much different as I am getting the 320 at a really good price from a wholesaler.
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I went looking for a HD and housing (bay) today and have all the prices of the differrent HD's.

Java Cafe: Raptor, 36gb - R1049, 74gb - R1799, 150gb - R2699. Seagate ATA II: 250GB - R849, 320GB - R1149, 500GB - R2999. Seagate ATA I: 200GB - R799, 250GB - R849, 320GB - R1099.
A Seagate Barracuda HD: 250gb - R798, 160gb - R478.80 from a work supplier, aluminum bay @ R499.00 for a 3.5 HD.
 
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