SATA or SCSI?

[HiJon89]

I have a choice between a 74GB 10K RPM Raptor drive, or a 74GB 15K RPM Maxtor Atlas SCSI drive. How big of a performance difference is there between these two drives? Also how loud is the SCSI drive and how hot does it get?

[Ugly n Grey]

It's very loud and very hot. As well, in order ot take advantage of it, you need a true U320 controller and they are expensive.

Performance on a single drive is around 25% faster in benchies when the better controllers are used. A PCI-E controller for U320 runs about 400 US and more.

The strength of SCSI is not single drive/single user. SCSI strength is true hardware RAID with large on controller cache, the performance is a bonus.....

[Order]

Fujitsu's MAU line is currently at the top of the SCSI game and from what I've read is quieter than most other 15k solutions. Seagate's Cheetah 15k4 is also in the same range of performance/heat/noise. www.storagereview.com has lots of information on numerous drives and their configurations, including testbeds comparing one against many others. With regards to Ugly&Grey's remarks, I think he is dead on with everything except the controller issue. The card (in a single drive configuration, mind you) is not as important as the spindle-speeds. The 25% increase of which he speaks can be attained simply through the upgrade from a 10k to a 15k. In an array, however, the controller card is absolutely crucial and could mean huge differences between speeds and throughput on one card versus another.

[k00lance]

For what do you need scsi drives?
It's an overkill to use scsi drive for what we do daily on our comp(gamin.)

[k00lance]

Fujitsu's MAU line is currently at the top of the SCSI game and from what I've read is quieter than most other 15k solutions. Seagate's Cheetah 15k4 is also in the same range of performance/heat/noise. www.storagereview.com has lots of information on numerous drives and their configurations, including testbeds comparing one against many others. With regards to Ugly&Grey's remarks, I think he is dead on with everything except the controller issue. The card (in a single drive configuration, mind you) is not as important as the spindle-speeds. The 25% increase of which he speaks can be attained simply through the upgrade from a 10k to a 15k. In an array, however, the controller card is absolutely crucial and could mean huge differences between speeds and throughput on one card versus another.

Hey order, did you not have any trouble installing apple LCD on ATI?
I had 2 of 23 apple's for my main and 2nd rig.
the d@rn monitors won't post bios when used with ati card.
After I fixed that I kept getting more and more troubles:/
Now I got a 2405's and its working fine :)

[Order]

I think you have the wrong guy, k00lance.
Edit: I'm a moron. I had the signatures and avatars disabled on the board so I didn't understand the reference. I didn't end up building that system. I have made extensive revisions and its still a work in progress. Sorry about that, k00lance :).

[HiJon89]

For what do you need scsi drives?
It's an overkill to use scsi drive for what we do daily on our comp(gamin.)
Well I can trade my 74GB Raptor straight-up for a Maxtor 15K U320 73GB, then I would just need a controller card. What's a good controller card? Will there be a big performance difference between a U160 and U320 card?

[Ugly n Grey]

no, not for a single drive, sustained writes speeds will be the same, burst speed will be cut down to 160mps (still more than SATA 1 at 150)

[HiJon89]

Alright then, I can get an Adaptec 29160 U160 controller card for $40 but an Adaptec 29320 U320 card would cost me $100. I guess I'll save the money and just get the U160 card.

[Ugly n Grey]

well keep in mind your PCI bus will be the limiting factor here, should be fine with a single drive though

[pRS317]

For what do you need scsi drives?
It's an overkill to use scsi drive for what we do daily on our comp(gamin.)

i used to use scsi, and it always felt more responsive. i'm on ide, now, as i had to trim the budget on my current box. i guess one of the true benefits is having the swap file on a fast drive. and if you get a card that supports extra cache, you can slap 128 mb on it which would greatly increase the burst performance. you do have to spend a lot of money to get that performance, tho, as the lower end scsi drives are not as good as the better ata drives

also, for checking out drive speeds, this is a great site:

http://www.storagereview.com/comparison.html

[cooter]

If i had the chance to trade straight up for the SCSI drive I would. you can get some decent SCSI controllers for around the $60 range for a U320.