Fastest $200 HDD setup

B

badjokes

New member
I'm looking to get a drive or drives solely for OS and programs, is a single raptor faster then putting other drives into raid?
 
I would say no because when you raid the hard drives(that are the same exact hard drives) they are usually fatser then a single.
 
I used to do benchmarks and the fastest I had was 4 Hitachi 80gig sata 2s in Raid0, it beat the heck out of a pair of Raptors in Raid0(and the Hitachis were only $160 for the 4 of them)

Now a couple of rules,

1- some will say there is more chance for a failure in Raid0 but I have never had one. (keep them clean and cool and they will work fine)

2- more Hdds is more wiring and more heat (put a fan on them)

3- SOMETIMES you will notice it being faster. Dont think your comp will run fast in everything it does.
 
ok well im deciding to forget the raid and im just gunna keep the os drive clean and simple.

so right now im considering either a 37gig raptor, or possibly waiting for an 18gig ssd drive.

any thoughts?
 
Have you taken a look at the 150GB raptors? I'm not sure if the amount of space matters for you but that will give you a bit more room. I also heard that there are some pretty fast SATAII drives out there.
 
i have PLENTY of storage so im not interested in drive size whatsoever. id be ok with 15 gigs for this drive, solong as its smokin fast, preferably not loud n hot tho. thats why im leaning towards an SSD.

but i have no clue about ssd pricing performance or availibility...

anybody know a place i can get some info on the above?
 
id get 2 74g raptors and raid. if thats over the budget in the UK id get 2 Hitachi Deskstars T7K250 and raid. this might help.
 
SSDs are currently pretty much only for laptops and aren't really up for retail sale atm (I think). I would probably go with two Hitachi's like ai said or 2 Seagate 7200.10's
 
name='badjokes' said:
i have PLENTY of storage so im not interested in drive size whatsoever. id be ok with 15 gigs for this drive, solong as its smokin fast, preferably not loud n hot tho. thats why im leaning towards an SSD.

but i have no clue about ssd pricing performance or availibility...

anybody know a place i can get some info on the above?
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_state_disk

Flash based SSDs have several unique advantages:

  • Faster startup - Since no spin-up required.
  • Faster read time – In some cases, twice or more than that of the fastest hard drives.
  • Low read and write latency (seek) time, hundreds of times faster than a mechanical disk.
  • Faster boot and application launch time - Result of the faster read and especially seek time. But only if application already resides in flash and is more dependant on read speed than other issues, eg. OS bootup that detects devices will not be significantly sped up even with faster seeks & reads.
  • Lower power consumption and heat production - no mechanical parts result in less power consumption.
  • No noise - Lack of mechanical parts makes the SSD completely silent.
  • Better mechanical reliability - Lack of mechanical parts result in less wear and tear. High level of ability to endure extreme shock, vibration and temperatures, which apply to laptops and other mobile devices, or when transported.
  • Lower but improving read-write lifetime - In the past, flash based SSDs were limited in the number of read/write cycles, but modern flash technology and error correction allow Flash SSDs to operate several years without fail (some manufacturers claim as many as 10 years).[1]
  • Security - allowing a very quick "wipe" of all data stored.
  • Deterministic performance - unlike mechanical hard drives, performance of SSDs is constant and deterministic across the entire storage. "Seek" time is constant, and performance does not deteriorate as the media fills up (See: Fragmentation).
  • Lower weight and (depending upon type) size
  • Faster than conventional disks on random I/O
Flash based SSDs also have several disadvantages:

  • Price - As of late 2006 flash memory prices are still considerably higher per gigabyte than those of comparable conventional hard drives - around $25 per GB compared to about $0.25 for mechanical drives.
  • Slower write time - Flash has a slower write time than high-end hard drives (around 18 MB/s compared to over 50 MB/s for hard drives), though this varies considerably based on the make and model.
  • Shorter reliable lifetime - Flash based SSDs have relatively limited read/write cycles compared to hard drives which can last over a decade without mechanical malfunction. This is significant since in many systems, certain hard drive locations may regularly be accessed tens of thousands of times within even short periods.
  • Lower recoverability - After mechanical failure the data is completely lost as the cell is destroyed, while if normal HDD suffers mechanical failure the data is often recoverable using expert help.
  • Vulnerability against certain types of effects, including abrupt powerloss (especially DRAM based SSDs), magnetic fields and electric/static charges compared to normal HDDs (which store the data inside a Faraday cage).
  • Slower than conventional disks on sequential I/O
Click to expand...

EBAY: http://cgi.ebay.com/Transcend-8G-ID...ameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting
 
name='badjokes' said:
ok well im deciding to forget the raid and im just gunna keep the os drive clean and simple.

so right now im considering either a 37gig raptor, or possibly waiting for an 18gig ssd drive.

any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Stretch for a pair of 37gb Raptors and slap in RAID 0, total pwnage. I had 4 Raptor 74's in RAID 0 and they tore
cussing.gif
cussing.gif
cussing.gif
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up!
 
name='Kempez' said:
I'd get two Hitachi deskstars (SATA300) in RAID 0...fast as fcuk and cheap
Click to expand...

Agreed. For speed on a budget, you can't beat a pair of Deskstar T7K's configured for SATA2
 
I`d say, give me the money for the Raptors, and u`r pc and I`ll give u u`r pc back with blistering speed drives in it ;)

Don`t look inside it tho.
 
name='Rastalovich' said:
I`d say, give me the money for the Raptors, and u`r pc and I`ll give u u`r pc back with blistering speed drives in it ;)

Don`t look inside it tho.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure he doesn't want a pair of 512mb Quantum Bigfoot's ;)

quantum-bigfoot.jpg
 
hey well thanks for all the info! im looking to build my system in july, im lookin at a 37" 1080p westinghouse, and a 45nm penryn cpu + an r630 with hdmi conectivity : )
 
name='badjokes' said:
hey well thanks for all the info! im looking to build my system in july, im lookin at a 37" 1080p westinghouse, and a 45nm penryn cpu + an r630 with hdmi conectivity : )
Click to expand...

mmmmm yummy. good luck with that, make sure you post up plenty of pictures ;)
 
I agree with Markkleb and had similiar results with SATA II drives... 3 Samsung 160GB Spinpoints in RAID 0 was blazing fast, avg. 140mb/s on one of the SiSoft Sandra tests, whereas a quartet of 36GB Raptors was only slightly faster at 144mb/s. (I believe mine are only 8mb cache and not the 16mb.)

TJS

Oh, yeah, T7K1000, 32mb cache is out I think... RAID two of those and tell me what happens...
 
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