serial ATA hard drives

ether_ · Post by **ether_** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 23:57

Hi all

there's a good article on serial ATA on

http://www6.tomshardware.com/storage/20 ... index.html

150 MByte/s maximum transfer rate (300/600 MByte/s envisioned for the future!!)

but bottom line is it's not worth upgrading yet as it's got some more development to go

SuperficiaL_ · Post by **SuperficiaL_** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 16:46

tnx !
SuperficiaL

lotech_ · Post by **lotech_** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 02:34

That guides a little dated - Serial ATA is pretty good right now. The first models out were generally standard Parrellel ATA drives with a chip that added the capabilities of the S-ATA interface but with no major performance improvements. They generally ran at 100m/b p. sec.
If anyones serious about pulling DV / Uncompressed clips off their PCs the Western Digital Raptor is the way to go - in tests they generally out preform even top end SCSI Drives and are half the price.
A 36Gb Raptor costs about the same as a 120gb P-ATA and about 25% of a 36gb SCSI. Anyway the review below says it all:

http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20030501/index.html

We're looking at having at least one of these drives before new years so expect a review on VJcentral some point soon.

ether_ · Post by **ether_** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 21:56

nice one!

thanks lotech'ers - see you at NewYears!!

ether_ · Post by **ether_** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 22:10

also, do you know if it's necessary to have all serial ATA drives to get optimum performance?
I have heard mixing serialATA and ATA drives will slow the serial down?

lotech_ · Post by **lotech_** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 05:48

Maybe... we just got a S-ATA Seagate Barracuda 120gb (7,200 w/ 8mb Cache) and have a couple of indentical P-ATA models. Our plan will be to run a standard P-ATA OS Drive and a S-ATA for clips...
Some point next week I'll give them a speed tests on the drives and post them here.

Brendan_ · Post by **Brendan_** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 09:26

I run a Raptor drive (they're only available in 36gb now, but look for a ~75gb out soon) and yes, it rules.

Other than the raptor drive, there are no SATA drives worth upgrading / purchasing.

There is *no* benifit to using any other sata drive for resolume. The raptor also has a 5yr warranty - nice feature as most drives ship with 1yr.

Sure "150 MByte/s maximum transfer rate" sounds great on paper, but that's a "theoretical maximum" realistically there is _no benifit_ for sata. Just check the drives sustained transfer rate (use a program like hdtach to tell the difference) The raptor really is amazing, all other drives are not.

Yikes... maybe Western Digital should hire me as a product rep.

lotech_ · Post by **lotech_** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 07:08

Yup, the Raptors are the biz - used ours over the weekend and it handled pretty much all we could throw at it.