Serial ATA

  • Thread starter Thread starter Larry
  • Start date Start date
L

Larry

Hi,

Here goes with a dumb question. Could I install just one SATA drive with
WIN98se or do I need two. I'd like to have the speed of SATA, but I can
only afford one drive right now. I'd like to set it up like my current single
drive 133DMA configuration or must I use RAID with SATA?

Thank you.
 
Larry said:
Hi,

Here goes with a dumb question. Could I install just one SATA drive with
WIN98se or do I need two. I'd like to have the speed of SATA, but I can
only afford one drive right now. I'd like to set it up like my current single
drive 133DMA configuration or must I use RAID with SATA?

Thank you.
Click to expand...

You do not need RAID with SATA. As for speed, SATA is not really
faster than PATA, in that SATA's 150 MB/s and PATA's 133 MB/s are
both much faster than the STR of any available HD.

You can get some gain in access times with SATA because there is at
least one SATA HD with 10K RPM, while PATA HDs happen to max. out
at 7200 RPM, but better access times do not always translate into
higher STRs. And, those 10K RPM HDs have lower capacities and higher
prices than PATA HDs.

Personally, I suspect that you are jumping the gun by adding a SATA
card to a W9x PC. Consider waiting until you get another MoBo, and
get one with integral SATA.
 
Bob WIllard said:
You do not need RAID with SATA. As for speed, SATA is not really
faster than PATA, in that SATA's 150 MB/s and PATA's 133 MB/s are
both much faster than the STR of any available HD.
Click to expand...

Which is why those are called 'burst rates' for a purpose.
You can get some gain in access times with SATA because there is at
least one SATA HD with 10K RPM, while PATA HDs happen to max. out
at 7200 RPM,
Click to expand...
but better access times do not always translate into higher STRs.
Click to expand...

They never do as they are entirely different things. STRs are measured
using sequential transfers and access time doesn't feature in that at all.
Access time features heavily in random access transfers.
 
Folkert Rienstra said:
It isn't even faster than the 7200 rpm competition.
Access time is the Raptors forte, not STR.


Which are faster on average, with their slow zones better than half
the speed of the fastest zones compared to IDE's usual 1:2 ratio.
10krpm SCSI's access times are still slightly better than the Raptor's.


For one drive only.


But 2 on the same channel can.


Nope, those are faster than the STR.
It's called 'Sustained' Transfer Rate for a reason.


Yes, they can. Seektime doesn't feature in STR.

Also, usuable bandwidth is 90% of the interface rate, so we are talking
60 and 30MB/s here. And with 2 drives in RAID -or used simultaniously-
the bandwidth is shared between the 2 drives on a channel in which case
we are talking 30MB/s and 15 MB/s respectively per drive.
Click to expand...

Long and interesting thread...

Question:
I'm setting up a system with 2xRAID 0 Raptors + 1 x 80gig 7200rpm-8meg
cache.
Is there an advantage to putting the XP OS on the RAID part and using
the 80 gig drive for RAID backup?

Or should I put the OS on the non-RAID drive and use the remainder as
backup. The rationale for this would be that it's still possible to
access the OS from DOS or command console in the event of an OS
failure, where this can't be done if the OS is on the RAID drives.

Thanks.
 
Ron said:
Long and interesting thread...

Question:
I'm setting up a system with 2xRAID 0 Raptors + 1 x 80gig 7200rpm-8meg
cache.
Is there an advantage to putting the XP OS on the RAID part and using
the 80 gig drive for RAID backup?
Click to expand...

Of course. Why else use Raptors if it wasn't for that?
Or should I put the OS on the non-RAID drive and use the remainder as
backup.
Click to expand...
The rationale for this would be that it's still possible to access
the OS from DOS or command console in the event of an OS
failure, where this can't be done if the OS is on the RAID drives.
Click to expand...

It's also possible when the MoBo supports firmware RAID.
 
Back
Top