Barracuda 7200.9 SATA 16 MB 300GB 3Gb/s - what's better?

[Dave (from the UK)]

I'm looking for a SATA disk to match up with a dual Opteron Tyan Thunder K8WE
(S2895) motherboard with dual Ultra 320 SCSI controllers and SATA-II

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we.html

The system will run Solaris x64. I want it as a workstation, not a server.

Is this a good choice? Can you suggest something better at similar price (i.e.
not the WD Raptors)

Model Number:ST3300622AS
Capacity:300 GB
Speed:7200 rpm
Cache: 16 Mb
Interface:SATA 3Gb/s
http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/discsales/marketing/detail/0,1081,719,00.html

Hard disk size is not that important - even 160 GB will be fine.
--
Dave K MCSE.

MCSE = Minefield Consultant and Solitaire Expert.

Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: month-year@domain. Hitting reply will work
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[Peter]

I'm looking for a SATA disk to match up with a dual Opteron Tyan Thunder

K8WE (S2895) motherboard with dual Ultra 320 SCSI controllers and SATA-II

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we.html

The system will run Solaris x64. I want it as a workstation, not a server.

Is this a good choice? Can you suggest something better at similar price
(i.e. not the WD Raptors)
Model Number:ST3300622AS
Capacity:300 GB
Speed:7200 rpm
Cache: 16 Mb
Interface:SATA 3Gb/s
http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/discsales/marketing/detail/0,1081,719,00.html

Hard disk size is not that important - even 160 GB will be fine.

If it wasn't for *nix OS, I would suggest to get two decent SATA drives in
RAID0 (BIOS).
Otherwise you may be happier with U320 SCSI drive.

 

[Fred]

If it wasn't for *nix OS, I would suggest to get two decent SATA drives in
RAID0 (BIOS).
Otherwise you may be happier with U320 SCSI drive.

Is the boost in performance noticeable?

 

[Peter]

I'm looking for a SATA disk to match up with a dual Opteron Tyan Thunder

Is the boost in performance noticeable?

Extent of boost depends on performance measures.

 

[Dave (from the UK)]

If it wasn't for *nix OS, I would suggest to get two decent SATA drives in
RAID0 (BIOS).
Otherwise you may be happier with U320 SCSI drive.

RAID 0 support will be available soon in Solaris. Apparently it is in Solaris
Express, which is a pre release / beta. And someone has just posted elsewhere
that with the upcoming ZFS

http://www.sun.com/2004-0914/feature/

apparently RAID support of hardware will not be necessary.

But I must admit I am still tempted by SCSI. The access times are much shorter
on them - as little as 3.5 ms on some disks and perhaps less on others.

--
Dave K MCSE.

MCSE = Minefield Consultant and Solitaire Expert.

Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: month-year@domain. Hitting reply will work
for a couple of months only. Later set it manually.

 

[Dave (from the UK)]

If it wasn't for *nix OS, I would suggest to get two decent SATA drives in
RAID0 (BIOS).
Otherwise you may be happier with U320 SCSI drive.

BTW, I forgot to ask. What would be the "decent SATA drive" you suggest?

Assuming one did not go down the route of SCSI or RAID, what is the best
affordable SATA drive? Is there an obvious disk that would be better than the
Seagate in the subject line?

--
Dave K MCSE.

MCSE = Minefield Consultant and Solitaire Expert.

Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: month-year@domain. Hitting reply will work
for a couple of months only. Later set it manually.

 

[Rob Hemmings]

BTW, I forgot to ask. What would be the "decent SATA drive" you suggest?

Assuming one did not go down the route of SCSI or RAID, what is the best
affordable SATA drive? Is there an obvious disk that would be better than the
Seagate in the subject line?

Hitachi Deskstar 7K500. Fantastic! 2TB here working quiet, cool and FAST!
http://www.storagereview.com/php/benchmark/bench_sort.php
Ignore any "Deathstar" comments that may appear, as that problem only
affected
a few old (60 & 75GXP series) models, many years ago.

 

[Odie]

Hitachi Deskstar 7K500. Fantastic! 2TB here working quiet, cool and FAST!
http://www.storagereview.com/php/benchmark/bench_sort.php
Ignore any "Deathstar" comments that may appear, as that problem only
affected
a few old (60 & 75GXP series) models, many years ago.

Actually, Deskstars from even two years ago were problematic.

However, the 7K500 is probably not a bad drive if it is kept cool.
Certainly better than its older brothers and sisters. I may even
consider trying some out myself.


Odie

 

[John Weiss]

BTW, I forgot to ask. What would be the "decent SATA drive" you suggest?

Assuming one did not go down the route of SCSI or RAID, what is the best
affordable SATA drive? Is there an obvious disk that would be better than the
Seagate in the subject line?

Depends on the definition of "affordable" and the size requirement...

The WD Raptor 150 may suit you for performance, but not for price or size.
Otherwise, the Seagate is as good as any; I have the IDE version in my external
backup setup.

 

[Eric Gisin]

A workstation should have a 10K drive. It can be the WD SATA Raptor or SCSI.

RAID 0 is pointless for the OS drive, UNIX or Windows. I/O is mostly random.

 

[Rod Speed]

A workstation should have a 10K drive.

Depends entirely on how its used. Wouldnt do a damned thing here,
because I have plenty of physical ram and dont ever turn it off.

It can be the WD SATA Raptor or SCSI.

It can be basic PATA or SATA.

RAID 0 is pointless for the OS drive, UNIX
or Windows. I/O is mostly random.

Doesnt need 10K drives either.

 

[Dave (from the UK)]

...



Depends on the definition of "affordable" and the size requirement...

As stated in the original post, the Raptors were I feel too expensive.

The WD Raptor 150 may suit you for performance, but not for price or size.

Size is not too important really. 150 GB would be fine. Even 80 would do me for
a long time I feel. I have about 100 GB on another UNIX box and I see no reason
this one should need any more.

Otherwise, the Seagate is as good as any; I have the IDE version in my external
backup setup.

Thanks - based on what I'd found out before, the price and what you said, I
decided to order one yesterday.

I might actually put the operating system on a small SCSI disk for reliability
more than anything else. The machine will run 24/7 and I get the feeling SATA
drives are not as reliable as SCSI especially for continuous use.


--
Dave K MCSE.

MCSE = Minefield Consultant and Solitaire Expert.

Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: month-year@domain. Hitting reply will work
for a couple of months only. Later set it manually.