Faster access drives

[Bruceh]

I have a Dell Dimension 4100 desktop system where I will be creating
large image files for Photoshop. Currently I have use a secondary
Maxtor Ultra DMA133 7200 RPM, 8.5ms seek drive for these files
and am finding very impatient with loading the files.

I'd like to step up to something faster and have done a little bit of
research. Many specs indicate theoretical thoughputs, but I
don't know whether they are numbers I can truly compare against
each other.

I'd like some assistance with what options I have and how they
compare. To toss out some options that I thought could be possible for me:
* Ultra160 SCSI (can't use Ultra320 adapter in my chassis)
* SATA 7,200 rpm drives
* SATA 10,000 rpm drives (just read about WD Raptor)
* RAID 0 (SCSI/EIDE/SATA)?
* Other?

Don't know if it matters but my PCI bus is 33MHz, v2.2.

Opinions?

TIA

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

I have a Dell Dimension 4100 desktop system where I will be creating
large image files for Photoshop. Currently I have use a secondary
Maxtor Ultra DMA133 7200 RPM, 8.5ms seek drive for these files
and am finding very impatient with loading the files.

Even defragged?

I'd like to step up to something faster and have done a little bit of
research. Many specs indicate

theoretical thoughputs,

There is no such thing, you have to be more specific.

but I don't know whether they are numbers I can truly compare against
each other.

I'd like some assistance with what options I have and how they
compare. To toss out some options that I thought could be possible for me:
* Ultra160 SCSI (can't use Ultra320 adapter in my chassis)

Recent 15krpm drives are a bit faster than 7.2k and 10k drives but not
that much to make a big difference.

* SATA 7,200 rpm drives

* SATA 10,000 rpm drives (just read about WD Raptor)

10krpm mostly differs in access time.

* RAID 0 (SCSI/EIDE/SATA)?

The only way to increase STR by a big enough margin to notice.

* Other?

Don't know if it matters but my PCI bus is 33MHz, v2.2.

It matters. STR will be limited by the PCI bus throughput.