alpha0ne

Fastest and best pair of drives I have ever bought

Might even buy 2 more soon if someone will buy my very underpriced OCZ 3200EL R2 TCCD

RodneyJM

OK, back with Maxtor & Intel technology combined on the ICH7 southbridge of the P5WD2 premium mobo. I believe 2 drives is a good compromise with Raid 0, you get benefits and reduce chance of mechanical failure...

Attached Images

	HD Tach v3.0.1.0 & 4.1ghz cpu utilization for Raid 0 with 8mb files.JPG (102.5 KB, 27 views)
	HD Tach v3.0.1.0 & 4.1ghz cpu utilization for Raid 0 @ 32mb files.JPG (103.2 KB, 14 views)

King_sob

I'm very much thinking about getting 2 of these drives for my MSI neo2 or DFI NF3 ultra-D (DFI wont run my ram at T1 hoping MSI will).

Now it's 2 of these drives or 1 74gig Raptor. What the problem is that i've never raided a HDD in my life. So I don't understand how and what happens when I do.

So can you guys plz fill me in. If I raid these 2 do I get a total amount of space 80 + 80

Does windows only see the 2 drives as 1 drive ? and what gains do I get. Im going to go with Raid 0 as thats what everyone is doing

the _rick

ok, firstly when raided, windows sees them only as 1 drive with the combined capacity (minus a little, my 2 x 80 comes up as ~153) when you have 2 or more drives raided (0) the performance is much faster than a single drive, think of it as the two drives sharing the information, thus faster access.

secondly, is the NF3 chipset SATAII capable? i just checked the NF3 Ultra-d and its not so the performance would down a little on what is here (or the 2x thread that's here also) we're all on NF4 chipsets/the SLi-DR boards.

sammyko

Hi guys,
I've got a few questions to ask:
1. heading says about Hitachi 7k80 as being SATA II with NCQ but none of the
computer shop's sites says anything about NCQ. Even "Hitachi" site has the following info:

Deskstar 7K80


Highlights
Capacity - 40GB, 80GB
Rotational Speed - 7200 RPM
Interface standard - SATA 3.0Gb/s (Serial) and ATA Ultra 133 (Parallel)
ATA-7 streaming feature set
Average seek time - 8.8 ms
RoHS Compliant ¹

More product information
General specification information (Datasheet)
Jumpers and configuration
Electrical interface
Mechanical
Technical Library documentation

Technologies and white papers
TrueTrack™ Technology
Fluid dynamic bearing spindle motors
AFC Media - Extending the Limits of Longitudinal Recording
Giant magnetoresistive (GMR) head technology
Partial Response Maximum Likelihood (PRML)
Load / unload technology

Feature and Benefits
Performance

* High interface transfer rate
* 8MB buffer size (80GB SATA)
* ATA-7 Streaming Feature Set



* Faster system boot-up
* Quicker screen refreshes
* Faster data processing
* Improved performance for AV storage applications

Capacity

* 80 GB and 40 GB



* Most popular capacity points

Reliability

* Leading low power
* Head Load/unload
* ECC and CRC protection
* Optional low-power mode
* Internal thermal sensor



* Cooler system operation
* Enables lower cost power supply and fan
* Protects disk during non-operation
* Reduces power during idle periods
* Data integrity enhanced throughout circuits
* Furthur reduces power requirement
* Reduces system heat/cooling requirements
* Improves data integrity

Acoustics

* Low acoustic levels



* Quieter system operation

Integration

* SATA 3.0 Gb/s interface



* Backwards compatible with SATA 1.5 Gb/s
* Thinner and longer cabling for easier routing

¹ RoHS refers to the European Commission's RoHS directive for eliminating certain hazardous materials in the manufacturing of electronic equipment.


Am I missing something???

2. Has anyone tried or, if not, what do you think of using instead of 7k80
Seagate drives such as:

Seagate ST3120813AS Baracuda 7200.9 120GB 7200rpm, SATAII 300, 8mb Buffer, NCQ NEW @ ~$129-00
or
Seagate ST3808110AS Baracuda 7200.9 80GB SATAII 300, 7200rpm, 8mb Buffer, NCQ @ ~ $99-00

both SATA II with NCQ.

Any thoughts, suggestions etc.

Thank you very much in advance.


Sammy.

alpha0ne

Never used the new Seagates Sammy but a few sites I have seen mention about 10% worse performance than the last models (cant remember ware I saw this )

Why dont you buy a couple and do a review

RodneyJM

These Maxtor DM10's are good value for money when raided & fine tuned.

Attached Images

Sandra File system benchmark @ 4.2ghz & ICH7R raid 0 a.JPG (113.3 KB, 23 views)

IKT

thats right, back up when I took a look at the new samsungs, they were pretty critical of seagate at the same time.