why sata drive, why raid?

[drbob101]

I am going to build my first PC and I am gathering information on various topics. Here is the link for my general question on building this system:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?threadid=87246&goto=newpost

My question here is why should I get 1 or 2 HDs, , a sata drive or why not and why do a raid on them if I do get 2?

Here's where I am so far on the build specs:

http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishR.asp?ID=576822

Any comments on the equipment so far selected are greatly appreciated. I dont have fans or heat sinks selected, do I need any additional than what comes with the case?

Thank you

[Confused]

Very short answer. SATA is direction industry is moving toward. It offers faster transfer speed (150 with potential to 600 as opposed to max of 133 for IDE). Todays SATA drives are 150. I just built this PC using SATA and frankly if I was doing it over I would go with IDE. I just don't feel the small increase in speed was worth the extra cost.

RAID can be either SATA or IDE. Two most common uses of RAID is Mirrow and Stripe. Mirrow writes everything to two drives. Great for redundancy. Stripe alternates writing between two drives. Great for speed. Big drawback is if either drive fails all is lost. Either method works best with two matched drives. For speed and redundancy you can go with four identical drives in a Mirrow plus Stripe configuration.
Chas

[Blakhart]

Sata adds more scsi commands to what we call ide, wich is a subset of scsi commands. Sata also offers reduced cpu usage, kinda like scsi. Wether a drive reduces cpu usage or adds any new commands is pretty much up to the maker. I have a sata 120g 8mb cache drive and a 40g ata133 2mb cache drive, and in the same sys they run almost identicaly in benches. Wonder what is the limiting factor here?

[theENiGMA]

Bottom line, if you are one of the ppl that wants the absolute best now, and you have the money go with SATA. However, if you are pnching pennies, go with IDE. The performance upgrade is prolly not worth the extra money. SATA will become better in the future. It will also become cheaper. I would wait.
-KEiTH

[Rib5]

Bottom line, if you are one of the ppl that wants the absolute best now, and you have the money go with SATA. However, if you are pnching pennies, go with IDE. The performance upgrade is prolly not worth the extra money. SATA will become better in the future. It will also become cheaper.

I was on new egg and I was looking at drivers and there were some 7200rpm 80gig IDE drives and they all cost around 65$, and I found a SATA drive that is also 7200rpm 80gb and it is 75$. Mabey its just me but 15% or whatever it is doesnt seem like THAT much more that only power freaks would get. Is this just a crappy sata drive or do you also need some extra equipment to use a sata drive?

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Also just another question on HD (im a noob)
what is the
Average Seek Time, Buffer, and Cache on a hard drive?

[Confused]

Originally posted by Rib5
Is this just a crappy sata drive or do you also need some extra equipment to use a sata drive?

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Also just another question on HD (im a noob)
what is the
Average Seek Time, Buffer, and Cache on a hard drive?

You have to have a SATA controller to run them. Either a mobo with built in SATA or a PCI add on SATA controller such as those made by Promise. They currently have trasfer speed of 150 with plans to go to 600 whereas IDE tops out at 133.
Chas

[Rib5]

Would a RAID controller work as a SATA controller?

[Confused]

Originally posted by Rib5
Would a RAID controller work as a SATA controller?

RAID and SATA are different things. RAID uses two (or 4) matched drives for either redundancy, speed or both. With two drives they can be run in mirrow mode for redundancy or stripe mode for speed, with 4 drives you can have mirrow plus stripe. RAID can be run on either SATA or IDE if your mobo or controller card supports it.

SATA is a storage controller like IDE. SATA currently only supports HD's and optical drives still have to run on IDE controllers. SATA starts with a transfer speed of 150 with expectations of 600 whereas IDE tops out at 133.
Chas