A few simple HDD questions

[gchanjam]

I'm going to be building a new C2D rig soon but there's some HDD questions I have.

First, SATA150 drives are compatible with SATAII ports right? The DS3 and the P965 seem only have SATAII ports so I wanted to make sure.

Second, how would an 8MB cache Raptor compare to a standard 7200RPM 16MB cache SATAII HD?

Finally, are Samsung HD's any good? There are a lot of 160GB and 250GB SATAII HDD's at the local Compusa closing sale for cheap but I've always tended to stick with WD and Seagate.

 

[PhoenixOrion]

Yes, you can plug in sata 1 or 2 drives into that port.

HD performance is comparable in "real-world experience." Although the 10,000rpm of a raptor definitely helps in like shaving off a second or two on application loading or during boot.

samsung hd's are very good especially their spinpoint series.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

SATA 3.0Gbps is backwards compatible with SATA-150.

Obligatory Raptor comment: The Raptor is not worth the money. You are better off buying two drives for the same money and running them in RAID 0.

Haven't owned any Samsung drives (all Seagate) - but then, haven't heard anything bad about them (unlike Maxtor).

 

[gchanjam]

Normally I would never spend the money on a Raptor but I can get the 74GB for only a few dollars more than I could get a 80GB SATAII drive so I was wondering if it was worth it.