High Speed Drives - Recommendation

[EagleKeeper]

Client has handed me an open PO.

I need to spec two or three identical systems that are used for heavy data processing built around disk I/O

A 200 GB data base has to get sliced and diced in preparation for compression of real time use.

At present it takes 8-10 hours on a laptop. (4800 RPM) and the task manager at times will not even respond (example of the loading).

Majority of the processing is done by programs outside of my control w/ respect to optimization.



My gut feeling is that I want 2 super high speed drives in each system. One for the input side and another will be on a separate channel for output.

I will have a third small "normal' drive for the OS, etc.

They will be XP boxes.

The box (CPU/Memory/Video) is not the issue.

What drives should I look for that will have the the below specs for the slicing/dicing.
Speed should be 10K or 15K RPM that have at least 500GB capacity.

 

[Harvey]

If cost truly is no object, it sounds like it's time for solid state drives.

STEC Mach 8 Solid State Drives:

STEC MACH8 Solid State Drive is revolutionizing the storage world by delivering to the users the ultimate level of reliability and performance in a fully integrated device.

At the heart of the MACH8 Solid State Drive there is STEC's leading edge controller able to address multiple flash chips simultaneously to achieve up to 100MB/s sustainable Read/Write speed.

The MACH8 product is embedding the Full Data Path Protection, STEC's proprietary set of algorithms capable to protecting the data wherever they are temporary or permanently stored.

MACH8IOPS 5-Year Warranty (see warranty terms)
MACH8MLC 3-Year Warranty (see warranty terms)
MACH8 3-Year Warranty (see warranty terms)

• Industriy leading Solid State Disk
• Patented Full Data Path Protection
• Low power consumption
• Non-volatile memory and no moving parts
• Two Operating Temperature supported:
  • Commercial Temperature: 0 to 70C
  • Industrial Temperature: -40C to 85C
• Drop-in replacement for traditional 1.8?, 2.5? and 3.5? drives
• Support Serial ATA and Parallel ATA
• Sustainable Sequential Read and Write speed up to 100MB/s
• Optional MACH8IOPS version for IOPS hungry applications

They list 250 and 500 GB drop-in replacements for 2.5" and 3.5" SATA and PATA form factors with Read/Write performance spec'd at 90 - 100MB/sec.

 

[Peter]

Or, if funding doesn't allow, you want Seagate's latest Cheetah 15k series drives. They're by far the fastest traditional HDDs, with up to 168 MB/s actual (!) transfer rate and the fastest possible seek times.