Question about the Cheetah X15 drive...

[CBozeman]

Within the next few months I'll be building the "über" gaming/work machine, and I was wondering if I should even consider the Cheetah X15 drive from Seagate. Cost is relatively no option here - I have $2000.00 (US) to work with, so I can go all out on RAM (considering 1.0 GB of DDR SDRAM, though not sure what speed), and certainly a GeForce3 Ti500 of some sort, or whatever's out at the time that is better, and I've definitely decided to go with some speed AMD Athlon XP processor, and of course a Sound Blaster Audigy, but the real question is... would a 15,000 RPM hard drive help gaming at all? I'll be running Windows XP Professional on the machine as well, and it will also be used for minor image manipulation in Adobe Photoshop (probably nothing over 30 MB...).

Would the hard drive provide a viable speed increase or should I just go for very high quality IDE drives like IBM's DeskStar GXP series?

 

[sharkeeper]

I wouldn't recommend a 15,000 rpm drive just for the purpose of gaming. Since you're going to have 1024MB of RAM, any current ATA disk will be fine. The WDC 100BJ (8MB buffer) is the fastest non scsi drive, and has 100GB of space. That will be sufficient for your system without breaking the bank.

Cheers!

 

[SonicFlux]

Don't forget that an X15 comes with a 5year warranty!

Since you say money is not a big deal... and if you already have plenty of storage space available with older IDE drives, then upgrading to a 15k rpm scsi system will make for a better all-around computing experience, not just gaming. Your files save faster, games load faster, etc. Check out my gaming sig. I would say it's well worth it.

Rarely do you find someone who has switched to scsi and NOT said it was well worth it

 

[WebDude]

Well I assume you're talking about the Cheetah X15 36LP, and not the older, slower x15's. Yes, a great drive, but expensive, not to mention the cost of the ultra scsi controller card you're also going to need. For my money I would go with a quality IDE RAID 0 setup. For less money, you can get faster performance. And for just gaming, I don't think you need either. Just a good 7200 rpm ide drive will work real fine.

WebDude

 

[GoSharks]

<< For my money I would go with a quality IDE RAID 0 setup. For less money, you can get faster performance. >>



i doubt that, the x15 36lp will have slightly lower transfer rates, but the 2x faster seek times will kill the ide raid drives.

i would go with an x15-36lp for your boot and app drive, and get a cheap ide drive for your mp3 storage and whatever else.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

<<

<< For my money I would go with a quality IDE RAID 0 setup. For less money, you can get faster performance. >>



i doubt that, the x15 36lp will have slightly lower transfer rates, but the 2x faster seek times will kill the ide raid drives.

i would go with an x15-36lp for your boot and app drive, and get a cheap ide drive for your mp3 storage and whatever else. >>



ditto. ~3ms seek vs. ~8ms seek?????????

 

[Pabster]

IDE RAID sucks. A single X15-36LP usually will offer a faster STR than an IDE RAID 0 configuration (by itself) and has an incredible advantage in the seek/access arena. SCSI RAID is great, of course

 

[Jasmine]

I agree, RAID sucks. In 0 config, just twice as much chance of failure for minimal increase in overall speed.

I have seagate X15-36LP 15000. Once you try, theres no going back. Its like changing from 56k modem to t1 connection. Everything is just plain faster. I use IDE drives for storage, works out nicely.

BTW, Teckram 390U3W controller cards are a lot cheaper and just as good as Adaptec IMHO. Thats what I use.

Oh yeah, and 747 of DDR RAM, 1700+ Athlon, VIA 266A chipset, everything works very fast.

I think the biggest bottleneck in computers is the HD, so best get SCSI.

 

[LucJoe]

<< and of course a Sound Blaster Audigy >>



Why? Have you looked at the Hercules Game Theater XP. I have one and would recommend it over a Sound Blaster, although I have never used the new Audigy

Also, I agree with sharkeeper, the WD1000BB-SE seems to be the best IDE HD out now.

 

[CBozeman]

After doing a bit of research, I've pretty much found that most hardware enthusiasts will agree that the hard disk is the biggest bottleneck in terms of a system's overall performance... so armed with that fairly general consensus, and given the amount of money I have to work with, I'm really thinking the X15s are the way to go... now my only other question is this:

I know nothing at all about hooking up a SCSI hard drive and making it work properly. I've built probably 7 or 8 computers, but they were all using IDE-based storage devices. What are the differences in the SCSI technologies that the X15 drives use? I've seen something called "LVD". If someone could point me towards a primer for SCSI interfaces, or if you're feeling particularly bored, explain it here.

I'm also curious about which connection you'd use, and why?

Thanks in advance, and thanks for the responses already.

 

[EXman]

fast drives yes

 

[Deskstar]

No way to explain it all here. Try this link for a really great explanation and walk through.
Also remember when installing W2K, early during installation, you will be asked at the very bottom of the screen if you have any 3rd party controllers to install. You must press F6 so that you have the opportunity to install the driver for your SCSI card before win 2k fully installs (at least I did).
Here is the link:
SCSI Guide
SCSI is a bit of a pain to configure compared to IDE, but it is faster and more enjoyable once done. I have the older X15 (3.9ms seek time) and it is blazing fast. My SCSI HDD is for oper system and apps. I use RAID 1 IDE drives for all my data. As a result, I am more confident that my data is safe but still fast.
Good luck.

 

[SonicFlux]

If you buy a tekram DC-390U3W (I have one), do NOT press F6 when installing win2k/XP!!! It's on their FAQ page. Let windows install its own driver. Then you can go back and update to the tekram driver if you want.

 

[Pariah]

If you have a Tekram U160 card you have to hit F6 and have the driver on a floppy if you are installing win2k. You do not for WinXP as it has a driver built in.

 

[Cuular]

And if you use the adaptec 39160 or 29160 you don't need a floppy for either win2k or winxp. Drivers already there. Aside from setting the boot drive in the csci controllers bios and telling the mobo to boot scsi, it is a very painless and easy install. No different than IDE.

 

[Athlex]

One of the advantages of that Tekram board is that it uses and LSI Logic chip. I've heard very good things about them, especially the drivers vs. Adaptec who changes their core logic more frequently.
For SCSI cards, the Tekram DC-390U3W, LSI Logic 21040, and Adaptec 29160 all have the same features, 64bit PCI with 68 pin LvD connectors (internal and external) and 68 and 50 pin SE connectors. Of the three, the LSI card is the least expensive and would be my choice for good bang/buck ratio.

edit: spelling