SATA II/300 or Raptors?

[Last Starfighter]

My current rig is fairly pokey, FX 55 on ASUS SLi Deluxe mobo, 2GB RAM, twin 6800 GTs.

However, I have a fairly average PATA Maxtor HDD, decent cache / runs at 7K etc.

I'm looking to install a RAID0 array on the onboard SATA II controller. SATAII drives are now awailable from a couple of UK retailers.

I'd probably be putting 4 drives in, emphasis on speed not size.

I was discssing this with a mate and we couldnt decide if this would be better than his Raptor setup. - the 10k rpm 150 NCQ ones.

What do y'all reckon?

 

[Promethply]

Definitely go for the 74GB Raptor -- once you've used it, you won't want to go back to using a regular 7200RPM HD for a boot drive.

The Raptor74 runs quietly, as long as it's secured well in its drive cage, and runs cool as well.

 

[MobiusPizza]

Firstly installing 4 RAID0 drives you quadrople your chance of a failure endangering your data. Not many people would recommend RAID 0 setups as they merely increase desktop performance but increase risk of data loss a lot. I personally tried both, the increase in speed is not observable for my daily general desktop usage. The increase in performance is only visible if you frequently do demanding tasks such as video editing or acting as a server.

Raptor drivers are a lot faster in random access which would be quicker in scenario such as server, locating files, loading numerous small applications (multi-tasking), and heavily defragmentated HDD. The sequential transfer rate is almost the same with SATA HDDs.

There are no HDD currently can utilise the bandwidth of SATA-II, or even SATA-I. So basically there's no performance difference between SATA-I or SATA-II; except of course the larger platter density on SATA-II HDD would result in a higher transfer rate.

*EDIT*
People who used raptors had all said a noticeably decrease in loading time of applications and windows. If you want your computer to feel quicker, go for Raptors.

In your case Raptors would beat any combination of SATA-II drives solely because of the decreased access time, despite the transfer rate would be similar

 

[Last Starfighter]

reading the aritcle @ http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2101

it seems that the benefits of RAID0 are remarkably Negligible for a desktop.

There are no HDD currently can utilise the bandwidth of SATA-II, or even SATA-I. So basically there's no performance difference between SATA-I or SATA-II; except of course the larger platter density on SATA-II HDD would result in a higher transfer rate.

does the same apply if you use 4 drives - or does it not work that way?

 

[Promethply]

RAID0 benefits are its higher transfer rate, but it comes with a slight increase in seek times, and if you're planning to stripe 4 drives, 4X the chances of failure.

In a boot drive, seek times are more important than transfer rate, as it decrease boot times and applications load times (including games).

A single Raptor74 already have excellent transfer rates compared to current batches of 7200RPM drives, while its seek times are much quicker, making it unbeatable as an ATA boot drive.

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: Last Starfighter
reading the aritcle @ http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2101

it seems that the benefits of RAID0 are remarkably Negligible for a desktop.

There are no HDD currently can utilise the bandwidth of SATA-II, or even SATA-I. So basically there's no performance difference between SATA-I or SATA-II; except of course the larger platter density on SATA-II HDD would result in a higher transfer rate.

does the same apply if you use 4 drives - or does it not work that way?

A HDD doesn't utilise the full bandwidth of SATA. Then 4 HDD with 4 SATA cables would not either. You would have 4x the transfer rate because of the RAID 0 configuration. But you'd probably need to manipulate a large enough file to realise that.

I'd probably suggest that single Raptor or 2 Raptors RAID 0 is enough as your OS drive.
Because the aforementioned argument;
and an important aspect is that Raptors have server-class reliability compared to desktop drives. So if you are going for RAID you might consider Raptors instead.