SCSI to ?

[bhos]

So I've been using scsi for forever in my desktop, but might be upgrading my system soon. Currently running a pair (no raid) of Fujitsu MAU3147's on an Adaptec 39320 plugged into a supermicro c2sbx with 133 pci-x. Works great, but the drives are getting old (> 45K hours), newer enthusiast motherboards don't come with pci-x slots, and I don't feel like forking out a couple hundred for a pci-e scsi controller. System is used for gaming, lightweight programming, minor video editing/encoding and everyday productivity stuff on Win7 and various *nix.

What can I move to for main storage that won't be disappointing performance-wise? Will sata2 raptors or WD blacks suffice? What about the newer 600gb sata3 raptors? Or do I need to go to an ssd for OS/progs and sata secondary storage? I don't want to spend more than ~ $300 for new disks with total capacity somewhere around 500G. Hoping to hear from people who've made this transition, thanks.

 

[brandonb]

What speed were your SCSI drives? 15k, 10k, 7.2k?

Edit - Googled, 15k drives.

 

[bhos]

15k u320 147GB, very similar in performance to a seagate cheetah 15K4 series, maybe a little faster, ~3.5 ms seek.

http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200411/20041123MAU3147NP_8.html

 

[Nothinman]

SSD for OS and SATA for data is probably the simplest solution. Even with the higher density platters and such in newer SATA drives I doubt they would still have the same smooth feel while multitasking heavily.

 

[Emulex]

SAS is similar to U320 LVD- Sata is not as resilient and half-duplex and not differential signalling.

There's a reason why nobody uses SATA drives for mainline storage - the interface is not as resilient (soft/phys). Many folks are moving from FC drives to SAS - it's that good.