Seagate 7200.10: 65MB/s?!

[Cuhulainn]

What is the problem here?

The rig:
E6400@2.7ghz
Gigabyte DS3
2GB ocz ram
320gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
x1900xt 512mb

I removed the jumper from the drive that supposedly limits speeds to SATA-I (1.5gb/s), and saw no difference in speed. Any suggestions?

 

[Cuhulainn]

Okay, I found Anands review of this drive and saw they got almost identical numbers. It still doesn't make much sense to me though. Shouldn't removing a jumper that was keeping me at SATA-I provide some increase in performance? Sorry if I'm just being stupid about this, but I don't get it.

 

[Mark R]

Originally posted by: Cuhulainn
Shouldn't removing a jumper that was keeping me at SATA-I provide some increase in performance? Sorry if I'm just being stupid about this, but I don't get it.

No. SATA-1 is massive overkill compared to the performance of hard drives. Hard drives don't get anywhere close to maxxing out a SATA connection. As this isn't a bottleneck, upgrading it won't help.

SATA2 provides some newer features, but the higher speed isn't a particularly useful one for most people.

The main benefit of the higher speed is in allowing SATA 'hubs' where you can plug 4 drives into 1 SATA port. However, these hubs are very rare, and expensive - so no one uses them.

 

[mechBgon]

Yeah, you're up against the limitations of how fast the drive can sustain a feed from the platters. Here's an older 15000rpm drive for comparison, you can see it's not much higher (not on STR, that is): http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/mechBgon/Cheetah15k3.gif

 

[Bob Anderson]

The only benefits of SATA I or II interface technology (currently) are the thinner cables and its hot swappability. Also, there are no jumpers to set for a master/slave installation, since all SATA drives are masters.

My SATA I Seagate 80 GB 7200.07 reads at 58 MB/s, for example, so you are doing better than me, because you have a larger drive (yours has more recording density for a given area).

That's why your speeds are faster than mine; it is not a result of SATA II vs SATA I.

-Bob