SATA drives?

garnold · Rated PG-13 Joined: 14 Apr 2003 Posts: 33

Has anyone had some time to work with these yet? Are they faster or is the wiring just more convenient? I need to build up a test server for some software. The box needs a drive so I was thinking of pulling one out of my new box and replacing it with one of these.

ldonyo · Posted: Wed, 03 Sep 2003 08:57:04 Post Subject:

They aren't that much faster, yet. The wiring is rather convenient, too, but a regular ribbon cable can be folded and tucked out of the way. All in all I really don't see that it would be worth the effort to swap the drives unless the drive you're replacing is dead.

knight0334 · Posted: Wed, 03 Sep 2003 14:54:16 Post Subject:

From what I read, the SATA 10RPM Raptors come close to SCSI U160 speeds and sustained throughput. Drive size is smaller due to the adaptation of SCSI design into ATA.

..I'm probably gonna order a couple Raptors in the next month or so.

dadx2mj · Posted: Wed, 03 Sep 2003 15:01:34 Post Subject:

Thing I dont like about SATA is that you can only put one drive per channel. Most Onboard SATA controllers only have two channels thus you can only have two drives. I understand most add on controllers have 4 channels tho.

knight0334 · Posted: Wed, 03 Sep 2003 20:20:00 Post Subject:

Promise has a number of PCI S-ATA controllers out, both 2 and 4 channel flavors.

IceNine · Posted: Tue, 09 Sep 2003 02:16:56 Post Subject:

I have a board that has SATA on it. However it also can be used as SATA in RAID. Oddly enough, the RAID capability isn't available until they release the drivers. Another reason you should check the box to make SURE you're getting what you want. Bang Head

garnold · Rated PG-13 Joined: 14 Apr 2003 Posts: 33

Well from what I'm getting from you folks right now buying a SATA drive might not be the best idea yet. Thanks for the info!

IceNine · Posted: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 20:28:06 Post Subject:

I won't do it any time soon. It just seems that there are too many problems people are having. I'd wait it out for a while first.