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Fast HD Access

  • 21-03-2003 4:43pm
    #1
    Mr E
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 55,525 ✭✭✭✭


    Hi folks,

    I need some suggestions for getting as-fast-as-possible hard drive access. What are the fastest drives on the market? Is SCSI still recommended for quick access?

    TIA,
    Dave.


Comments

  • #2
    KdjaCL
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,346 ✭✭✭✭KdjaCL


    Good Q.

    Be interesting to see some of the replies.
    I would say there are better maybe not faster IDE HDs around that will do as good a job as SCSI without the hassle of having SCSI.

    SCSI i think still is the fastest disk access you can get but IDE is catching up.

    kdjac


  • #3
    BigEejit
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,739 ✭✭✭BigEejit


    I think there will be confusion here if something isn't cleared up right away ... the access time of a drive is directly related to its rotational speed, so a 15K rpm drive will have faster access ... measure in milli seconds .... what I think you are asking is how fast you can throw around data, which is measured in megabytes per second ...

    On both counts SCSI wins ... we have Dell Poweredges here with U320 15K RPM drives ... incredibly fast .. the downside is the cost of the feckers .. you cant get close to this performance with any IDE solution (outside of striping a heap of them and a REALLY good controller)


  • #4
    Mr E
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 55,525 ✭✭✭✭Mr E


    ...what I think you are asking is how fast you can throw around data, which is measured in megabytes per second ...

    Correct, BigEejit. Although I presume a combination of both will lead to better overall performance.

    - Dave.


  • #5
    KdjaCL
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,346 ✭✭✭✭KdjaCL


    SCSI is faster but at a cost, some IDE HDs are catching up with the use of new controllers but still lag behind SCSI.

    If you can afford it and really need it go for SCSI.

    kdjac


  • #6
    BigEejit
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,739 ✭✭✭BigEejit


    You'd be surprised how fast a bunch of IDE drives striped can be (raid 0 or raid 0+1), I dont think that IDE drives have on board XOR for parity generation like a lot of SCSI drives do, so that means that protection is probably best done with mirroring (controller based xor can be very slow)....

    I have no idea about serial ata, that has reputedly got some fairly good bandwidth, but I dunno about availablility of drives or of controllers if you want to raid them....

    [edit]info about raid is available here , as well as some tools for measuring bandwidth[/edit]

    [edit again]Some more info: U320 drives cost a flippin fortune - €1071 for a 10krpm u320 seagate 146GB drive with 8mb on board cache ...... but a 160GB, ata-133 7200 rpm (no ata 10k rpm drives on Komplett) with 8mb on board costs €203.... there is no fibre channel drives there either and I know for a fact that most of the high end enterprise type storage arrays now use fibre channel arrays, because of speed and easier cabling ..... U320 controllers go for incredible amounts as well, you really are paying through the nose for the performance ....
    I'd say have a look around for U160 kit, thats probably faster than any of the ATA type drives and it would cost much less than the U320 stuff [/edit again]


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  • #7
    BigEejit
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,739 ✭✭✭BigEejit


    You could think about buying U160 kit second hand ... a 29160 wont cost more than €90 on ebay (make sure you get a cable with that board), the drives are a bit more problematic, cost depends on capacity and rpm's, also you have to trust that it will be packed properly, if you can be sure, you can get them cheap .... or for even cheaper get a SCA (single connector attach) U160 drive ... an adaptor (just to a search for U320 on ebay) costs about €20 delivered ....
    The next thing to think about is bandwidth on your motherboard, 32 bit 33MHz pci slot (standard in most desktop puters) can only deliver approx 140MB/s (correct me if I'm wrong but its there or thereabouts +/- 10MB/s) ... but if you have a 64 bit slot running at 66MHz you'll have 450MB/s or thereabouts ... (the 29160 is a 64bit card, but it will fit into a 32 bit slot no worries - you wont even need a hammer to get it in there!)

    If you want new kit: I just saw that a seagate S-ATA drive is working at 150MB/s ... purty good performance, raid a few of them suckers up and you'll be steaming along ... tidier cabling as well!!


  • #8
    Mr E
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 55,525 ✭✭✭✭Mr E


    OK, we've established that SCSI = fastest.

    What are the best brands of IDE drives? Are some noticably faster than others?


  • #9
    KdjaCL
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,346 ✭✭✭✭KdjaCL


    What do you need it for ???

    Like Video editing is worth getting the SCSI as its an investment of sorts.
    If tis a server RAID is the way to go.
    If its just having the fastest cos its out then buy the most expensive IDE on Komplett witht he fastest RPM and serial ATA and a damn good mobo that supports serial ATA.

    kdjac


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