Need assistance in choosing the quicker drive

[357mag]

I'd like to pick up a couple of new hard drives. I want a 32MB Cache. These are the two I'm looking at:

On the Seagate ES.2 250 GB Drive:

Data Transfer Rate is 1287Mbps Maximum Internal/300Mbps Maximum External

On the Seagate 7200.11 500 GB Drive:

Data Transfer Rate is 105Mbps Maximum Internal/300Mbps Maximum External

What I'd like to know is are both of these pretty much equal in terms of speed? Or is one faster than the other? I was looking at the difference in internal data transfer speed and became confused as to why the ES.2 has such a greater speed than the 7200.11.

And does that mean it would be the better choice to maximize performance. Cost wise they are only about $5 difference.

Finally I know the 7200.11 can operate at either SATA I or SATA II. I was wondering about the other one.

[Paul Komski]

I think both are very comparable and that you are misquoting the 7200.11's 105Mbps as Maximum Internal when in fact the 105Mbps is the max sustained data transfer rate; almost identical to the ES.2 drive.

[357mag]

I'm gonna go with the 7200.11. Lots of good reviews. I was pondering investing in one of those 10K VelociRaptors. But after doing extensive research on them, the general consensus is that any performance benefit you get is rather small. I record into my computer and even for us musicians a 10K drive does not do much for you compared to a 7200 drive.

As far as the specs I outlined, I copied them directly from the NewEgg Spec Sheet. So if something is amiss there, NewEgg did it. Not me.

[Paul Komski]

I was pondering investing in one of those 10K VelociRaptors. But after doing extensive research on them, the general consensus is that any performance benefit you get is rather small. I record into my computer and even for us musicians a 10K drive does not do much for you compared to a 7200 drive.
Don't agree but perhaps it depends on what sort of activities you are going to commonly perform. For sustained data transfer operations the velociraptors really rock! The jump from 7.2 to 10 k rpm is really very significant.

Don't know about NewEgg but I looked at the Seagate DataSheets
7200.11 DataSheet pdf (http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_barracuda_7200_11.pdf)
ES.2 DataSheet pdf (http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_barracuda_es_2.pdf)

Even 1.5 Velociraptors have sustained speeds 20% faster (http://techreport.com/articles.x/14583/2) than the 3.0 Seagates referenced.

[357mag]

Doggone it I still have the urge to try one of those Velociraptors. I've never used a 10K drive so I don't know when you boot up and you start monkeying with your apps if the experience is "Wow! What a difference!" Or is it more like "It's a bit faster but not much..."

I know the people that write the reviews really talk them up, but that probably is to be expected. For all I know they get paid to write favorable reviews.

[mjc]

I haven't actually used a 10k IDE/SATA drive, but I have run 10k SCSI drives and yes, there is a bit of WOW! factor (and played with some 15k SCSI...).

[357mag]

What about the connections? I thought I read that the Velociraptors do not follow SATA connections standards. I saw a photo of the end of one and all I saw was one connection.

Currently with my SATA 7200's I got a data cable I hook up then the power cable as well.

If I got one of these Velociraptors will it connect the same?

[Paul Komski]

http://www.wdc.com/global/images/products/rgt/300/wdfDesktop_GLFS.jpg

Looks normal to me.

[357mag]

Doesn't look normal to me. All I see is one connection. Perhaps the data connection. I don't see the power connection.

If the photo was lighter maybe I could.

[mjc]

How about this?

[357mag]

Thank You. Now I can see what's going on.

[Paul Komski]

If by any chance a case does not have a SATA power connector one can use a molex-to-sata adapter (http://www.satacables.com/html/molex-to-sata-power-15-pin-ada.html).