Internal hard drives

[truckpuller]

My question is whats the differance between the sata's like the 1.5GB/s 3.0GB/s 6.0GB/s the reason i ask is because of my new build. I have an existing sata hard drive which i believe would be a 1.5GB/s and would that bottleneck my new build other than my poor video card.
GT240

ASrock 990FX extreme3 mobo

AMD FX Zanbieze 4core 3.8GHZ

650 watt Antec25 earthwatts psu

8Gb Gskill sniper ram

[stroyal]

Most hard drives don't even exceed the speed of SATA 1.5, or even IDE 100, say nothing to 133.

These are all electrical interface speeds, and have no real relation to mechanical speed ability, of the drive.
They can't turn much faster than 7200, with some of the fastest @ 10000, and 15000.
I'm pretty sure you don't want a drive turning 10000, or more.

No single mechanical drive can exceed SATA 3.0 AFAIK.

SATA6.0 can only be taken advantage of by SSDs.

I'm not a gamer, but some games need a fast hard drive, for scenery, I think, but most programs only access the HD when loading, if you have enough memory.


If you need a fast hard drive, go with a WD Caviar black, but the prices on hard drives are skyrocketing, because of the floods in Thailand.

There is always RAID0, to make 2 SATA 1.5s, a single 3.0

The gamers, should have more details, on what games, need the fast drives.

Of course fast drives, always help booting, and loading.

I run 2 SATA 1.5s in RAID0, myself.

[ShyguyXPC]

Most hard drives don't even exceed the speed of SATA 1.5, or even IDE 100, say nothing to 133.

These are all electrical interface speeds, and have no real relation to mechanical speed ability, of the drive.
They can't turn much faster than 7200, with some of the fastest @ 10000, and 15000.
I'm pretty sure you don't want a drive turning 10000, or more.

No single mechanical drive can exceed SATA 3.0 AFAIK. YET LOL

SATA6.0 can only be taken advantage of by SSDs. Running 3 or more standard drives in RAID 0 or 5 can exceed 3.0, but you need at least a good 3 or 4 to do it and they have to be top end drives

I'm not a gamer, but some games need a fast hard drive, for scenery, I think, but most programs only access the HD when loading, if you have enough memory.


If you need a fast hard drive, go with a WD Caviar black, but the prices on hard drives are skyrocketing, because of the floods in Thailand.

There is always RAID0, to make 2 SATA 1.5s, a single 3.0 if its 1.5 spec, its still 1.5 spec even running RAID 0, won't turn a 1.5 drive or two into a single 3.0. It will in general, double the read/write performance of just one drive, regardless of the SATA Spec, but only to the max that version spec can support

The gamers, should have more details, on what games, need the fast drives.

Of course fast drives, always help booting, and loading.

I run 2 SATA 1.5s in RAID0, myself.

tried to clear up some points there.

As to games, its hard to say, not all of us play every game, but in general I find that a lot of single player games can take advantage of faster drives.

Games like Elder Scrolls Oblivion, the new Skyrim I imagine will need fast drives, Two Worlds, and many other open world environment games, including the GTA and Saints Row type games.

I'm not sure on battlefield games really, I know you need a LOT of storage for custom maps and mods, but not sure on drive speed.

Ideally for any real gaming you'll want a 7200RPM drive regardless of its Cache, Read/Write speeds, capacity, etc

or if possible a couple 5400RPM drives in RAID 0 would be fine too.

like Stroyal I run (currently) a pair for SATA drives in RAID 0 for many of my games and some other software, but mine are SATA II or 3.0Gbps Spec, both have 16MB Cache and 7200RPM, 250GB x2 for a single 500GB array.

my new system is only currently going to be running a pair of drives, a 750GB Partitioned into 2 parts, one for Windows and frequent general use apps, the rest for games and software. And then a 1.5TB drive for storing/backing up stuff.

I plan on adding an SSD down the road, between now and spring hopefully, then I can install windows to it, format the old Windows install on the 750GB, and then merge it with the secondary partition for a full 750GB of storage for apps and games.

at some point if prices come back down on regular drives, I may get a 2nd 750GB 32MB Cache WD Black Series drive to pair with the current one, for RAID 0. I currently only have 6 SATA 3.0 ports on my new Mobo, 2 of which to be used by the external powered SATA Dock on my case, and the other for an Optical Drive.

Luckily I'll still have a couple PCIe x16 slots to use for drive controller for SATA III if needed.

[truckpuller]

I have 5 sata 3 6.0GB/s connectors on this mobo and 1 esata3 connector external. So i guess it would be wise to go with sata 3 6.0GB/s hard drive then.

[Chuckiechan]

Note on games...

On my BFBC2, I had a memory stick fail - I had 2 - 4gig sticks. So I had to remove one. I could tell zero difference in the game between 4 and 8 gigs of ram.

However, in BFBC before the last patch, flags were being taken by the guys with the SSD's, while my Western Digital 10K rpm Raptor poked along... The new patch, and BF3, hold you on until everyone is on board.

On BF3 & BFBC2, most of the current maps are loaded into Ram, afaik...

If you don't mind spending the money, I'd go with solid state. Thinks load really quickly!

[stroyal]

A mechanical SATA 6.0 hard drive is an oxymoron.

If the same drive is available in 3.0 and 6.0 for the same price, then you might as well get the 6.0.

The 6.0 will not be any faster than the 3.0, because, as I said, no mechanical drive can reach the speed of even a 3.0 interface. (you can only go as fast as the weakest link, and that is the spinning disk, and the read wright arm.

6.0 is for SSDs

[truckpuller]

I have a seagate 400Gb sata drive and im gona assume thats its sata2 3.0GB/s so this will work in the mobo then right. I dont know how to tell which sata it is but i will run with this assumption.

[stroyal]

I know a SATA 3.0 cable is a locking cable, but I'm not sure what the drive side looks like, as I don't have one at the moment.

I'll see what I can find.

[stroyal]

Looks like SATA 1.5.
Usually if it says just SATA, it is 1.5

That is still pretty fast.

https://www.avantidataproducts.com/p...ch/ST3400832AS

[truckpuller]

Ok my bad i was just looking at the jumper block on the back of the hard drive and it is a sata 2 3.0GB/s.

Thanks guys.

Oh can i use a sata 3 6.0GB/s cable on my sata 2?

[ShyguyXPC]

yes, they are backwards compatible, you won't see any performance increase or decrease.


as to the locking cables, those can be 3.0 or 6.0, even some 1.5 cables are lockable. there's also many 3.0 non lockable cables (Lockable just means they use a securing clasp design to prevent cable from coming loose, lockable cables came out after 3.0 came out, aside from that the cables are interchangeable from what I understand, you can use 1.5 cables for 3.0 and 6.0 drives just fine. Many 3.0 and 6.0 compatible drives don't even exceed 1.5 peak transfer rates for their sustained data rates, so no troubles with any version of cables actually)

[truckpuller]

Well it lives and breathing on its own, just ran windows assessment and it showed 5.8...the data disk transfer was only 5.8...processor was 7.2...ram was...7.6 ....graphics and gaming graphics was 6.8 ....so it looks like the down fall is the hardrive.

[ShyguyXPC]

don't bother with Windows Performance index crap, it ONLY pertains to how well windows will run with the hardware and has absolutely no bearing on any other software on the system and how it will run.


The amount of newegg reviews I read where someone rates something lower or comments on it based on that damned Windows Experience Index, makes me many times want to track them down and kick the a$$ like from "Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back" LMAO!!!

With that Index thing, you'll never get better than 5.8 - 5.9 unless your running a fast SSD anyways.

[truckpuller]

This hard drive was making noise(sounding like a coffee grinder at times) in the other setup and looks like best buy has a pretty good deal on a couple hard drives sata 2's i just may go pick one up
they got a seagate 1tb for like 89 bucks.

[ShyguyXPC]

sounds like a deal, considering HDD prices are so high, near impossible to find a good drive (7200RPM with 16MB Cache) for under $100, even 500GB models are more than that now.

[truckpuller]

We will see when we get there.

[truckpuller]

Well it was a great deal, i picked up a 1TB 32MBcache Seagate hard drive sata 2 for 54.95 from Best Buy.

[stroyal]

As much as I hate Worst Buy, that sounds pretty good, especially considering the HD shortage.

[stroyal]

tried to clear up some points there.

As to games, its hard to say, not all of us play every game, but in general I find that a lot of single player games can take advantage of faster drives.

Games like Elder Scrolls Oblivion, the new Skyrim I imagine will need fast drives, Two Worlds, and many other open world environment games, including the GTA and Saints Row type games.

I'm not sure on battlefield games really, I know you need a LOT of storage for custom maps and mods, but not sure on drive speed.

Ideally for any real gaming you'll want a 7200RPM drive regardless of its Cache, Read/Write speeds, capacity, etc

or if possible a couple 5400RPM drives in RAID 0 would be fine too.

like Stroyal I run (currently) a pair for SATA drives in RAID 0 for many of my games and some other software, but mine are SATA II or 3.0Gbps Spec, both have 16MB Cache and 7200RPM, 250GB x2 for a single 500GB array.

my new system is only currently going to be running a pair of drives, a 750GB Partitioned into 2 parts, one for Windows and frequent general use apps, the rest for games and software. And then a 1.5TB drive for storing/backing up stuff.

I plan on adding an SSD down the road, between now and spring hopefully, then I can install windows to it, format the old Windows install on the 750GB, and then merge it with the secondary partition for a full 750GB of storage for apps and games.

at some point if prices come back down on regular drives, I may get a 2nd 750GB 32MB Cache WD Black Series drive to pair with the current one, for RAID 0. I currently only have 6 SATA 3.0 ports on my new Mobo, 2 of which to be used by the external powered SATA Dock on my case, and the other for an Optical Drive.

Luckily I'll still have a couple PCIe x16 slots to use for drive controller for SATA III if needed.

I just noticed this.

I didn't mean to imply RAID0 would turn the drives into 3.0, I was only referring to the mechanical speed, 2 of the same drive would give you.

I don't think any 2 drives in RAID0, can reach the electrical speed of 3.0, but I haven't researched it. (unless the 2 drives are capable of 150Mbs)
(edit 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor, maybe)



I didn't think of more than 2 drives in RAID0 for SSD speed, good point.
The old brain, just doesn't work like it use to.
You would be approaching, or exceeding the cost of a single SSD, wouldn't you though. You would have much less storage on the SSD, at a similar price though.


I have wondered for a while, if you could design a mechanical drive, with like 10 disks, running in parallel, like RAID0.

My guess is you won't see much further development, on the mechanical side of hard drives, now that SSD are on the rise.
I could be wrong though.

[ShyguyXPC]

At the old HDD prices (before the Thailand floods), you could easily run 3x WD 500GB Black series, in RAID 0 and have near SSD performance, with 1.5TB of storage, for about what it costs for a 120-150 range SSD.