Caviar: SE or RE?

[Computer-Ed]

Okay the first thing I would suggest is forget the RAID. Unless you are doing MASSIVE file manipulation such as Video editting then RADI 0 only looks great on benchmarks. In real life the performance gain is MINOR at best and very hard to notice. Additionally for this minor gain you actually double your chances of a hardware failure causing you to lose all your data.

Now the one exception i have seen to this is video editting. Then the RAID 0 shines as it can actually stretch it's legs and show what it can do. In other uses the RAID just does not deliver enough to be worth the trouble.

[gvblake22]

I have a RAID 0 setup with two 74GB 8MB Raptors and I can tell you that it is not a huge difference compared to a single Raptor. I think I can notice a difference, but it is not worth the extra cost of two high-end drives.

[robodude666]

WOW! I left for like an hour and so many replies! Thanks!!

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Yes, an image is an image no matter how you slice it (the hard drives don't care). An image with a Windows installation, songs, pictures, documents, favorites, etc should still work just fine.

Good to know :)

Originally Posted by Panda Man

Oh no, you can restore it to the RAID if you want, I just figured that if one drive failed you wouldn't want to try and restore it to to both drives :P

Also, I wouldn't trust winxp's imaging (if it does have it, I've never seen it, nor wouldn't trust it), I'd think you would be much better off plunking down $30 and getting acronis

EDIT - My maxtor gives me about 66 MB/s last time I tested it. I need to test it again.

Oh no, of course I would get a decent backup program. I might get an external HDD/NAS that includes its own "one touch" backup program.

Originally Posted by onebxr

Robo,
I know you asked about the caviar line but I would like to tell you about a little startup company called samsung. I currently have 4 of the spinpoint series drives with another in the mail. These drives are reliable, cheap and are pretty fast. Just a little more info to screw your buying descision up.
-1

Originally Posted by TWBalls

They're pretty quiet drives too.

They may be, but I don't like samsung... I had one of their cellphones before and the paint came off fast and buttons were acting funny after a few months. Although its far better than the moto razr, or any moto phone...

Originally Posted by Computer-Ed

Okay the first thing I would suggest is forget the RAID. Unless you are doing MASSIVE file manipulation such as Video editting then RADI 0 only looks great on benchmarks. In real life the performance gain is MINOR at best and very hard to notice. Additionally for this minor gain you actually double your chances of a hardware failure causing you to lose all your data.

Now the one exception i have seen to this is video editting. Then the RAID 0 shines as it can actually stretch it's legs and show what it can do. In other uses the RAID just does not deliver enough to be worth the trouble.

I don't do video editing but I do photoshoping from time to time and deal with somewhat large files. I might be doing video editing in the future though, but I would get a new PC before then anyway...

Originally Posted by gvblake22

I have a RAID 0 setup with two 74GB 8MB Raptors and I can tell you that it is not a huge difference compared to a single Raptor. I think I can notice a difference, but it is not worth the extra cost of two high-end drives.

Well, thats the thing. I am not getting two raptors. They cost too much and the performance boost you get from spending $200-400 on them unless it is for a benchmarking rig, which mine isnt. I simply wanted to show people that the KA3 MVP board can OC and I think I showed that from a X2 3800+ 2.0 to 2.7 OC....
I want to get two cheap drives and RAID them which would be about 1.5 raptors with a higher latency. You also have the 8MB raptor, the 16MB cache raptor goes a little faster and the Raptor X 150GB goes a little faster than 16MB 74GB drive...

Originally Posted by TWBalls

I vote RE.

I've had arrays with both SE and RE. RE gives me less of a headache.

Supposedly, the firmware they have is more suited for RAID arrays than their SE line. They're also considered to be their 'enterprise' class of drives, so I would hope that they're made with higher quality components.

***edit***
I see you're also thinking about Barracudas. I'd go with those over either of these two... but then I'm a huge Seagate whore. ;)

I see. What type of speeds were you getting on your RAID (0?) of SEs and for the REs? I don't really like the barracudas. I think they look ugly :( The Caviars are nice and black!

Hmmm.... 2x 250GB Caviar RE would cost me 145.98 (3.425GB/$) and 2x 160GB would cost me $119.98 (2.667GB/$). Not to mention shipping... Two Caviar SE 80GB would cost me $40 (4GB/$) + $4 for train ride to and back.

As for the 3x barracuda.. I made a mistake :( It was 3x Caviar SE 320GB for $100 (9.6GB/$ :|)... not barracuda >_< Although I would have no use for 3x 320GB HDDs haha. Even if I get a 4th for a RAID 0+1 array, it would be a waste of HDD space. Not to mention the extra cable mess, heat and noise. Although I could get a RAID card that supports RAID 5 and get speed + fault tolerance! But im dead ass broke >_< And saving for LC.

P.S. onebxr, why do you always seem to end your replies with "-1" ? Do you have your own built in error handling system? I use return -1; in my programs when theres an error or something gone wrong.


uhhhh *sigh*

[TWBalls]

Originally Posted by robodude666

I see. What type of speeds were you getting on your RAID (0?) of SEs and for the REs? I don't really like the barracudas. I think they look ugly :( The Caviars are nice and black!

I dunno. I didn't benchmark.

Ugly? They look like a normal drive to me. :P

Originally Posted by robodude666

They may be, but I don't like samsung... I had one of their cellphones before and the paint came off fast and buttons were acting funny after a few months. Although its far better than the moto razr, or any moto phone...

The Samsung phones I've had have been OK... They just didn't get as good of reception as my Nokia did. And, it doesn't take much to be better than Motorola phones. ;)

Anyway, if all you're doing is a simple RAID0, the SE's should be fine. If you're doing bigger arrays like RAID 5 or 10, then go w/ RE.

[robodude666]

Originally Posted by TWBalls

I dunno. I didn't benchmark.

Ugly? They look like a normal drive to me. :P

The Samsung phones I've had have been OK... They just didn't get as good of reception as my Nokia did. And, it doesn't take much to be better than Motorola phones. ;)

Anyway, if all you're doing is a simple RAID0, the SE's should be fine. If you're doing bigger arrays like RAID 5 or 10, then go w/ RE.

They have this weird shape.

Good point Motorola really sucks.. I used to love their phones until I got one and after that I hated them. Especially after I got a second motorola phone. EXACT same FREAKING FIRMWARE! Just different cosmetics! Such a rip off. They could of at least used a different menu system or newer graphics... Jesus... Anyways.. HDD Time!

I will be doing a simple RAID 0 array. My RAID chip (JMB 363) supports only 0, 1 and 0+1. I would use RAID 5 or 10 on my backup NAS. Whenever I could afford one.... I could do a RAID 01 array on my desktop but thats just wasted space and money imo. Nested arrays should be used for servers or backup...

If the guy an hour away has 2x 80GB Caviars then I would buy them for $40 from him. I don't think its worth paying $120 for 160GB REs More space is great, but I don't want any important files on it in case it does fail. I rather save up the $80 I save and put it to my silverstone olympia fund or LC fund... Or for a 500GB for more file storage or to the A. C. Ryan enclosure I want and the list can go on :$

I sent the dude an email a while ago. Will post again when I get a reply from him.

Cheers,
-robodude666

[onebxr]

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

I have 3 of these and they are good hard drives. I dont like samsung tv's but hell, I figure they dont make the hard drives next to the phones, tv's or the memory modules. I am pretty sure that last statement was true.
-1

[robodude666]

Yea, but I don't want to spend $220 on 1TB RAID 0 array.. I will only use 10-30GB... 60GB max.

[gvblake22]

LOL, get over the looks! The thing will be stuffed away into a HDD cage and never be seen again!

[robodude666]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

LOL, get over the looks! The thing will be stuffed away into a HDD cage and never be seen again!

Not true. In my future lian li, I will make a custom window and possibly custom HDD cages.

But ehhh, I guess so... If the performance and price of an uglier drive is better than of a pretty black Caviar then I guess I would go for the faster cheaper drive.

What do you guys think about the performance of the barracuda line in comparison to the Caviar? How would a Barracuda 7200.7 hold up against a Caviar SE? Or against a 7200.10?

[TWBalls]

Originally Posted by robodude666

What do you guys think about the performance of the barracuda line in comparison to the Caviar? How would a Barracuda 7200.7 hold up against a Caviar SE? Or against a 7200.10?

Well, the newer drives are definitely gonna be faster due to improvements in tech.... 16MB Cache vs. 8MB, Higher areal desities etc.
How much faster, I couldn't say.