Next Gen WD Raptor?

[srg5150]

Hello all.... long time lurker, first time poster.

Has anyone heard about a higher capacity Raptor coming out? The time between the 36 gig and 74 gig model didn't seem very long so there's gotta be a larger capacity coming up.

Also, I read in another post a blurb about a dedicated PCI SATA controller having faster throughput than the on mobo controller. Can anyone clarify this or tell me if it would apply to the new Asus and Gigabyte SLI mobos?

Thanks for the help.

Steve

 

[canadianpsycho]

Can't see there being a larger cap Raptor anytime soon.

Servers use arrays of SCSI disks, and usually desktops will use 1 raptor as a boot or system drive, then typically they add larger HDDs for storage purposes.

I had 2x36 Raptors in RAID and managed some swaps for a pair of 74s. I can't imagine needing 150 GB of Raptor lovin'... I may try to swap one for a big HDD.

 

[imported_Beavis]

It Could Happen since games and programs are getting so large in size theres going to be a need for a larger sized Raptor drive. Also with Sata II which can transmit at 3gb/sec, they're could be even faster raptor drives with faster seek times also.

I give it at least year or two before they make new raptors.

 

[Blain]

There's a new Caviar out.

 

[icejunkie]

Originally posted by: Blain
There's a new Caviar out.

I love caviar, albeit expensive though

 

[Dug]

Originally posted by: Blain
There's a new Caviar out.

Nice. I wonder if its as quiet as the Seagate.

 

[SUOrangeman]

As has been mentioned, the Raptor was designed for enterprise use, not for "massive" storage. It just happens that 36GB/74GB sizes work well in many desktop usage configurations.

-SUO

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: Beavis
It Could Happen since games and programs are getting so large in size theres going to be a need for a larger sized Raptor drive. Also with Sata II which can transmit at 3gb/sec, they're could be even faster raptor drives with faster seek times also.

I give it at least year or two before they make new raptors.

It doesn't really matter about the SATA transfer speeds unless you have 6+ drives all transfering at the same time to saturate the 3GB/s of SATA II even if it is possible to do. HELL you can barely keep a SUSTAINED write of 100MB with HD's. The transfer speeds is more due to the low rotational speeds.

Koing

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Koing

Originally posted by: Beavis
It Could Happen since games and programs are getting so large in size theres going to be a need for a larger sized Raptor drive. Also with Sata II which can transmit at 3gb/sec, they're could be even faster raptor drives with faster seek times also.

I give it at least year or two before they make new raptors.

It doesn't really matter about the SATA transfer speeds unless you have 6+ drives all transfering at the same time to saturate the 3GB/s of SATA II even if it is possible to do. HELL you can barely keep a SUSTAINED write of 100MB with HD's. The transfer speeds is more due to the low rotational speeds.

Koing

1) SATA2 is 300MB/sec., not "3gb/sec.". Although 300MB/sec. ~= 2.4Gbps, but that's probably not what you meant.

2) With SATA, that is the amount of bandwidth available to each device. Since no single hard drive on the market can even push 100MB/sec., SATA2 is a big waste right now.

 

[ribbon13]

Also the jump from 36gb to 74gb was rather trivial as the use the same platters, but the WD740GD uses 2 of them

3-platter designs are NOT popular in Enterprise class storage at all. So they would have to use denser platters.

SATAII isn't a waste, NCQ and TCQ are awesome. I imagine that SATAII should last many years though.

 

[Pariah]

1) SATA2 is 300MB/sec., not "3gb/sec.". Although 300MB/sec. ~= 2.4Gbps, but that's probably not what you meant.

Actually, SATA II does transfer at 3Gb/s. Not GB/s like the first poster stated, though I think he did mean Gb/s since he got the 3 part right.

2) With SATA, that is the amount of bandwidth available to each device. Since no single hard drive on the market can even push 100MB/sec., SATA2 is a big waste right now.

SATA II will no longer be limited to single device channels, so the extra bandwidth can be utilized if needed.

 

[ribbon13]

The whole point of SATA and SAS is one device per channel.

And there are plenty of SATAII controllers on the market now.
If you would care to tell, how would one use multiple devices on a channel with these?

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Also the jump from 36gb to 74gb was rather trivial as the use the same platters, but the WD740GD uses 2 of them

3-platter designs are NOT popular in Enterprise class storage at all. So they would have to use denser platters.

SATAII isn't a waste, NCQ and TCQ are awesome. I imagine that SATAII should last many years though.

Actually all the enterprise drives are available in up to four platter configurations.
A 300 GB Cheetah 10K.7 for example is 4 platters, as is a 147 GB 15K.4

To achieve a 300 GB capacity with two platters would require 150GB platters, which is more than even 7200 RPM IDE drives feature.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Pariah

1) SATA2 is 300MB/sec., not "3gb/sec.". Although 300MB/sec. ~= 2.4Gbps, but that's probably not what you meant.

Actually, SATA II does transfer at 3Gb/s. Not GB/s like the first poster stated, though I think he did mean Gb/s since he got the 3 part right.

Okay, I checked (because everything I have ever seen about SATA2 says 300MBps). We're both right. Sort of. The raw bandwidth is 3Gbps, but it uses error correction on the line, giving an effective bandwidth of 2.4Gbps (or, in hard drive terms, 300MBps).

2) With SATA, that is the amount of bandwidth available to each device. Since no single hard drive on the market can even push 100MB/sec., SATA2 is a big waste right now.

SATA II will no longer be limited to single device channels, so the extra bandwidth can be utilized if needed.

I haven't heard of or seen anything like that. What do they do, daisy-chain the devices together somehow? The whole point of SATA is that each device has its own full-bandwidth channel, no?

 

[Pariah]

SATA II transfers data the same way SATA I does. 10bit packet, 8 bits data, 2 bits CRC data and other junk for an 80% efficiency rate. 375MB/s interface speed, 300MB/s data speed. However, you'll never see the 2.4Gb/s transfer speed quoted, only the 3Gb/s rate.

SATA II will add the capability of using hubs like SAS to connect more than one drive to a singe port. Without such a device there would be absolutely no point in doubling the speed of SATA as we're probably 5 years or more away from ATA drives reaching 150MB/s. Not to mention the intial SAS speed of 300MB/s which would be even more ridiculous if limited to one drive.

 

[ribbon13]

I never said anything about 4 platters... I've juste never seen many 3-platter drives. all the drives we use are 1 2 or 4.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Pariah
SATA II transfers data the same way SATA I does. 10bit packet, 8 bits data, 2 bits CRC data and other junk for an 80% efficiency rate. 375MB/s interface speed, 300MB/s data speed. However, you'll never see the 2.4Gb/s transfer speed quoted, only the 3Gb/s rate.

I've literally never seen the 3Gb/sec. speed quoted. It's always been "300MB/sec." Why would you quote a transfer rate you can't even theoretically get?

SATA II will add the capability of using hubs like SAS to connect more than one drive to a singe port. Without such a device there would be absolutely no point in doubling the speed of SATA as we're probably 5 years or more away from ATA drives reaching 150MB/s. Not to mention the intial SAS speed of 300MB/s which would be even more ridiculous if limited to one drive.

I didn't think SAS/SATA2 used hubs, but I'll take your word for it. That certainly makes more sense than just increasing the speed for the hell of it.

 

[Pariah]

That's because the products are just becoming available.

Company Doubles Existing Data Rate with First 3.0 Gb/s SATA II Interface

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Pariah
That's because the products are just becoming available.

Company Doubles Existing Data Rate with First 3.0 Gb/s SATA II Interface

Yeah, I did some more searching. The marketing materials all tout it as "3.0Gb/sec.", while anyone who is actually talking about the real-world performance refers to it as "300MB/sec.", since that's the *usable* speed of the interface. I guess I just haven't been reading my press releases...

 

[JMag]

I coulda sworn that I heard a ~200GB Raptor will be out "soon" ...

 

[Tarrant64]

I remember reading something about it being hard to make durable hard drives at that speed(10,000rpm sata). i mean, scsi's are built to be durable and all, and friggin' fast, but were SATA's? I also read in a lot of places about the liquid/oil/gooze/whatever used on the platters were becomming insufficient due to faster harddrive speeds. supposedly a guy some university is working on a new type of 'whatever' for platters that work better and dont' heat up as much and is more durable. I have the magazine article(either in CPU or PCModder, i will fetch it this afternoon and post the article unless someone else knows of it and can do it earlier) about it, which makes sense about there not being larger raptor drives out yet. I guess they are still working on developing ways to make faster hard drives stable so they don't die in about 1 year or so because they run too hot or too fast or whatever it may be.

Anyone else know what I'm talking about? I don't know what it is, oil..or something used in HD's to keep the platters from hitting each other..or.something. God...i can't remember...

 

[ribbon13]

I remember hearing about what your talking about. It was something odd too. something you wouldn't expect to be in a hard drive.