Raptor vs SAS

[S. Wong]

10K Raptors aren't that much cheaper than SAS drives, has anyone actually compared them?
I would imagine that the SAS drives (either 10k or 15k) should best the SATA drives because the SCSI standard permits full duplex.

Noise/heat may prevent this from working, but if anyone has experience or a good review site, I'd like to hear about it.

someone on SPCR said that the 2.5" SAS drives are both reasonable in speed, temp, and noise, but that was just one source.

-Steven

 

[NauticaONE]

You will need to purchase a SAS Host Adapter

They cost about 300.00
http://www.provantage.com/atto-esas-h308-000~AATTO04A.htm

The SAS Advantages are:

Duty Cycle - SAS Drives are designed to Run 24x7 for about a 5 year life cycle.
SAS Host Adapters have read/write caching, which help when the system is under stress
All SAS Drives and Host Adapters support Native Command Queueing, so you dont have to essentially look and hope for drives/host adapters that support NCQ.
SAS host Adapters support SATAII Drives (3gb) so you can attach lower cost storage to your adapter as well.


Otherwise, things are about the same, IMO, i would save the loot on a SAS adapter, and buy another disk, run them in Raid 0 and get way more bang for your buck. Unless you want the bragging rights, or run your computer around the clock for a few years without upgrades.

 

[Grentz]

SAS 15K drives should easily kill a Raptor in throughput, but not necessarily speed.

Most of the enterprise drives and adapters are made for not just speed but multiple access and sustained speed for multiple connections. This does not always translate into better speed for a single user.

IMO a single Raptor should be plenty fast. I am almost always first into online games with my single Raptor X that just flies.