refresh me on HDDs

[McClintoc]

Back when we were all using IDE HDDs wasn't it true that if you had two HDDs of different speeds on one cable, then both would run at the slowest speed? Say if you had a 7200rpm HDD and a 5400rpm HDD on the same IDE cable then both HDDs would run at 5400? I've been out of touch with hardware for a while now and need some refreshing. I just did a new build (specs in sig) and I want to keep my old HDD which is a regular Raptor, not a Velociraptor. I know their RPMs are the same but their data transfer rates are different. Putting my regular Raptor in the same rig as my Velociraptor won't alter any speeds of the Velociraptor will it?

 

[Nenu]

The drives will rotate at whatever speed they are rated at, nothing will change that.
The speed difference is due to the different connection speeds.
For example, one drive might need PIO4 whereas the other uses UDMA2.
PIO4 being slower might slow down the max transfer speed from the other drive on the same cable.

I wouldnt worry about that, the drives will likely be the same speed or similar and it only affects the burst speed anyway.

 

[Canon]

Also, keep in mind that you were talking about IDE where you have multiple drives on a cable. SATA = one cable per drive. Plugging your "slower" raptor into your mobo as well as your Velociraptor will not be an issue.

What you were referring to with regards to running at the speed of the slowest device on the cable is basically what the poster above mentioned. It refers to the interface speed. At the time it was usually an issue between an ATA-33 device (CD-ROM) and an HDD which would commonly be an ATA-66 device (UDMA5?). Anyhow, as far as I'm aware, this issue is gone with SATA.

Have fun, the Velociraptor is awesome!

 

[McClintoc]

Sweet. Thanks for the info guys!