scsi or raptors, whats going on?

[essi1553]

SCSI =
pro = Great reliablity, fast speeds
con = triple the price, need an adaptor card, cables

WD Raptors =
pro = ON the CHEAP, fast, 5 year warrenty, resale value is high, simple install
con = in demand, not as reliable as scsi


I know nothing specfic about scsi. I know I would need an adapter card. Whats the difference in pins? I see 68's and 80's etc. Also I hear seagate is a great brand for them.

I also hear they have great reliability status, I just recently had an old wd ide drive fail, and I'd like another component that I will not need to have to worry about for a while. Mind you I'm looking for at least 10k rpm, 15k would be nice the more gigs the better but I'd be fine with about 50 gb of storage space. (Windows install and some games)

Help me write the pro's and cons out!

Thanks

 

[defakto]

80 pin scsi are designed for hotswap cages, power and data go through a single cable. Scsi is also designed for high IO patterns, as the raptor is, but the raptor performs better than just about any 10k rpm scsi drive out there. To really beat the raptor in scsi you'd have to go 15k which really would be overkill for a home system.

Though, I'm not sure where you're getting the "raptor is not as reliable as scsi" line from. Both come with typically a 5 year warranty.

 

[drizzt81]

SCSI:
Pro: Multi-user optimized firmware, 15K rpm drives available, 15 drives/ channel, usually 5-yr warranty
Con: Multi-user optimized firmware, expensive, increases system complexity

IDE/ SATA:
Pro: Desktop-usage optimized firmware, quiet, cheap
Con: Desktop-usage optimized firmware, max 10K rpm spindle speed, often with 1 or 3 year warranty

Both options have their places in the world. It really depends on the Application that you are trying to run. If you are hosting a database with lost of users accessing it concurrently, it is likely that you'd want SCSI. If you run a home-user desktop, you would likely prefer IDE, since it will keep the cost down and is optimized for your usage patterns (or so it seems).

 

[skullborg]

SCSI
Pros: Very fast multi-user optimized patterns, very fast spindle speed, very reliable with 5-7 year warranties, very good in large installations of dozens of drives off a single controller with a backplane.

Cons: Very expensive, not single-user optimized, will be slower than Raptors for desktop use generaly. Very hot, youll need a RAID cage with a dozen fans, to cool a 15+ drive array. We have 60 drive fiber channel arrays here, and the cooling and power requirements are, well, insane.

SATA (Raptor specificaly)
Pros: Very fast single-user patterns, very cheap (relative), very quiet (relative), fairly reliable, will expand to a small RAID5 array with ease, small cables, easy management.

Cons: Raptors are on the very costly end of SATA drives, will be outperformaed in heavy multi-user loads by SCSI.


Unless you're going to be hosting a multi-terrabyte RAID array, with dozens of users randomly accessing data, SATA is for you.
SCSI was a good choice a few years ago for an ultra-highend desktop system, because there never existed a high performance PATA or SATA drive until Raptors came out.
Nowdays, Raptors have filled in the role for high performance desktop drives, and SCSI is back where it belongs -- in the server.

Personaly, I still use SCSi drives in my desktop, I bought them about 3 or 4 years ago, when they were the fastest thing you could buy. But I would go with a Raid array of Raptors now any day, just as fast (if not faster for single user) and much cheaper.

 

[Dr.Khron]

I don't have much experience with the newer SATA drives, but I've used SCSI extensively for a long time...

One MAJOR con of SCSI drives for a home PC: noise, noise noise.
Even just sitting there idling, they are one hell of a lot noisier then traditional IDE drives.

For my next system I'm defintely switching over to SATA.

-Dr.K

 

[Order]

The newer SCSI drives are not nearly as loud as their predecessors.
I have a 15k MAU right next to my face most of the day and I barely hear it.

 

[rodsfree]

The newer SCSI drives are not nearly as loud as their predecessors.
I have a 15k MAU right next to my face most of the day and I barely hear it.

You just would not believe the mental image that this produces.

Personally, I can't see anyone wanting SCSI in a personal PC.

Just the cost issue.... I can get 2 or 3 Raptors for the cost of a 150GB MAU.
Or a single Raptor and several large 7200RPM SATA drives for the same amount of money.

If you don't have an application where lots of people are accessing the same drive simultainiously - then you shouldn't even be concidering SCSI - unless your ePenius needs the lift.