7K1000 and Raptors in RAID - Question

[JonnyDough]

http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2974&p=5

Doesn't it look like both the Raid-0'd 7K1000 and the Raptors are both being limited by the raid controller or something outside of the drives? The benchies are nearly identical except that the raptor pulls out ahead just a little in practically every one. I'm thinking that the raptors should be beating the pants off a 7200rpm drive, despite NCQ and whatnot. Am I missing something or alone in this thought?

 

[cb62fcni]

The 7K1000 has much greater data density than the Raptor. It also has a whopping 32MB of cache that has been optomised very well.

 

[JonnyDough]

Ahh, so is this a hybrid drive? I skim articles, no time to sit and read each one carefully. So if it competes closely with the raptor and only spins at a cool and quiet 7200rpm then it's BETTER than the raptor eh? Not to mention it's a much larger capacity and is likely to last longer. So is this the new sata king?

 

[Dante_Jose_Cuervo]

Ahh, so is this a hybrid drive? I skim articles, no time to sit and read each one carefully. So if it competes closely with the raptor and only spins at a cool and quiet 7200rpm then it's BETTER than the raptor eh? Not to mention it's a much larger capacity and is likely to last longer. So is this the new sata king?

Nope, neither sets of drives are hybrids, they're both conventional hard drives. The reason the 1TB hdds are so fast is because they have a very high data density and that apparently helps them keep up with the raptors. That... and the HUGE cache helps too.

 

[cb62fcni]

Just to clarify, a huge cache on a HDD helps speed things up only in certain situations. But properly optimised, it definately helps. It's the data density that really helps speed this drive up, the cache really probably only has a small role.

 

[JonnyDough]

Yeah, that huge azz cache is why I thought it might be a hybrid. From what I've read the hybrid drives organize data in memory and write it all at once. So ok, the heads in this drive don't have to move as much. From the sounds of it, it's better than the Raptor drive by a good bit since it's likely quieter, cooler running, and should last longer. Ahh, and I was wondering if it was PMR. Just found out that it is. Like I said, I heard about the drive and skimmed the article. But discussion is good anyway. I see on Froogle that there are 750gb and 1TB drives. Make sure you buy the right one if you type in 7K1000 and plan to purchase a 1TB drive. Don't mistakenly buy the 750GB drive.