upgrading HDD ... is it worth?

G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hello all,

I have a Precision Workstation 670 that came with:

80GB 7200Rpm 8MB Cache ... but the brand I do not remember
exactly right now, it is whether Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hyundai or Samsung...
But I do remember it is not Toyota ... :)

I am planning to upgrade it to:

WESTERN DIGITAL Raptor WD740GD, 73.4GB, Bulk
10000Rpm, 8MB Cache, Serial-ATA/150

By doing this upgrade would you say I will really notice the performance
gain? Please advice ...

My rig looks like:
------------------------
Dual Xeon 3.2GHz/800Mhz/1MB
2GB RAM DDR2 400 ECC Dual Channel
Intel E7525 chipset EM64T
128MB PCI-E ATI FIREGL V3100 (ELGA)
80GB SATA HDD 7200rpm
36GB SCSI HDD 10K rpm
16X DVD +/- RW + Soft
16X DVD ROM
UtraSharp FP 20''
Win XP Pro SP2
------------------------

TIA,
Best Regards,
Giovanni
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I really don't think you will notice much difference. Do you notice a
difference between the 2 drives you have now?


Let say it takes 12 seconds to load Word right now and the new drive was 10%
faster

well Word is not going to load 1.2 seconds faster since the HD is not the
only part so you will see very little real world difference. If you were
going to a RAID 0 array to do video editing you would probably see a
difference IMHO

Wayne
"Giovanni Azua" <bravegag@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3egs7nF33k7fU1@individual.net...
> Hello all,
>
> I have a Precision Workstation 670 that came with:
>
> 80GB 7200Rpm 8MB Cache ... but the brand I do not remember
> exactly right now, it is whether Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hyundai or Samsung...
> But I do remember it is not Toyota ... :)
>
> I am planning to upgrade it to:
>
> WESTERN DIGITAL Raptor WD740GD, 73.4GB, Bulk
> 10000Rpm, 8MB Cache, Serial-ATA/150
>
> By doing this upgrade would you say I will really notice the performance
> gain? Please advice ...
>
> My rig looks like:
> ------------------------
> Dual Xeon 3.2GHz/800Mhz/1MB
> 2GB RAM DDR2 400 ECC Dual Channel
> Intel E7525 chipset EM64T
> 128MB PCI-E ATI FIREGL V3100 (ELGA)
> 80GB SATA HDD 7200rpm
> 36GB SCSI HDD 10K rpm
> 16X DVD +/- RW + Soft
> 16X DVD ROM
> UtraSharp FP 20''
> Win XP Pro SP2
> ------------------------
>
> TIA,
> Best Regards,
> Giovanni
>
>
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Giovanni Azua" <bravegag@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3egs7nF33k7fU1@individual.net...
> Hello all,
>
> I have a Precision Workstation 670 that came with:
>
> 80GB 7200Rpm 8MB Cache ... but the brand I do not remember
> exactly right now, it is whether Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hyundai or Samsung...
> But I do remember it is not Toyota ... :)
>
> I am planning to upgrade it to:
>
> WESTERN DIGITAL Raptor WD740GD, 73.4GB, Bulk
> 10000Rpm, 8MB Cache, Serial-ATA/150
>
> By doing this upgrade would you say I will really notice the performance
> gain? Please advice ...

I noticed the difference when I upgraded from a RAID 0 setup with two Maxtor
160gig drives with 8mb cache. However, after spending $200 on the Raptor, I
admit my perception may have been somewhat influenced. I'm most certainly
getting faster load times while booting and with Half Life 2, but in the end
I don't quite know if it was worth the money (plus the $50 for an SATA
controller).

If I were you, I'd try loading the SCSI drive as the boot drive, and see
what happens.

I also read some reviews that compared the new Maxtor 250gig drives, with
16mb cache, against the Raptor, and found that the Maxor almost matched the
performance, for less money and much more space. Compusa had a sale a while
back for these drives for $100, and they'll most likely do it again, so stay
tuned.

Pagan

> My rig looks like:
> ------------------------
> Dual Xeon 3.2GHz/800Mhz/1MB
> 2GB RAM DDR2 400 ECC Dual Channel
> Intel E7525 chipset EM64T
> 128MB PCI-E ATI FIREGL V3100 (ELGA)
> 80GB SATA HDD 7200rpm
> 36GB SCSI HDD 10K rpm
> 16X DVD +/- RW + Soft
> 16X DVD ROM
> UtraSharp FP 20''
> Win XP Pro SP2
> ------------------------
>
> TIA,
> Best Regards,
> Giovanni
>
>
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Giovanni Azua" <bravegag@hotmail.com> wrote:
>80GB SATA HDD 7200rpm
>36GB SCSI HDD 10K rpm

>I am planning to upgrade it to:

>WESTERN DIGITAL Raptor WD740GD, 73.4GB, Bulk
>10000Rpm, 8MB Cache, Serial-ATA/150

I've got two Raptors in a RAID0 array, and it's pretty quick (about 80
MB/Sec at the beginning according to http://hdtune.com/ ), but I dunno
how fast it'd be compared to what you have now...
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"wayne" <komon@dgdg.sss> wrote:
>I really don't think you will notice much difference. Do you notice a
>difference between the 2 drives you have now?
>
I can not say having the OS running and loading from the SATA drive
and doing nothing from SCSI drive.

> Let say it takes 12 seconds to load Word right now and the new drive was
> 10% faster
>
> well Word is not going to load 1.2 seconds faster since the HD is not the
> only part so you will see very little real world difference. If you were
> going to a RAID 0 array to do video editing you would probably see a
> difference IMHO
>
But given that this HDD is where the XP booting is done and in general
where the OS works, probably there is a major performance gain? I have
already moved the swap file to the SCSI HDD but my computer has
enough RAM so it has never used the swap file.

Would be great to get feedback from someone who has already done
the upgrade ... I would not like going the hassle to find out that the
upgrade
is unnoticeable.

Best Regards,
Giovanni
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I haven't done this specific upgrade, but based on my past experience
with this type of change I believe it will be a lot of work for little
reward. (A hd switch is not really a lot of work of course) The
performance increase will be barely noticeable(if at all). If you are
looking to reduce booting time I do not believe this hd change will be
effective.

Ken

Giovanni Azua wrote:
> "wayne" <komon@dgdg.sss> wrote:
>
>>I really don't think you will notice much difference. Do you notice a
>>difference between the 2 drives you have now?
>>
>
> I can not say having the OS running and loading from the SATA drive
> and doing nothing from SCSI drive.
>
>
>>Let say it takes 12 seconds to load Word right now and the new drive was
>>10% faster
>>
>>well Word is not going to load 1.2 seconds faster since the HD is not the
>>only part so you will see very little real world difference. If you were
>>going to a RAID 0 array to do video editing you would probably see a
>>difference IMHO
>>
>
> But given that this HDD is where the XP booting is done and in general
> where the OS works, probably there is a major performance gain? I have
> already moved the swap file to the SCSI HDD but my computer has
> enough RAM so it has never used the swap file.
>
> Would be great to get feedback from someone who has already done
> the upgrade ... I would not like going the hassle to find out that the
> upgrade
> is unnoticeable.
>
> Best Regards,
> Giovanni
>
>
>