Internal HD, Raptor?

btate · Post by **btate** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:51 pm

I am looking to ad another SATA drive to my G5 Dual 2.0 for audio. I've been using and external FW hard drive, but I'm also using an 8pre on the FW buss as well. I thought it would be a good idea to let the FW buss breathe by moving to an internal SATA. I've been looking at WD Raptors and was wondering if it's worth the extra bucks, and if it will make a noticeable improvement in performance. Does anyone have any insight on this? or recommendations?

Thanks

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 1:25 pm

I can't say enough good things about the Raptors. There are rebates floating around the internet that bring the price down to the $160 range.

If you're willing to sacrifice a bit of storage space for performance, then the Raptor makes sense. It made even more sense on my MacPro because of the extra drive bays. For my G5, I have an eSATA host card with a pair of Raptors in an enclosure, opting for a larger 7200 rpm internal SATA.

I'm not sure of reports regarding the Raptors as internals on the G5s where higher spin rates and heat generation are concerned... but it doesn't appear to be a problem on the "warmer" MacPro.

Pretty quiet drives, those Raptors.

HCMarkus · Post by **HCMarkus** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 2:17 pm

Projects open with blazing speed when fed by the Raptor. I have four, serving VIs and DP Rpoject/Audio Files. They work great.

jweisbin · Post by **jweisbin** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 2:48 pm

If you are adding a Raptor as a second drive on the internal buss, then you should be careful. I have heard that the 150 GB version, which is SATA II, has problems with older G5's. The 74 GB model, if you can still get them, is SATA I, and should work fine.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg ... faqid=1415

If you are adding onto a SATA II PCI card, then it should be fine.

OldTimey · Post by **OldTimey** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 3:03 pm

HCMarkus wrote:Projects open with blazing speed when fed by the Raptor. I have four, serving VIs and DP Rpoject/Audio Files. They work great.

what kind of enclosure/interface cards do you use for these?

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 3:16 pm

OldTimey wrote:
HCMarkus wrote:Projects open with blazing speed when fed by the Raptor. I have four, serving VIs and DP Rpoject/Audio Files. They work great.
what kind of enclosure/interface cards do you use for these?

Here's the enclosure I got from OWC:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20 ... ESATATBEK/

I went with the Sonnet Tempo X4P 4-port eSATA host card (this config is on my G5 only)

OldTimey · Post by **OldTimey** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 3:17 pm

Frodo wrote:
OldTimey wrote:
HCMarkus wrote:Projects open with blazing speed when fed by the Raptor. I have four, serving VIs and DP Rpoject/Audio Files. They work great.
what kind of enclosure/interface cards do you use for these?
Here's the enclosure I got from OWC:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20 ... ESATATBEK/

I went with the Sonnet Tempo X4P 4-port eSATA host card (this config is on my G5 only)

how loud is the fan on that bad boy?

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 3:35 pm

OldTimey wrote: how loud is the fan on that bad boy?

It's really very quiet, imho. I mean-- you're *aware* that it's there some of the time, but it's pretty much acoustically inconspicuous.

HDs in well-vented remote locations is always a plus, but not pressingly necessary in this case.

HCMarkus · Post by **HCMarkus** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 11:28 pm

jweisbin wrote:If you are adding a Raptor as a second drive on the internal buss, then you should be careful. I have heard that the 150 GB version, which is SATA II, has problems with older G5's. The 74 GB model, if you can still get them, is SATA I, and should work fine.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg ... faqid=1415

If you are adding onto a SATA II PCI card, then it should be fine.

No problems on my Quad G5, and I have one of the 150's running off the second internal SATA connection. I use a Highpoint Rocket RAID 2310 to serve the four eSATA drives. The 74GB models are, I believe, still available, but the 150s are a little faster. Stay away from the 34GB version, considerably slower.

btate · Post by **btate** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:07 pm

Okay, so it sounds like the Raptors are worth the extra bucks. This leads me to another question (or two). Is anyone using a Raptor in a June 2004 G5 dual 2.0 (M9455LL/A), and if so did you have any problems? What model#? I'm aware that there are some compatibility problems.

HCMarkus · Post by **HCMarkus** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:29 pm

btate wrote:Okay, so it sounds like the Raptors are worth the extra bucks. This leads me to another question (or two). Is anyone using a Raptor in a June 2004 G5 dual 2.0 (M9455LL/A), and if so did you have any problems? What model#? I'm aware that there are some compatibility problems.

You may have trouble... check the WD Knowledge Base.

btate · Post by **btate** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:38 pm

I've looked at their website, they mention the SATA 300. What about SATA 150, I've been able to find some of those around the web. But I want to be sure. What about the Seagates? The work I do doesn't have a high track count or a bunch of VIs. I've been using my firewire 400 7200rpm with 8mb cache and it's been working pretty well for me, I just want to free up the firewire buss for the interface only.