[G4] Hard Drive questions...

[Eric Smith]

Hi Rick,

In my opinion you would get much better disk performance if
you went to a SATA drive with 3 Gb/s transfer rate. This is
often referred to as "SATA 2" or "SATA II" but that is actually
a misnomer. It is the same spec as the original SATA drives,
the only difference being double the transfer rate.

If I am correct, the QS 2002 uses UltraATA/66, meaning a 66 MB/s
transfer rate. Since SATA uses 8b10b encoding on the wire (i.e.,
each byte is converted to 10-bit code), 3 Gb/s effectively means
a transfer rate of 300 MB/s. Even if the QS 2002 uses ATA/133,
that would still be less than half the transfer rate of "SATA 2".

If you look for "SATA 2" - again that just means 3 Gb/s - make
sure that both the PCI controller card and the drive support the
higher data transfer rate. Having to buy a separate controller
is an extra expense, but in my opinion worth it for the extra speed.

You also definitely want a USB 2.0 card (should be available for cheap)
if you are going to make significant use of USB.

Eric S.

Rick wrote:
> This one is for Al Poulin... or anyone else who might want to chime in...
> 
> I've got a QS 2002 more or less load. It's got two to GB Hard drive and 
> a 120 GB external Hard Drive driven by USB and built by Western Digital 
> and serving as my TM more or less.
> 
> The first drive is all but max out and the second drive is a 
> intermediate back up / storage drive.
> 
> I was thinking out upgrading my first drive to something around 320 TO 
> 500 GB USED... Seniors usually have limited funds to spend on new hard 
> drives. The question is do I stay with the current formate ATA Bus or 
> jump up to a  SATA DRIVE AND CARD which mean a STATA Card and what else? 
> Also what kind of  SATA? And what do I get out of such a upgrade?
> 
> Please anything else that might be useful to know before hand?
> 
> Al trust your having a fun filled holiday and surely your not reading 
> eMails today?
> 
> Later guys
> 
> Rick therepguy
> Houston
> ///////////////////
> 
> PS Yes I'm also  looking to upgrade the hard drive to a firewire... 
> cause the USB is as slow as can be... [GRIN]
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