Drive Related Question

Have a couple drive related questions and figured I'd lump them all into one

1. Are Raptors suppose to be loud? My 36GB one is clearly noticeable even over the stock Intel fan. Is it because its 10K RPM?

2. Were is the cheapest place to buy IDE and SATA Cables? (rounded for the IDE)

3. What cables should I use for IDE DVD-ROM and DVD-RW to acheive the best performance, and the same question for my two SATA drives?

4. What is the best configuration for two IDE Optical Devices? Should each have there own channel?

dicecca112 said:

Have a couple drive related questions and figured I'd lump them all into one

1. Are Raptors suppose to be loud? My 36GB one is clearly noticeable even over the stock Intel fan. Is it because its 10K RPM?

2. Were is the cheapest place to buy IDE and SATA Cables? (rounded for the IDE)

3. What cables should I use for IDE DVD-ROM and DVD-RW to acheive the best performance, and the same question for my two SATA drives?

4. What is the best configuration for two IDE Optical Devices? Should each have there own channel?

Click to expand...

1: They are louder than the average consumer SATA drive. Higher spindle speeds and a more robust actuator system will create a small whine while spooling and a more definite click/thunk as the unit seeks. It is still fairly quiet compared to faster SCSI units.

2: can't help you there

3: Not the ones found in $.50 bargin bins and not cheap rounded cables. PATA has crosstalk issues even without being rounded, hence 40 pins of the 80 on a PATA cable are grounded. If the mfg screws up while rounding the cable, crosstalk will be a major issue. For SATA cables, clips are nice.

4: The best setup in theory is to have each on its own channel. In reality, there is little benefit to doing it this way, and any occasional gain in performance by not sharing a cable is usually outweighed by having more cables in a tight space. More cables mean more headaches for running them, increased likelihood of running cables close together with each other, power cables, etc.

bump anyone else?

On #2, I've had success with ecost.com

http://www.svc.com/rc24hd2.htmlThey have a lot of cables and are very reasonable. You can get single drive IDE's or double at just about any length you like.

Some of the early 36 gig Raptors (maybe all of them)had metal bearings that were quite loud. The 74's are all fluid bearing and are only slightly louder then other drives.

Unless you do a lot of straihgt copies from one optical to the other I don't think you will notice any difference if they are both on one cable.

thanks shadowdr. they are by far the cheapest. And they ship USPS priority. Gonna place the order tonight.