Was having a chat with one of the other forum members about the merits of Scsi and how much fun they are to play with. I did a couple of HDTach shots for him (Links below) -I compared the following:
1. 15k Cheetah vs Maxtor Sata
2. 2x15k Cheetahs (Raid o) vs Maxtor Sata
The graphical output (Burst and Sequential read speeds) was a little disappointing as always BUT... reading the numbers carefully really highlighted just how good the Cheetahs really are (Bearing in mind that I'm using a Pci-x controller in a standard Pci slot and massively limited by bandwidth)
HDTach Results
The top one is the RAID 0 2xCheetahs vs Maxtor 80Gb Sata
You can see that the access time of the Cheetahs is nearly a third of the Maxtor and the average read speeds is nearly 60% quicker, (I'm not sure why the Burst speed is so poor - but I suspect this is because the PCI slot is being saturated!)
The bottom one is the Single Cheetah vs the Maxtor
Again, The random access time is nearly 3x quicker on the Cheetahs and the read speed is nearly 50% better - just the burst letting it down, but TBH in real world terms that is pretty irrelevant - it's the sustained transfer rates than mean Oblivion loads lightning fast (BF2 really is a joy - *Always* first onto the new map
)
Finally - since the PCI bus is real-world limited to about 100Mb/s (Pci-e would be good to beyond 2Gb
)- and you can see both setups maxing it out - just imagine what 5xCheetahs would do on a Pci-e card
- Just too bad they're so expensive - will definitely be scouring ebay over the next couple of years - If I could find one it would end the debate on Raptor vs Cheetah once and for all (just not prepared to pay the $750 odd they go for new 
)
Anyone know if there's any way to improve the burst speed of the Cheetahs - or am I simply saturating the bus and stuck at that speed until I can get a PCI-e controller?
1. 15k Cheetah vs Maxtor Sata
2. 2x15k Cheetahs (Raid o) vs Maxtor Sata
The graphical output (Burst and Sequential read speeds) was a little disappointing as always BUT... reading the numbers carefully really highlighted just how good the Cheetahs really are (Bearing in mind that I'm using a Pci-x controller in a standard Pci slot and massively limited by bandwidth)
HDTach Results
The top one is the RAID 0 2xCheetahs vs Maxtor 80Gb Sata
You can see that the access time of the Cheetahs is nearly a third of the Maxtor and the average read speeds is nearly 60% quicker, (I'm not sure why the Burst speed is so poor - but I suspect this is because the PCI slot is being saturated!)
The bottom one is the Single Cheetah vs the Maxtor
Again, The random access time is nearly 3x quicker on the Cheetahs and the read speed is nearly 50% better - just the burst letting it down, but TBH in real world terms that is pretty irrelevant - it's the sustained transfer rates than mean Oblivion loads lightning fast (BF2 really is a joy - *Always* first onto the new map
)Finally - since the PCI bus is real-world limited to about 100Mb/s (Pci-e would be good to beyond 2Gb
(just not prepared to pay the $750 odd they go for new )Anyone know if there's any way to improve the burst speed of the Cheetahs - or am I simply saturating the bus and stuck at that speed until I can get a PCI-e controller?
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