Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

15k RPM IDE Hard Drives?

Posted by Cliff on from the better-hope-your-HD-hamsters-don't-go-on-strike dept.

OutRigged asks: "SCSI hard drives have had speeds in excess of 10,000RPM for years, yet IDE has always been stuck at 7200RPM. Is there some kind of technical reason IDE drives don't go above 7200RPM? I can't imagine cost being that big of an issue, and the connection is certainly not a problem, with Parallel ATA capable, at least theoretically, of speeds over 100MB, and Serial ATA capable of even more. With hard drives now reaching sizes in excess of 300GB, don't you think we need a speed increase?" If you are wondering what the terms "Parallel ATA" and "Serial ATA" refer to, check out this article.

2 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Toms by isorox · · Score: 5, Informative
    I finished reading an article on serial ATA about an hour ago at Toms Hardware. Basically its

    • Potentially faster
    • Easier to plug in thanks to smaller cables
    • More reliable, interference in the cable cancels out, like a ballenced XLR microphone lead.
    • Longer cables, so you can plug drives in at the top of a tower case
    • Backwards compatability, use your current IDE HDD with the new controller
    • Hot plugging


    Initially it will run at arround 150Megabytes a second, however should be able to increase to 600.
  2. Re:Par/Ser ATA - why not ethernet? by twistedemotions · · Score: 5, Informative

    Gigabit Ethernet:
    1000^3 bits/sec = 1,000,000,000 bits/sec
    1,000,000,000 bits/sec / 8 = 125,000,000 bytes/sec
    125,000,000 bytes/sec / 1024 = 122070.3125 Kilobytes/sec
    122070.3125 Kilobytes/sec / 1024 = 119.20928955078125 Megabytes/sec

    Fast Ethernet:
    100,000,000 bits/sec / 8 = 12,500,000 bytes/sec
    12,500,000 bytes/sec / 1024 = 12207.03125 Kilobytes/sec
    = 11.920928955078125 Megabytes/sec

    Bus bandwidth:
    32-bit/33 Mhz PCI ---> 127.2 MB/sec
    64-bit/33 Mhz PCI ---> 254.3 MB/sec
    64-bit/66 Mhz PCI ---> 508.6 MB/sec
    64-bit/133 MHz PCI-X ---> 1017.3 MB/sec

    IDE Interface bandwidth:
    Ultra ATA/33 ---> 33 MB/sec
    Ultra ATA/66 ---> 66 MB/sec
    Ultra ATA/100 ---> 100 MB/sec
    Ultra ATA/133 ---> 133 MB/sec
    Serial ATA 1.0 ---> 150 MB/sec

    SCSI Interface bandwidth:
    Wide ---> 10 MB/sec
    Fast ---> 10 MB/sec
    Fast Wide ---> 20 MB/sec
    Ultra ---> 20 MB/sec
    Wide Ultra ---> 40 MB/sec
    Ultra2 ---> 40 MB/sec
    Wide Ultra2 ---> 80 MB/sec
    Ultra160 ---> 160 MB/sec
    Ultra320 ---> 320 MB/sec

    Single disk sequential transfer rates (STR):
    SCSI Seagate X-15K.3 --> 76.4MB/s - 51.1MB/s
    SCSI Seagate X-15 - 36 LP --> 60.5 MB/sec - 45 MB/sec
    SCSI Seagate X-15 --> 41 MB/sec - 29 MB/sec
    SCSI IBM Ultrastar 36LZX --> 34.8 MB/sec - 22.8 MB/sec
    IDE IBM 60GXP --> 39 MB/sec - 21 MB/sec
    IDE Western Digital Caviar WD1000JB --> 43.8 MB/s - 27.9 MB/sec