SATA 2 EXTERNAL

[cookie720]

Im planing to get an external harddrive just for movies and music, i want it to be the Western Digital 320GB SATA2 16MB one, i have a WD 250GB 8MB SATA1 in my computer now..

is it worth it getting the 320 as external? or should i swap them and have the 250 as external because windows will run faster on 16MB cache and sata 2?

and if i get an usb 2.0 enclosure will it suport sata 1 and 2 harddrives

also will the sata 2 external be as fast as it would be inside the computer

thanks heaps for all your help

[TechZ]

The SATA2 16MB cache should be internal, put the older SATA1 in an external caddy if you want (make sure it supports SATA).

USB2 caddy's do support SATA, just read before buying

[cookie720]

cool...i cant read though, i read all i can and then when i take the stuff home theres always something wrong

its a bugga the harddrive i have now isnt bigger, because i wanted a 300 one for movies andmusic but now it will only be 250, i guess i can have some permanent stuff on my internal too, also what are the chances of an external harddisk to fail?

[Xeon SX]

I dont see a point of taking hard drives ouside the PC unless there are no more sata ports. But then again I've seen no motherboards with 1 sata connector.

[cookie720]

so i dont have to take my whole computer to my bros house for a movie music.......

[Xeon SX]

there are portable hard drives for that...

[bigfoot1942]

i wouldnt bother replacing the 250GB with the 320GB harddisk, since its hardly any faster.
SATA2 may sound good, but how often wil your harddisk read or write over 150MB/s?
Even the buffered reads are only about 100MB/s, and the sustained read speeds of a 10.000 RPM Raptor are about 80MB/s.
No need for a more than 150MB/s bus with 7200RPM disks for sure.
NCQ gives hardly any performance boost under windows, it may even degrade the system's performance.

But i wouldnt go for a USB2.0 external harddisk cage, FireWire is the way to go. USB asks more CPU power and is slower.

SATA2 is backwards compatible btw, so no problem attaching it to a SATA1 controller.


About the risks:

- added risk of dropping the harddisk since you intend to move it more

- My external harddisk is often powered down when my system is running. A powered down harddisk doesnt wear out like my internal harddisk (which is on 24/7).
So you can say that in my case the internal disk has a higher risk of failure than the external one. But of course this depends on the use.

[cookie720]

Originally Posted by bigfoot1942

i wouldnt bother replacing the 250GB with the 320GB harddisk, since its hardly any faster.
SATA2 may sound good, but how often wil your harddisk read or write over 150MB/s?
Even the buffered reads are only about 100MB/s, and the sustained read speeds of a 10.000 RPM Raptor are about 80MB/s.
No need for a more than 150MB/s bus with 7200RPM disks for sure.
NCQ gives hardly any performance boost under windows, it may even degrade the system's performance.

But i wouldnt go for a USB2.0 external harddisk cage, FireWire is the way to go. USB asks more CPU power and is slower.

SATA2 is backwards compatible btw, so no problem attaching it to a SATA1 controller.


About the risks:

- added risk of dropping the harddisk since you intend to move it more

- My external harddisk is often powered down when my system is running. A powered down harddisk doesnt wear out like my internal harddisk (which is on 24/7).
So you can say that in my case the internal disk has a higher risk of failure than the external one. But of course this depends on the use.

if thats so then what is cache? the sata1 has 8mb and the sata 2 has 16mb? if its not much difference in performanec ill just get the sata1 drive because its cheaper