Serial ATA drives

I'm in the market to buy one, and have a few questions about some of the specs. Which is more important, drive rpm or data transfer rate? How about average seek time? I see 7200rpm drives with data transfer rates of "up to" 100 or 150 MB/sec and average seek times of 4.5 ms, and 10Krpm drives with 72MB/sec transfer rates and average seek times around 9 ms. I'll be running it on a 3.0GHz P4, most likely with the 64-bit beta version of Vista, or else XP home SP2.

Also, what exactly is "RAID?" If I'm running a SATA drive and a PATA or UATA drive (which I have now) can I RAID just the SATA, or both? Should I? Why or why not?

 

Your asking for a butt load of info
Dont be Lazy, Try the search feature or even Google.
Here's some of what you ask.

In order to use 64-bit beta version of Vista or Windows X64 OS you need to have a 64bit PC!
If you want to have or use Raid you need a PC/mobo that supports raid or a add on card that supports it.
Different MOBO support different HDD interfaces like SATA & SATA II, the SATA II being the fastest, SATA II is also backwards compatitable
What is Raid:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks
Raid levels :
http://www.acnc.com/04_01_00.html

IMO 10,000 rpm HDD's like WD Raptor's are way over priced
If ya want to do Raid 0 setup for speed get your self a couple of SATA II's, 80 Gb models can be had for $50 each, for Raid 0 you need two HDD's

Raid, You ask why or why not?
Short answer for most PC users, why bother it's more trouble than it's worth
Too best answer that question, You must tell use what You use your PC for.
Also post your exact PC specs, MOBO, brand/Model etc.

 

ASUS,

Thanks for the reply. I ended up getting the WD Raptor because I plan on using the PC for flight sims and the simmers I talked to recommended the 10K rpm. I also bought a legit copy of XP home and am going through the long, drawn-out process of downloading and reinstalling everything.

I'm running a 3.0GHz P4, 512MB RAM, ASUS P4P800 w/128MB GeForce 5200. I'm probably going to use my "old" HD for music, and as a shared drive for my 2-PC network. Besides the flight sims I guess I use it for the same things as most home users do.

After reading the Wiki link, it definitely seems like RAID is more trouble than it's worth for what I use my PC for!