Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[paulr]

I just installed one of these in my machine and all I can say is WOW!

The drive has a 16MB cache and has native command qeuing (one of the great features of SCSI).  It's currently my fastest and quietest drive by far - my other drives are a 160GB and a 250GB Maxtor.  I can hear the other drives from several feet away from my case, but this new drive is so quiet, I can only hear it if I stick my ear on the case.  I will definitely be using these for my HTPC whenever I get around to building it.

Two things to note though...  The drive has no IDE connector so it cannot be used without a SATA controller (as some SATA drives can). It also requires a SATA power connector - I had to buy an adapter.

[bebop]

Paulr,  just  what is a SATA drive and controller ?   What makes it different from the regular old Maxtor dirves - other than being super quiet, that is...., and just how is that HTPC coming along?   Mine is at a stall...we are trying to decide if we should upgrade the entire system, including speakers...or if we have such bad ears that it really doesn't make a difference.    Bet

[paulr]

SATA stands for Serial ATA.  It's the new drive interface that replaces EIDE which most computers have today.  It's a much faster connection and supports things like command queing which allow the drive to essentially cache read/write commands.

So far, most of the SATA drives didin't really take advantage of the SATA specification - they were basically EIDE drives with the new interface added to them.  This drive doesn't even have the older EIDE interface or power connector...

I ran a benchmark to get a feel for the performance and it seemed to be roughly 20% faster on my machine.  I can't vouch for the benchmark software though.

Of course a fast drive isn't really needed for playing music files, but I wanted to try SATA (my motherboard supports it natively) and it was the only drive I saw that was 300GB.  Plus, it was on sale!

My HTPC case is still just sitting there, but each new item I buy (like this drive) will find its way into it once I get a motherboard for it.  I've had a preamplifier, amplifier and speakers that I am happy with for quite a while now.  So it's basically just waiting for a motherboard and power supply.  I eventually want to build a RAID 5 array for all of my media, but that's going to be a while due to cost.

Question for you:  Are you planning on using your HTPC for recording TV shows as well as listening to music?  If so, it might be worthwhile just to build the HTPC now and hook it up to your existing system, then replace speakers/amps/etc. later.  

[bebop]

Recording TV was something I was considering, but they keep taking all my favorite stuff off the air (eg: Firefly, Bab 5, Buffy, Angel, Black Adder, etc)    Yeah, they're cheezie, but better than those @#$% reality shows that are spreading faster than wildfires across the networks.  Guess I'm stuck with hockey...wait, no, they are on strike...     Sigh

    But we do watch alot of DVD movies, and the room has extra speakers, but no front center or woofer for true surround sound.  It is also oriented on the diagonal, so we are considering getting a professional sound person in to help us set it up and then it should be optimal for music as well (we also have outdooor speakers for the patio).

   I am keeping a file on all the info you give me Paul, so that I can better make the right choices in all of this.  Thanks for all the great info.  It is very much appreciated.    Bet

[paulr]

Ugh...  Don't get me started on "reality" shows.     I don't know a single person that likes them, yet there must be tons of people out there that do - I just have never met one.

An interesting note about my TV viewing habits since I started using SageTV...  I have rediscovered some truly excellent programming!  I now regularly watch Nova and Nature which broadcast on PBS as well as a couple of other PBS shows.  There are also some other decent educational programs on various other channels.  Also, shows which I would always forget about, like Monk, Keen Eddie, etc...

What you do is set them up as favorites (so that they record automatically) and whenever there is nothing on TV (as is the case a lot lately), scroll through the list of programs that have been recorded and pick one.  It's truly changed the way I use the TV!

If you use the Intelligent Recording feature, Sage will quickly learn your likes and dislikes and record stuff for you without intervention.

Paul

[bebop]

You still get Keen Eddie??!!!  They took it off the air here.  We are so disadvantaged with Shaw...don't get the Sci-Fi channel, or Nova. Seems that there is a real need for  good story writers out there.  Now seems to be a "formula and spin off" decade as far as TV goes.  They take a show like CSI (which I really like) then duplicate the he** out of it until no one wants to watch any of them.  Or change one or all of the main characters (1-800- Missing) and the whole flavour of the thing is changed, and not for the better. Guess it's Kids In The Hall reruns for me.   Bet

[paulr]

Hmm... We were getting Keen Eddie, but it's not showing up at the moment.  Hopefully we are just in the off-season lull.  The original CSI was a pretty decent show, but CSI Miami is terrible.

Don't fret it about the Sci-Fi channel.  It's almost all crap these days.  They have their "reality" shows, and there is a disturbing trend towards paranormal junk shows.  Of the only two good shows they had, Stargate SG-1 and Farscape, Farscape was canceled...  Then they diluted SG-1 by spinning off a thread into Atlantis (which isn't very good).  Almost every decision they make these days is bad.

I predict a huge backlash against all this programming within a couple of years.  But, of course, I could be wrong.  =/

[bebop]

I hear you, brother!  (now gonna listen to some '60s protest tunes in solidarity for better programming!!)  Bet