WD Raptor drives in external USB2 housing useful?

RichBa5tard · 14th October 2005, 11:15

As i'm very fond of my laptop, but bothered with the extremely slow & expensive laptopdrives of today, i'm considering buying an external housing with a raptor 10k drive in it.

The drives are very fast, but won't the usb2 interface be a very limitting factor? It would be a shame to buy such a drive if usb adds 5 millisec to the 5.2ms access time.

Access time is important, not throughput. It wouldn't be used for storage but compiling / editing / copying thousands of very little files.

Bosw8er · 14th October 2005, 11:35

How are you going to connect a sata drive to an usb-port ?
... can't find the housing you want to use

jmke · 14th October 2005, 11:36

USB2 has worse access times than Firewire, which has A LOT worse access times than PATA/SATA
the 10k drive is known for having extremely good ACCESS times

so in short: it's a waste of money, get a very large slower drive (even 5200rpm is good

) and you are good to go!

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=173

Quote:

.. can't find the housing you want to use

are you kidding? http://www.eynstein.nl/Artikel.php?ID=4514

Bosw8er · 14th October 2005, 11:44

Quote:

Originally posted by jmke
are you kidding? http://www.eynstein.nl/Artikel.php?ID=4514

How is he going to connect that housing to an usb-port ?

Mad-soldering-skillz ?

jmke · 14th October 2005, 11:56

seriously.. it exists.. http://comtechnology.be/shop/product...ucts_id=902222

that product has been on the market ever since the introduction of SATA

Bosw8er · 14th October 2005, 11:59

aha ! nice !
Bummer the laptop hasn't got a sata-port

jmke · 14th October 2005, 13:32

*sigh*

http://comtechnology.be/shop/product...ucts_id=902207

Bosw8er · 14th October 2005, 13:43

hehe, my answer should have been more elaborate

case if
laptop_connectors like 'usb2'
then performance = 'low'
print "Bummer the laptop hasn't got a sata-port"
if
laptop_connectors like 'sata'
then performance = 'very good'
print "miep miep"
end if

Bosw8er · 14th October 2005, 13:47

tadaaaaa

jmke · 14th October 2005, 13:48

yes, most confusing

there are a few laptops out there with SATA, but they are high end and quite pricy

edit: PCMCIA is nice solution,

14th October 2005, 11:15	#1
RichBa5tard [M] Reviewer/HWBot ***** Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 3,344	WD Raptor drives in external USB2 housing useful? As i'm very fond of my laptop, but bothered with the extremely slow & expensive laptopdrives of today, i'm considering buying an external housing with a raptor 10k drive in it. The drives are very fast, but won't the usb2 interface be a very limitting factor? It would be a shame to buy such a drive if usb adds 5 millisec to the 5.2ms access time. Access time is important, not throughput. It wouldn't be used for storage but compiling / editing / copying thousands of very little files. __________________ HTPC (mac osx): Mac Mini \| Core Duo 1.6Ghz \| 2GB DDR2 \| 26\" TFT Development (mac osx): Macbook \| Core 2 2.0Ghz \| 4GB DDR2 \| 250GB HD Games (win xp): E2160 @ 2.4Ghz \| HD3850 OC \| Asrock 4coredual-vsta \| 2GB DDR2

14th October 2005, 11:35	#2
Bosw8er Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 3,711	How are you going to connect a sata drive to an usb-port ? ... can't find the housing you want to use __________________ "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

14th October 2005, 11:56	#5
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	seriously.. it exists.. http://comtechnology.be/shop/product...ucts_id=902222 that product has been on the market ever since the introduction of SATA __________________

14th October 2005, 11:59	#6
Bosw8er Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 3,711	aha ! nice ! Bummer the laptop hasn't got a sata-port __________________ "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

14th October 2005, 13:32	#7
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	sigh http://comtechnology.be/shop/product...ucts_id=902207 __________________

14th October 2005, 13:43	#8
Bosw8er Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 3,711	hehe, my answer should have been more elaborate case if laptop_connectors like 'usb2' then performance = 'low' print "Bummer the laptop hasn't got a sata-port" if laptop_connectors like 'sata' then performance = 'very good' print "miep miep" end if __________________ "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

14th October 2005, 13:47	#9
Bosw8er Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 3,711	tadaaaaa __________________ "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

14th October 2005, 13:48	#10
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	yes, most confusing there are a few laptops out there with SATA, but they are high end and quite pricy edit: PCMCIA is nice solution, __________________

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