The Computer with no name has passed...

[Chernabog]

I'm pondering the idea of another hard drive myself, but I'd probably want an internal because I'm out of USB ports lol. I'm at that stage where I'm having to delete programs to add programs and burn porn onto DVDs.

I'm gonna git me an air duster tho next time I'm at office depot, I wanna get my ps3 dusted as well -- and I need a new printer anyway because, like clockwork, my HP Printer's paper feed mechanism died. Every two years, I swear I am buying a new printer because the old one's paper feed mechanism conks out and just starts shredding stuff. Freshly printed items look like they spent a week on Not Afraid's floor

[Disneyphile]

Originally Posted by Chernabog

I'm gonna git me an air duster tho next time I'm at office depot

Costco has 4-packs of 'em for $10. We also use them on collectibles. Those things are lifesavers.

[Moonliner]

Humm... Obsessing over the specs for Son-of-no-name I wonder if anyone knows....

The motherboard has a single SATA chain with 3 connectors. The first two will go to the Segate 750GB SATA 3gb/s drives. The third will be for the Samsung SATA DVD burner that runs at the older 1.5gb/s spec.

Will having the DVD burner on the same chain drag down the speed of the drives to 1.5gb/s or can SATA deal with different speed devices on the same chain? So far Google is letting me down on this one.


EDITED TO ADD:

From this knowledgeable sounding post, it looks like I do have a problem.

Originally Posted by Smart Guy

SATA, like PATA or USB, is backward-compatible.. but not forward compatible. Whatever the slower speed of either the device or the controller, that is all you will realize. If using a USB 2.0 device on a USB 1.0 port, it may not be recognized at all.. but any USB 1.0 device on a USB 2.0 port would. Just that the speed would be maximized at whichever device is slower. With a SATA or IDE drive, the device will work properly, but if the controller or device has the slower speed, that is all you will achieve. SATA is superior to PATA or IDE setups.. one device per controller, unlike the previous IDE setup which has two devices maximum per controller. If you connect two devices with different speeds, the slower device will govern all data speed.
SCSI is still superior, where different data speed devices can be connected to the same controller, without defaulting to the slowest device's data rate.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

It'd be nice to replace it with a 7200rpm firewire drive.

Originally Posted by Disneyphile

Firewire drives are awesome.

If you have the option, take a look at eSATA over Firewire.

Originally Posted by SATA FAQ

eSATA: (External SATA) - External device interface specification including new shielded connector and a shielded cable up to two meters in length. The external connector is keyed so it cannot be accidentally plugged into an internal connector. eSATA is up to 6 times faster than existing external storage solutions such as USB 2.0 or 1394

[CoasterMatt]

SATA controllers will address the device at the speed it supports, so it would communicate with the DVD drive at the 1.5gb/s rate and the hard drives at the full 3.0gb/s rate.

According to Wikipedia:

SATA/300's transfer rate is expected to satisfy drive throughput requirements for some time, as the fastest desktop hard disks barely saturate a SATA/150 link. This is why a SATA data cable rated for 1.5 Gbit/s will currently handle second generation, SATA 3.0 Gbit/s sustained and burst data transfers without any loss of performance.

I did some tests with my own system, using SiSoft Sandra and Everest, and even when burning a CD, the HD (a Sata/300 160gb 7200rpm drive) performance didn't drop off during benchmarking.

YMMV

In other news, I've been drafted to build my first 8 core machine - of course, it won't be for my own use, but it'll be fun putting it together.

[Ghoulish Delight]

SATA controllers will address the device at the speed it supports, so it would communicate with the DVD drive at the 1.5gb/s rate and the hard drives at the full 3.0gb/s rate.

According to Wikipedia:

I did some tests with my own system, using SiSoft Sandra and Everest, and even when burning a CD, the HD (a Sata/300 160gb 7200rpm drive) performance didn't drop off during benchmarking.

Were the burner and the hard drive on the same SATA cable? The info above does not contradict the info Moonliner posted. A SATA cable/controller may be able to handle a single device that's rated at a higher speed, but that's different than speed negotiating between multiple devices on the same link. It may not suck all the bandwidth, however it may only be able to handle a single clock rate.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by CoasterMatt

SATA controllers will address the device at the speed it supports, so it would communicate with the DVD drive at the 1.5gb/s rate and the hard drives at the full 3.0gb/s rate.

Damn. Perhaps I should have stayed with the SATA DVD burner. Oh well, I have the IDE version now and I'm sure that will do.

[CoasterMatt]

Sata devices use individual cables, not chained cables like pata.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by CoasterMatt

Sata devices use individual cables, not chained cables like pata.

Smacks forhead. Oh yeah, duh.

[Kevy Baby]

And the knee bone connects to the thigh bone...