I've got 3 identical SATA drives and 1 PATA drive I'm not currently using (200GB+ each). I need to convert them to external Firewire (400 only). This is what I've come up with. Any better solutions?
1 SATA->IDE per drive
http://www.shopaddonics.com/Itemdesc.as ... ic=ADSAIDE
1 External case per 2 drives
http://fwdepot.com/thestore/product_inf ... c76200808e
How much of a performance hit is there? I'm not too worried about burst transfer, but minimum throughput will be an issue. Also, are there any issues with mixing a converted SATA and standard IDE drive - in a raid 0 fashion? I know I'd like to raid 0 the enclosure that has 2 SATA (again, if not too much of a performance hit) and if it's possible, the PATA+SATA as well.
Converting these to external SATA isn't an option. USB2 is also an option, but I'm not familiar with the stability of an external USB2 drive or if they can be daisychained.
Thoughts?
SATA
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Underpants?
- Posts: 4755
- Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2001 7:00 am
performance hit's a tough one.... mostly dependent on system specs (stuff like fsb, pci bridge type and bandwidth etc.) are you using usb 2.0/firewire for external? an add-in card.. such as a really kick ass external port sata card might be your friend if your system's a bit sluggish in your first run
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JulesWinnfield
- Posts: 625
- Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:09 pm
Thanks for the followup!
Actually, instead today I bought some 300gb PATA drives ($199 down to $135 instant savings @ CompUSA) and some cheapo external firewire cases. I'm going to sell the SATA drives. Probably take a minor $$ hit compared to what I bought them for, but not really a big deal. I figured for what it would cost to make them usable it was cheaper to get something new and get a healthy 'rebate' via eBay.
Actually, instead today I bought some 300gb PATA drives ($199 down to $135 instant savings @ CompUSA) and some cheapo external firewire cases. I'm going to sell the SATA drives. Probably take a minor $$ hit compared to what I bought them for, but not really a big deal. I figured for what it would cost to make them usable it was cheaper to get something new and get a healthy 'rebate' via eBay.