ive been using 2 of these drives in a RAID 0 array for about 2 years, but the drives i currently have only run at SATA I speeds, so i need to get 4 new drives.
i called western digital just to ask them a few things about the drives, and the tech i spoke to seemed pretty new, but he went and asked his supervisor a question or 2 and came back on the phone and said that the Caviar SE class of drives wasnt designed to run in a RAID array, that i should get something from their Caviar RE series.
can someone tell me what the relevant difference are between the 2 types of drives? i read about them on Western Digital's web site, but i didnt quite understand why one would be superior to the other. the obvious differences to me were:
-the size, the smallest RE class drive available is 160 gigs, where i was just planning to go with 80 gig SE class drives, 4 80 gig hard drives in a RAID 0 would make one 320 gig C drive. Way more then enough for me, i have other mirrored RAID sets that hold my pictures and personal things. currently theres about 20 gigs on my C drive.
-and the price. the RE drives cost about 20 dollars more, and buying 4 of them it seems like a significant amount of money. especially since i havent had any problems at all with the RAID array that i currently have set up with 2 Caviar SE WD800JD drives. (of course the ones im currently using are SATA I with a 1.5 transfer rate and the ones im getting are going to be SATA II with a 3.0 transfer rate)
id love some insight into this before i go out and spend an extra 80 dollars
thanks for your help
-Josh
Sign In
Create Account
