Has anyone seen a SATA-II drive transfer faster than SATA-I speeds ? and NCQ doesn't help much there either.

Go here to read about HDD performance n results. Lots of actual benchmarks n screenies from our very own LYN members.

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/351064

is SATA III means Barracuda series from seagate? any difference vs sata II?

There's SATA 1.5Gbps and SATA 3.0Gbps at the moment (SATA 6.0Gbps is in the pipeline for the future). "SATA I" (1.5Gbps) theoretically can transmit up to 150MB/s, but in real world it is about 100-120MB/s. This is the 1st generation of SATA (which is about the same speed as a fast IDE PATA drive which runs on the current Ultra-ATA/133 interface). 2nd gen SATA 3.0Gbps (which is referred to unofficially as "SATA II") could theoretically go up to 300MB/s but at current tech does about 200-250MB/s. Nowadays in LYN all new SATA HDDs are 3.0Gbps and some shops call these SATA III. AFAIK SATA III refers to SATA 3.0 (or SATA II if you prefer) and is not a term exclusive to any manufacturer.

If your mobo supports SATA1.5Gbps transfer rates (mostly newer P4 mobos), do not despair, cos all SATA HDDs come with a jumper set to 1.5Gbps for maximum compatibility. If your mobo supports SATA 3.0 (current mobos) then simply remove the jumper. I haven't tried leaving the jumper on to see if the throughput is indeed limited to 1.5Gbps, maybe someone with an open PC can try it and report?

Cheers

Real world sustained transfer rates are a lot lower than 100-120mb/s

I believe even the 150gb raptor does about 80-90mb/s

Personally, i don't think burst transfer rates make a significant difference to real world performance.. for example game loading.. even if they might use the full sata/sata2 bandwidth.

Really, SATA II no advantage over SATA I at all unless u want to setup >>4 hard disk RAID configuration...

SATAII also support NCQ and hot plug. i think advantages is not speed but features

But almost double in transfer rate is definitely something awesome. Cant deny that.

I thought as much... I wonder if you don't need NCQ and hot plug you'd be better off at SATA-I ..

as i know raptor 10k using sata 1

so at 74 gig raptor sata1 vs 80 gig sata 2 or 3..

overall performance..which is faster?

Don't be lazy - see post 2 above. Lots of people have done work on benchmarking hard drive speeds.

Double the bandwidth for transfers doesn't matter one bit when the hdd itself is physically slow to read/write data. Gigabit ethernet anyone?

At the end of the day, any new mobo will come installed with sata 2. I don't think sata 2 hdd are significantly more expensive than sata hdd. So the question is, is it worth upgrading just for sata 2? The answer for me at least is no. If you're building a new pc and you're getting a sata drive does it matter if it's 1 or 2? Well, yes because they only choice is between ide and sata2 for new stock at most computer stores anyway.

Edit: you're talking about a budget 80gig sata2 vs a raptor?

3 factors for speed:

Platter density
RPM
Cache


This post has been edited by Kidicarus: Sep 3 2007, 02:27 PM

of course raptor pWn normal drive in term of performance and price.

moreover, there is no sata3. it's sata 3.0Gbps....