Storage (HDD, DVD, CD-R)
This content was originally featured on Amdmb.com and has been converted to PC Perspective’s website. Some color changes and flaws may appear.
Controller – AMI MegaRAID Elite 1600 SCSI RAID Controller – $850To be the Ultimate System, it is necessary to jump away from the world of IDE and embrace the world of SCSI storage systems. And this is just the device to do it. In Dieu’s recent review of it we saw that it outperforms all previously test SCSI and RAID equipment in speed and reliability. In fact, it this controller that is powering the Amdmb.com server right now.
Using the four hard drives listed below and putting them all in a RAID 0 (stripping) array, and you will get blistering fast speed unseen on any IDE systems.
Hard Drive – 4 x Seagate Cheetah II 15,000 RPM SCSI – $365 each ($1460 total)
If you are going to get the ultimate controller card, you should also get the fastest hard drives available. At more than double the spin rate of the standard IDE drive and having a much higher transfer rate, coupled with the use of a RAID 0 array on the AMI Elite 1600 card, you will have the best storage solution currently available – hands down. Our SCSI hard drives were provided by the fine folks at TC Computers.
DVD – Hitachi GF 2050 DVD-RAM – $450
Purchasing a DVD-RAM drive now, while the prices are somewhat might seem rash, but just consider yourself to be preparing for the future on the industry. 🙂 The Hitachi drive, besides being one of the first two available to the consumer market, has received excellent marks from major publications like PC World. It is fast, fun, and hell, you can make your own DVD movies! How cool is that?
CD-RW – Plextor PlexWriter 16/10/40 CD-RW – $170
Even with a DVD-RAM drive, the need for a standard CD-RW is still there. Not only do you cut down on the use of your very expensive and fragile Hitachi DVD-RAM drive, but it also allows you to do disk-to-disk copies and do reads and installs faster. The Plextor CD-Rs have always been know for their quality. Whether you choose to go with an IDE or SCSI solution (the price goes up for SCSI, however) you will enjoy the speed at which the drives write and read. Their is an incredibly few ‘coaster CDs’ be caused by the drive itself, even coupled with the sometime buggy Roxio EZ CD Creator 5.
