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Western Digital Blue - 6 gb/sec


opentoe

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So the only reason WD made this drive 6gb/sec is for raid use? Bummer! I guess I just want fiber speeds!

That drive cannot sustain 6gb/s, the sata link can.  It is only the communications to/from the drive that is faster not the rotational speed of the disk. The basic physics do not chage, a single drive will still top out at just over 100 MB/s. The number of bits per cylinder and rotational speed will dictate the overall throughput.
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So the only reason WD made this drive 6gb/sec is for raid use? Bummer! I guess I just want fiber speeds!

That drive cannot sustain 6gb/s, the sata link can.  It is only the communications to/from the drive that is faster not the rotational speed of the disk. The basic physics do not chage, a single drive will still top out at just over 100 MB/s. The number of bits per cylinder and rotational speed will dictate the overall throughput.

 

Kind of like attaching a fire hose to your home's hose bib.  The firehose can carry a lot more water than the hose bib is able to supply.

 

There are three ways I can think of where this extra speed could help ...

 

1.  If the drive has cached some data, it can deliver it in a hurry.  But it such a little bit (32M/64M), it is insignificant.

 

2.  If you are using some type of port multiplier, where multiple drives are communicating through a single SATA port.  Would take quite a few to saturate the bus, but could come in handy.

 

3.  New drive technology could result in much faster drives.  SSD shows promise.  Current drives are no where near fast enough to saturate the current bus, but we'll have to wait and see what happens in the future.

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