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Vsx1 · May 7, 2001, 08:55 PM

has anyone been able to find high perf FW HD's? I see that SCSI now supports 15k rpm drives but i can't find anything faster than 7200 rpm in the FW world!!! any suggestions? is there a hardware limitation? thanx!

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Vsx1
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austeros · May 7, 2001, 08:59 PM

i dont think anyone makes a native firewire harddrive yet. when they do, you can be they will.

i just cant wait..

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-rok

Paul S · May 8, 2001, 12:31 PM

All FW hard drives are just IDE drives in a case with a bridge chip. IDE maxes out at 7200 for now. That's why there's nothing faster. Putting SCSI drives in the case would be more expensive, which is probably one reason no one's making one of those yet, not to mention SCSI ID issues that most general consumers might have difficulty with.

Vsx1 · May 10, 2001, 11:00 AM

2 questions:

what's a bridge chip?

why is IDE limited to 7200 rpm?

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Vsx1
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Paul S · May 10, 2001, 12:45 PM

The bridge chip is just an adapter from an IDE interface to a FW interface. I don't know if there is a technical limitation on the rpms of an IDE/ATA drive, but 7200 is the fastest thing out there right now. If I were to guess, it's a cost thing. IDE drives are incredibly cheap compared to their capacity, and everyone is buying them up. If they get more expensive, drive makers may see a decline in sales.