[michaelb]

Having just completed my Mac Pro order (yay), I'm a bit amused by some of the option descriptions, especially these:

The hard drives are described as "3GB/s" but... the SATA II bus may support 3 gigabits traveling over the wire per second, but no way in hell are these 7200 rpm drives going to offer anything near that level of transfer! Try a 1/50th of Apple's speed as written.

If you're very lucky with Apple's choice of manufacturer, you'll get 40 to 60 MB/s (that's megabytes). Even a 10,000 rpm Raptor can't do much more than 50 to 75 MB/s sustained read. (The lower speed range occurs near the end of the disk.)

I'm just waiting for my Mac Pro to come, then I'm going to ring Apple and say, "but you promised me a 3GB/s hard drive, dammit!"

Just a bit amused, that's all. Even if it isn't deceptive advertising, making a big deal of a so-called"3GB/s" bus seems funny given the current state of hard drive speeds.

Edit: changed my gigabytes to gigabits. Apple is most definitely using "3GB/s" (uppercase B for byte) when they should be using "3Gb/s" (lowercase b for bit) or "3Gbits/sec" to make it really clear.

[michaelb]

And another thing, when Blu-ray drives become a BTO option, what are they going to put next to the "SuperDrive" option...

"HyperDrive?"

Cool!

[Jonaziz]

They didn't promise you a 3GB/s drive, just a 3GB/s bus... on the bright site you're ready for the future.

[michaelb]

I know, I was joking!

It's just the way they write sort of makes you feel you're getting a really fast drive.

[mduell]

That's 3Gb/s, which comes out to 300MB/s after 8B/10B encoding.

The latest Raptors can push 88MB/s, and even the 7200RPM drives are getting up to 74MB/s, so in the lifetime of a Mac Pro it's reasonable to assume that drives will pass the 150MB/s of SATA150.

[bowwowman]

BUT, with the next generation of HD tech coming, their speeds will be steadily increasing. And the way tech is leapfrogging itself nowdays, it wont be too long before 3GB/s will be considered as slow.

So, consider yourself & your mac a good bit more future-proof than the G5's were when they came out.....

and most importantly: be HAPPY

[ajprice]

Originally Posted by michaelb

And another thing, when Blu-ray drives become a BTO option, what are they going to put next to the "SuperDrive" option...

"HyperDrive?"

Cool!

SuperDuperDrive Extreme!!!

[rotuts]

cheers

Im moments away from by order for the "pro" md and other in other threads have been very very helpful.

but on the HD: it seems to be much cheaper to get the 'base' 250GB and then add later. a 500gb sata on price watch was 190.

BUT: look at the pics on apples web site: what are those metal 'sleaves' attached?? do all SATA's have those??

cheers

eagerly awat your reply so I can Order!!!!

rotuts

[Cadaver]

Originally Posted by rotuts

BUT: look at the pics on apples web site: what are those metal 'sleaves' attached?? do all SATA's have those??

Those are the drive mounting brackets for the MacPro. All 4 come with the machine, but are empty unless you order the computer filled will additional hard drives.

You take your drive mechanism, bolt it to the empty cage, and slide it in. No cables to attach. Very slick.

[freakboy2]

if the info is cached on the drive then it will go a little faster.. lol..

[rotuts]

since this thread really is about drive speeds

is there any benefit to partitioning the 500GB SATAII 16MB buffer into two and putting the boot on one and storage on the other?

cheers and thanks

rotuts

[OreoCookie]

Rotuts, please start a new thread