On Wed, 3 Nov 2004 21:22:20 +0100, "Joris Dobbelsteen"
wrote:

Besides this these disks are way to expensive and you get much better
performance and several times the storage space by spending that money on a
RAID array.

Why you need a Cheetah 15k disk?

Compared to low-end RAID, 1 or 2 of these drives would still bring
incredible responsiveness but with much higher reliability, simplicity
of installation, maintenance, & potential troubleshooting down the
line, as well as less power consumption, heat, or potential PSU
issues.

You simply cannot compare the overall user productivity and computing
experience with 1 or 2 good enterprise quality drives to a personal
storage caliber 'array'. IMHO RAID is not worth doing without a
decent controller and disks as reliable as cheetahs - so doing it
'right' wouldn't save and money. Plus if he is planning to frequently
power cycle, RAID of any caliber is the last thing you want to
recommend (for multiple reliability-related reasons for starters).


- Joris

"Ronny Mandal" wrote in message
...
Hi.

I have a question.

I am really eager to buy a Seagate Cheetah 15K rmp disk for my
workstation.
The only issue is that I've heard that these disks are not suitable for
frequently power on/off, i.e. turning off the computer once or twice+ a
day.

modern enterprise drives should be fine power cycling a couple times
per day for several years. While personal storage devices are more
geared to this use both have a limit before affecting reliability - so
it's not ideal in either case.

They're more suitable to be left on, in e.g. a server, and that it is
hazardous to power on/off frequently.

Is this correct?

Sort of. You might also not want to go too long without powering off
these drives for relaibility reasons also.

The fluid bearing cheetahs are wonderful & have an excellent track
record. Highly reliable, durable, quiet, and extremely responsive. I
wouldn't worry too much & consider it a safe purchase you shouldn't
regret.

Any add-on controller (SCSI, SCSI RAID, ATA RAID, SATA RAID) may
affect power features and may be more of a concern (resuming power may
be delayed or poor drivers may prohibit certain power features.) So
the simpler the disk subsystem the more likely you will have success
using various convenience related features associated with turning on
the computer a few times/day.

Today's computers in general are less temperamental and susceptible to
problems from frequent power cycling but it is still not ideal. If
you have a good machine why not leave it on a good deal of the time
and have it do stuff for you or have it available to access if you
need something but are away?