Better Than Velociraptor Speed for About Half the Price

Markel · 07-20-2009, 10:20 PM

This is pretty cool. This article shows how to modify a 1.5GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS to turn it into a 300GB drive that outperforms a 300GB Velociraptor in almost every category. Seeing that the Seagate drive goes for about $120 and the Velociraptor goes for around $230, it's not such a bad deal losing 1.2GB of capacity. And if you want to sacrifice a bit of that speed (and still beat the Velociraptor) you can make it into an 819GB drive. Pretty interesting.

http://www.techwarelabs.com/seagate_1-5tb-mod/

johnnymk · 07-20-2009, 10:36 PM

Unfortunately, the 7200.11 series drives are unreliable.

InfiniteNothing · 07-20-2009, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Markel

This is pretty cool. This article shows how to modify a 1.5GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS to turn it into a 300GB drive that outperforms a 300GB Velociraptor in almost every category. Seeing that the Seagate drive goes for about $120 and the Velociraptor goes for around $230, it's not such a bad deal losing 1.2GB of capacity. And if you want to sacrifice a bit of that speed (and still beat the Velociraptor) you can make it into an 819GB drive. Pretty interesting.

http://www.techwarelabs.com/seagate_1-5tb-mod/

Good ol' partition the drive trick (essentially)

GraingerGuy · 07-21-2009, 01:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnymk

Unfortunately, the 7200.11 series drives are unreliable.

Thought they solved that with a firmware update?

Jeffbx · 07-21-2009, 05:18 AM

Did anyone benchmark it, tho? I can see the theory behind it, but I want to see how much it actually improves the speed.

johnnymk · 07-21-2009, 07:05 AM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148337

26% of buyers rate it only "1", and some of those buyers bought them recently. That's too high of a gamble for me, especially possibly losing a ton of data on such a large drive.

Markel · 07-21-2009, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeffbx

Did anyone benchmark it, tho? I can see the theory behind it, but I want to see how much it actually improves the speed.

The article I linked has benchmarks. And this trick is a bit more than "partition the drive" - it's "limit the drive size so it only uses the fastest part of the platters".

Jeffbx · 07-21-2009, 05:08 PM

Oh duh - I see them. Helps when you turn the page.

I'm going to have to pick up one of these & give this a try. Johnny has a valid point tho - these have terribily high failure rates. Hopefully the newer ones will be more stable?

Markel · 07-21-2009, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeffbx

I'm going to have to pick up one of these & give this a try. Johnny has a valid point tho - these have terribily high failure rates. Hopefully the newer ones will be more stable?

I've read that they have some firmware upgrades that are supposed to address the issues.

johnnymk · 07-21-2009, 06:45 PM

There has got to be a reason that incredible deals for the 7200.11 drives are all over the web. Dell had a deal last week...2 for $199, that's ridiculously cheap. It appears that Seagate is doing any and all things to dump these drives to unsuspecting buyers.

07-20-2009, 10:20 PM	#1
Markel Chief of Naval Operations Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 11,733	Better Than Velociraptor Speed for About Half the Price This is pretty cool. This article shows how to modify a 1.5GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS to turn it into a 300GB drive that outperforms a 300GB Velociraptor in almost every category. Seeing that the Seagate drive goes for about $120 and the Velociraptor goes for around $230, it's not such a bad deal losing 1.2GB of capacity. And if you want to sacrifice a bit of that speed (and still beat the Velociraptor) you can make it into an 819GB drive. Pretty interesting. http://www.techwarelabs.com/seagate_1-5tb-mod/ __________________ stay low... keep moving...

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07-20-2009, 10:36 PM	#2
johnnymk Chief of Naval Operations Join Date: May 2000 Location: LEVITTOWN< PA> USA Posts: 13,621	Unfortunately, the 7200.11 series drives are unreliable.

07-21-2009, 05:18 AM	#5
Jeffbx Fleet Admiral Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: Michigan Posts: 9,390	Did anyone benchmark it, tho? I can see the theory behind it, but I want to see how much it actually improves the speed.

07-21-2009, 07:05 AM	#6
johnnymk Chief of Naval Operations Join Date: May 2000 Location: LEVITTOWN< PA> USA Posts: 13,621	http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148337 26% of buyers rate it only "1", and some of those buyers bought them recently. That's too high of a gamble for me, especially possibly losing a ton of data on such a large drive.

07-21-2009, 05:08 PM	#8
Jeffbx Fleet Admiral Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: Michigan Posts: 9,390	Oh duh - I see them. Helps when you turn the page. I'm going to have to pick up one of these & give this a try. Johnny has a valid point tho - these have terribily high failure rates. Hopefully the newer ones will be more stable?

07-21-2009, 06:45 PM	#10
johnnymk Chief of Naval Operations Join Date: May 2000 Location: LEVITTOWN< PA> USA Posts: 13,621	There has got to be a reason that incredible deals for the 7200.11 drives are all over the web. Dell had a deal last week...2 for $199, that's ridiculously cheap. It appears that Seagate is doing any and all things to dump these drives to unsuspecting buyers.

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