Purchase advice sought: Seagate SATA 7200.8 or 7200.9 ?

I'm about to order a Seagate SATA 300 GB internal drive, either 7200.8 or 7200.9. The 7200.9 version has a larger cache (16 MB) than the 7200.8 version (8 MB). Does the cache make much of a difference? (I do primarily Photoshop work with RAW camera files, but also some video production in iMovie and, perhaps some day, FCP.)
The 7200.8 models are readily available while the 7200.9 models are a bit scarce (presumably because Seagate has yet to fully re-stock vendors with Mac-friendly, SSC-disabled drives). Would I be buying a "lesser" drive if I get the 7200.8 model now, or should I wait for the 7200.9? In other words, is the 7200.9 more drive than I need? (The 7200.9 version uses SATA II, which, as I understand it, my G5 can't take advantage of anyway.)
Power Mac G5 Dual 2.5   Mac OS X (10.4.2)  

If you buy a 7200.9 you'll have to disable SSC, which
requires that the drive be installed in a PC. I hear
that you can buy a 7200.9 from OWC and they'll
disable it for you.
I spoke to a Seagate rep in early January. He said that Seagate had actually retrieved some shipments of these drives and was planning on disabling them at the factory from now on. He advised that I wait a few weeks until vendors had the "Mac-friendly" versions back in stock. Some vendors are aware of the issue (e.g. ClubMac, and apparently OWC), others are not (e.g. CDW). If ClubMac doesn't get them in soon, I'll try OWC.
The 7200.8 is a fine drive but will be slower than
the 7200.9 due to the cache difference. If you're
going to use the new drive as your scratch disk I
believe you'll notice the difference in photoshop.
OK. That's what I had thought.
Should you wait? Do you need the drive now?
Not really, but I have space now for only a partial backup, so it's just a matter of how much longer I want to tempt fate. I couple more weeks is probably my limit.
Thanks for the info, Mike.
-syncrasy
Power Mac G5 Dual 2.5   Mac OS X (10.4.2)  

Similar Messages

  • Pb installing Panther on 500GB Seagate SATA/300

    I'm trying to install a 500GB Seagate SATA/300 to replace my original 250 GB Maxtor which is fried. I have a 2005 PowerMac G5. I put the drive in the top bay. I went straight to install but the Seagate drive would not show up. Following Apple's instructions (article 303220), I used Disk Utility to erase, then partition the drive using Mac OS extended, one partition. But I keep getting the icon of the drive with the red exclamation point. I've read in other forums that perhaps a 2005 PowerMac G5 cannot handle drives larger than 400GB.
    Any thoughts? thanks!

    Hi-
    Welcome to Discussions!
    Booted from the OS install disk, in Disk Utility, you were able to see the drive before formatting? After formatting, the drive isn't available for OS installation?
    Did you lock the drive? Password protect? What is the formatted capacity (according to Disk Utility?
    Your G5 will support as large a drive as you an purchase.......

  • Best place to get pre-purchase advice from Microsoft? (UK)

    Hi,
    I'm trying to find a way to get in touch with an Azure Sales Representative to ask some specific questions about a project a client has asked us to work on for them.
    I couldn't find any live chat or email options for pre-purchase advice, so if anybody could guide me in the right direction that would be great.
    We have used Azure a number of times, but I'd like to ask some questions unique to this project, and directly to the sales team if possible.
    If I have answered your question, please mark it as the correct answer. If I have provided helpful information, please mark it as so.

    Hi,
    This is technical forum, about this issue, I suggest you contact support directory, it's the best choice for you. Please contact support team by creating a support ticket at
    http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/support/contact/
    Or if that doesn't work because you don't have an active subscription you will need to contact general customer support to have them create a support ticket for you
    http://support.microsoft.com/gp/customer-service-phone-numbers?wa=wsignin1.0
    Best Regards,
    Jambor
    We are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time. Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.
    Click
    HERE to participate the survey.

  • Lose Seagate SATA when A: Boot

    I have tried numerous boot disks and there all the same
    c: invalid drive....... F**K I am running an Seagate SATA 120G ....23A. It seems Auto detect looks for the drive during normal booting now as before it flashed and then it was gone. My Lite-on won't do jack either
      Does the controller or  require a DOS driver to detect SATA?

    your drives ntfs,a boot disk cannot read it only fat 32
    http://www.msi.com.tw/html/support/bios/note/ntfs.htm
    if trying to flash bios

  • Mac OS wont recognize  new Seagate SATA hard drive...

    My original seagate SATA 250G drive failed, trying to replace it with a Seagate 2G SATA, booting up snow leapard from the disk, Disk utilities doesn't detect the drive at all, so I can't reformat or partition it.  Read some info from seagate, but don't understand why i might need a host adapter card if the computer already had a SATA drive in it already... Any suggestions before I give up?  It is an old mac pro, first or second gen, used it all the time and has never failed me until now.  Both the broken drive and new drive are internal drives.. 

    You should not need a Host adapter to install a SATA drive in a SATA bay.
    But any mis-alignment at any stage can cause the drive connector to hit, rather than engage the backplane connector. The drive connector must fully mate with the connector at the back of the bay.
    • You must snug, but not over-tighten the screws at each position with the exact correct #0 Phillips screwdriver to get comparable torque on each screw.
    • The drive must then be inserted so that each roof tang catches the correct part of the sled. If one is bypassed the drive will be cocked in the bay and not mate.

  • I can't install Win XP in a Seagate SATA drive

    Hello, first i tell you that i am from Portugal so the english is not my first language
    I have a MB MSI865PE LS and i recently buy a seagate 160 Gb SATA the drive is recognized in the BIOS and in the Win XP but when i try to make the SATA as a Win XP Bootable disk the computer do not boot from the disk, it make the first part of the Win setup allright and the SATA (The only HD Drive conected) is recognized in the setup and formated, but when the setup rebbot the computer to make the first boot in Win XP it goes every time to the CD ROM i try various BIOS setups and various Boot Sequence Setups and the F11 BOOT MENU and even when i disconect the CD ROM and the only drive is the SATA after the BIOS posts (The is always recognized in BIOS) the screen stays blank with the bliking cursor.
    I read some posts and try some diferente solutions but i cant make the Win XP boot from the SEAGATE SATA :(((
    If someone can help i'm apreciate
    Thanks
    Paulo
    P4 2.4
    MSI865PE LS
    1Gb RAM 333
    160 SATA (Hope) + 40 Gb + 20Gb*3 SCSIs
    Nvidia TI4200

    1. In Bios Integrated Peripherals>>On-Chip IDE Config:
    Set Native Mode
    Set SATA Only
    Set Keep PATA Active-Yes
    Set PATA Channels- Both
    Leave other stuff at default
    2. In Bios Advanced Features
    Set ACPI APIC SCSI IRQ - Enabled
    3. Reboot and in Bios Advanced Features>>Boot Device Config
    Set devices you want to boot from including the floppy, CDRom, and SATA drive
    4. Reboot to the XP setup CD and try install again
    Let us know if it works.

  • K8m neo-v mobo dont detect seagate sata hdd st3808110as

    k8m neo-v mobo dont detect seagate sata hdd st3808110as 80gb
    bios dont detect the sata hdd.
    any help would be appreciated thanks.

    so thats it.
    thanks alot tiresmoke. i really appreciate it.
    btw. does the seagate sata hdd have a different jumper from the ide hdd? because my seagate hdd dont have any jumpers. i tried using the ide jumper and it wont fit.

  • Successfully expanded storage with Seagate SATA/300 500GB internal drive!

    *Initially thinking I'd add an external firewire 250GB drive for video production storage, I am thusfar delighted that I went with the Seagate 500GB internal drive they call the Seagate SATA/300. By following the combination of instructions that Seagate and Apple provided with drive and operating system, it worked perfectly the first time! I've never had such an easy upgrade with my Windows computers. I chose just one partition so I'd have all 500GB available for a family video project, which I trust will be somewhat overkill.*
    My 85 year old mother has consented to interviews about her childhood memories from both sides of her family tree. Her maternal grandmother apparently once shared how she and her parents learned of President Lincoln's assassination when a man walked up to their Maine farm home to break the several day old news. She, like her descendants, was a distant cousin of the late president. And, there was no such thing as "Breaking News" in the mid 1800's.

    Hi! I presume that with all your desire to save important historical information you have provided sufficient backup capabilities to your system? It would be a shame to lose important information for lack of a sufficient backup routine. Tom

  • Seagate SATA 160 GB But 130 GB

    I hawe a seagate SATA hard Driver wiht 160 GB.
    But whene i create partition the hard Driver is only 130 GB
    Are it Normal?

    Either of these links:
    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305098
    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013

  • Prepurchase advice sought for Fivespot

    It looks like I'm going to have to do something that twenty+ years of computing experience have made me hate to do: buy a product with many reported problems. 
    The fivespot.  So far as I can tell, it's my best deal (as a current Verizon customer) for travel within the U.S. and Canada ... and perhaps a trip farther offshore later in the year.
    Trouble is, many users are reporting problems. M-a-ny users!
    I'm trying to accumulate pre-purchase advice, to limit my grief as much as possible if and when I order the device. 
    This is how it looks so far:
    1)  Expect to use the device tethered only.  I can live with that. 
    2)  Go into device manager, update the driver software for the wireless adapter.  I just did that.
    3)  If necessary, be prepared to enter VZ Access manager and change the 802.11 mode. 
    4)  If necessary, I might need to change 'Network mode' in VZ Access from global to CDMA.
    Can anyone else provide any tips?
    I ask because I'd much rather have the troubleshooting information in front of me now than suffer for hours on hold with a tech. 

    Hello,
    I usually do a bit of research (product reviews, customer feedback, online forums, etc.) before making a purchase like this. However, in this case, I kinda bit the bullet, and went into the Verizon store last night, asked a few pointed questions, and left the store within 30 minutes with a installed and setup 5-Spot in my hands.  Charged the 5-spot for approx 5 hrs as recommended when I returned home, and  was online  in the house in no time.  I was impressed.  Did not do much surfing, or downloading because I wanted to conserve the data usage.  Went into email only.  The performance was fine, the browser loaded in good measure (msnbc.com with all the graphics and ads).  I'd say it's equal to if not better to starbucks wifi, but without other users' contention.
    The install was done at the Verizon store because I had my MacBook with me--it took approx 15-20 mins. tops including the account and password setup and demo.(no CD to insert).  Just inserted the 5-Spot to the Macbook via the provided USB port, and the computer took care of everything.
    My main purpose for this is not to download or stream movies or songs, but as an alternative to a home-based ISP--mainly for email (no text messaging). 
    Next I will take it out in the 'public' to see how the Verizon wifi Hotspot works--since this connection, and its data usage will not be charged to the account.
    One minor problem I have encountered so far is that  the specified url that's supposed to allow me to configure the 5-spot seems to have been taken down by Verizon.  Other than that, it's been seamless so far.
    Hey, the device was free--what more do you want?
    Good luck!

  • Seagate sata very Sloww

    In the past I use K7n2 delta ILSR  with Seagate IDE 120 GB It is fast and Sissoft can measure file system  at 50 MB/Second !!!!
    but now I upgrade Harddisk to Seagate SATA 120 GB Cache 8 MB. that I hope it will be faster......... but It Slower than IDE!! . When I do my work I feel it slower.........  Sissoft sandra 2004 pro can measured file system only at 33 MB/ second?????  What Happen ???
    everyone help me please..........................
    I Think i will update bios of serial ata controller. Hope it will be better ... but i don't know how to update it ?
    can u tell Please??
    thank a lot
    Pontep
    AMD AthlonXP 2500+
    kingston 256*2 = 512 MB Dual channal
    VGA Gigabyte 9550 128 MB
    Seagate 120 MB Serial ATA
    Lite on combo drive

    the raid bios is intergrated in the main bios
    and sandra is not a very realistic bench mark for drives there are many better

  • Advice on what SATA drives to buy

    I want to install 2 sata drives as RAID0 on SATA 1,2.   It looks like i should stay away from the WD and Maxtor because of the BxP bridge chip issues, right? (Don't know what vendor has what vintage in stock, and I want to avoid the RMA loop).  So that leaves me with Seagate:
    Which one?: (from their web site)
    Barracuda 7200.7 SATA
    Barracuda Serial ATA V
    Barracuda 7200.7 SATA plus
    Best Regards

    I have had the Seagate drives in my sig connected to both the Intel and the Promise controllers in Raid0 with no compatibility issues. For some reason myself and others have noticed that the Intel Raid0 config is slower than the Promise for read speeds. Write speeds are the same.

  • Advice sought for a new PC build

    Hello,
    I could use a little advice about an "as silent as silent can be" system that I am trying to put together right now. I plan to build it myself. I have installed / replaced components in PC systems before but it will be the first time I build a PC from scratch.
    Purpose of PC
    To blitz anything that CS6 can throw at it right now and still be putting up a respectable fight when CS11 is eventually released. In order of importance, the system needs to excel at:
    Video editing and effects using Premiere and AfterEffects
    3D animation using Autodesk 3DS Max etc
    Multimedia content authoring    (Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Dreamweaver)
    Music production     (Propellerhead Reason, REAPER)
    Internet browsing, emails, iTunes and all other 21st century time-wasting activities.
    Before I place any orders, I would appreciate it if you would let me know if you can see anything that I might have forgotten, any potential incompatibility issues or just any terrible decisions that I really need to rethink.
    Components
    Windows Professional  64bit OS
    Do I need Ultimate?
    Corsair Obsidian Series 550D Quiet Mid-Tower Case
    Is this case cool and quiet. Are there better options than this that don’t look like either a teenage warrior’s wet dream or a hotel minibar?
    Corsair Professional Series AX 760 Watt ATX/EPS Fully Modular 80 PLUS Platinum PSU
    Honestly I have no idea. I picked it because it is highly rated for efficiency and should go with the case. Are there better options at a similar price point, especially in terms of heat / noise / known reliability issues?
    Intel  Core i7-3930K 6-Core Processor
    I am definitely going with this CPU. I think.
    Corsair 120mm Hydro Series H80i Digital High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
    I chose this rather than the 100i because it can exhaust out the back of the case. I think this will be a better configuration for the case I have chosen and the location where the PC will live.
    Asus P9X79 PRO Motherboard (Socket 2011, Intel X79 chipset)
    It has all the features I want except on-board firewire which is not a deal breaker and has had good reviews. Can anyone recommend something better at a similar price point? Is it worth spending more to get a higher specified / workstation grade motherboard?
    Asus Nvidia GeForce 2GB GTX 670 DirectCU II Graphics Card
    Supposedly one of the quietest GTX670 cards on the market and ought to be fully compatible with the motherboard.
    Pioneer BDR-208DBK 15X SATA Blu-ray writer
    Storage Components
    Corsair Vengeance Vengeance Performance 32GB DDR3 1866MHz CL10 (4 x 8GB) RAM
    I am also considering getting 64GB and using 32 – 40GB as a RAM disk. Good idea? No?
    Corsair Force Series 3 GT 180GB SSD  
    Windows OS, Programs and Pagefile(s).
    Corsair Force Series 3 GT 180GB SSD  
    Caches, Previews, Temporary files for all CS6 programs
    4 x WD Caviar Black 1TB in RAID 10 configuration
    Media files, project files, exported / rendered files, sample library. Is it worth getting a dedicated RAID controller or should the motherboard be able to handle this without hurting performance elsewhere?
    1 x WD Caviar Black 1TB
    Everything else.
    My budget is reasonably flexible but I do not want to waste money on components that offer only minimal performance benefits.  Also, I have no plans at present to get into overclocking etc. Far too scary for a newbie.
    If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read this and any advice at all would be very much appreciated.
    Regards
    Michael

    Hello
    I finished my build at the weekend and installed the OS and so far the process has been much better than I could have hoped for. Thank you for all of your help.
    The computer is much faster and quieter than any computer I have ever owned before and (touch wood) is a joy to use. The Windows Experience rating is 7.8.
    I am still running through checks to make sure everything is OK before installing the rest of the software but I have come across one issue that I think I ought to double check before I get in too deep.
    So far I have connected 4 drives to the Intel SATA controller of my ASUS P9X79 Deluxe motherboard set to RAID mode:
    Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD    ---- Not in RAID
    Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD    ---- Not in RAID
    2 x WD Black 500GB SSD in RAID 0
    Pioneer Bluray Re-Writer BDR-208DBK
    I have a WD Black 2TB waiting to be added to the system for non performance-critical storage once I am certain that I don't have an issue with set up.
    I have 32GB of RAM installed.
    I have installed and run the Samsung Magician software and the performance benchmarks for the drives are:
    Seq Read 128K
    Seq Write 128K
    Random Read 4K
    Random Write 4K
    Test Range
    Samsung 840 Pro 128GB
    533
    226
    88655
    4788
    1GB
    Samsung 840 Pro 256GB
    534
    263
    91169
    4956
    1GB
    2 x WD Black RAID 0
    241
    265
    2610
    1462
    100MB
    The SSD read speeds look fine  but write speeds seem to be very low to me, certainly much lower than the speeds quoted by Samsung and confirmed in multiple reviews.
    Does this look OK to you and if not, do you have any ideas about how I could improve SSD write performance?
    So far I have followed the steps in the following guide to SSD/HDD optimization for Windows 7 to no avail (checked for latest firmware and drivers, turned off indexing, disabled hibernation, checked that TRIM is enabled, shrank page file to 4GB on OS drive, changed power options so drives never sleep .... have I missed anything?):
    http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdd s
    Finally, does the RAID drive's performance look ok.
    I am suspicious that the write performance of the SSDs seems to be pegged to the write performance of the RAID, although that might be just coincidence.
    One last thing, and thanks for your patience.
    I am tempted to switch back to AHCI mode in the BIOS and re-run the benchmarks to see if the SATA RAID mode is the problem. This won't be too much of a hassle as the system is empty at present.
    But if / when I return to  RAID mode, I shouldn't have to do any pre-installing because the RSTe drivers are now already installed and up to date, is this correct?
    My apologies if these issues have been covered before in the forum. I have looked but I couldn't find anything specific.
    Regards
    Michael

  • Back Up Strategy Advice Sought

    Hello!
    I'd appreciate some advice on how best to set up a back up regime, please.
    I've just bought a Western Digital My Passport external drive for backing up purposes. At first I thought I'd simply back up my home folder to it on a regular basis and - I presume - all my documents, photos, music would be backed up 'en masse.'
    Having read up a bit on it (partly on these forums), I note that some do a 'clone' of their entire hard drive.
    Is there any mileage in doing a clone of the drive since I'm aware this is very useful to get up and running swiftly in the event of, say, the internal hard drive failing? My external drive is USB only, and I gather it isn't possible to boot from it (Firewire required?)
    If it is still worth having a clone of my system, should I partition the external so the clone goes on one partition and other 'often changing' files go on the other? (e.g. bookmarks/iTunes store-purchased music).
    If it is suggested I go the 'clone route' do I require something like Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper! (I think I read that cloning can be done via Disk Utility?)
    Space-wise I'm fine: my new external drive is 160GB and my mini has an 80GB hard drive with, to date, 35GB used.
    I hope I'm making some sense here - your thoughts and advice would be much appreciated.

    retrieve 'other stuff'...
    Address Book and iCal have a Backup function in their File menu. I usually save the files regularly to a USB stick and sync them to .Mac (now MobileMe) too.
    Safari, from the File menu >Export Bookmarks"
    The folder "Mail" in yourusername/Library.
    Software Update has a function in its "Update" menu bar item - "Install and keep Package".
    The trick here is remembering the correct order to install the updates. Some are obvious, others less so and Installer does not always give a reason that is easily understood, when can't run an update. It might just say "The software cannot be installed" or "Error (number)".
    It would be nice if it would say "You need to install version xx, before you can install version xy", but I think we might have to wait a long time for that.
    Also consider that many individual updates will require a restart before proceeding further. By the time you have worked through manual updates from your archive, Software Update would probably have done the job faster anyway.

  • Wireless music player with Time Capsule :advice sought

    Hi,
    All my music files in my iTunes library are stored on my Time Capsule.
    I would like to purchase a wireless music player (Squeezebox or similar, not Mac TV) that could directly access and play the music stored on my Time Capsule, without the need for Mac Book to be switched on. From the few wireless music players I have looked at, I get the impression (possibly false) that I would need the music player's client software installed on the Mac Book to serve the music to the player, which implies that the Mac Book needs to be switched on when the music player is in use (correct/false??)
    Can any one please give me some advice here? Is my understanding correct? Is there a simple way to configure my wireless network to allow a music player to play files directly from the Time Capsule? Can you recommend a particular music player that would allow me to do this?

    I would expect exactly what you are getting.
    Wireless is not going to transfer real world speeds higher than about link speed divided by 3, maybe even 4.
    Find your link speed. Hold down the option key and click the wireless fan in the top menu area.
    Take the transmit rate and divide by 3..
    You should realise that wireless is limited by Apple to 130Mbps at 2.4ghz although in newer equipment you can achieve 217Mbps.
    For 5ghz the speed will be 450Mbps in the same room but drops off quickly.. the above shot is with the TC in the next room.. max link speed dropped from 450 to 162 as drop off at 5ghz is very rapid.

Maybe you are looking for