Advice needed please!

[Guest jahman]

I know, but he has none of those, it's Velociraptors we're talking about here, or am I missing something?I know I said in the past that SATA 3.0 would be unnecessary for years to come and I couldn't be more wrong about that, but in this case there's no reason why he can't plug his VR in the SATA 2.0 connector. Isn't it right?

Regardless of what the OP has, it is worth remembering that combining SSDs in parallel via RAID 0 can increase single SSD BW by 2x or even 4x. Unlike HDDs, SSDs do not fail mechanically, so RAID 0 is a safe bet. It is worth remembering RAID 0 in the context of SSDs.Cheers,- jahman.

[dazz 69]

There is a difference in performance in a VR Sata 3GB/s drive on a Sata 3GB/s controller and VR Sata 6GB/s drive hooked up to a Sata 6GB/s controller. I did not do a benchmark for it, but I would assume that the VR Sata 6Gb/s drive hooked to a Sata 3Gb/s controller would provide the same approximate performance that the VR Sata 3Gb/s drive hooked to the Sata 3Gb/s controller did. For those who are interested see the attached. The JMicron 300GB screenshot is a Sata 3Gb/s 300GB Vrap hooked to the Sata 3Gb/s JMicron controller. The Marvell 9123 600GB screenshot is a Sata 6Gb/s 600GB Vrap hooked to the Sata 6Gb/s Marvell controller.Since FSX is pretty much all about reading you can see in the File Benchmark area the 600GB Vrap on the Marvell controller has a lot better read benchmarks. Also look at the Random Access benchmarks and the 600GB Vrap on the Marvell Controller is also a lot better and the higher the transfer size the better it gets. Also look at the top left benchmark (Benchmark) the 600GB Vrap CPU usage is only 1% while the 300GB Vrap CPU usage is 3.2% leaving less CPU available for FSX.

I could be wrong, but that doesn't tell me nothing else than the 600GB VR is faster, it doesn't mean that it will be slower in the SATA 2 connector

[idahosurge 2]

The 600GB is faster, but it is a Sata 6Gb/s drive so it will be faster on a Sata 6Gb/s controller and slower on a Sata 3Gb/s controller, how much slower I do not know since I did not hook it up to the JMicron controller and run HD Tune.SSD's are the fastest hands down, but I do not have SSD's for FSX because of all my addon's. I have two 600GB VRap's that have over 400GB on them already and as soon as anymore photo scenery comes out that I want the VRap's will have even more on them. I think that if you are never going to get any addon's, or not get many addon's and do not mind paying for it, get a 128GB SSD for FSX only or whatever you can afford. If you are going to get a lot of photo scenery and other addon's then SSD's get real expensive pretty quick.

[dazz 69]

The 600GB is faster, but it is a Sata 6Gb/s drive so it will be faster on a Sata 6Gb/s controller and slower on a Sata 3Gb/s controller, how much slower I do not know since I did not hook it up to the JMicron controller and run HD Tune

SATA 2.0 has a max data transfer rate of 300MB/s. That VR peaks at 150MB/s. How is that going to need SATA 3.0? I would try what Alex said because I've seen in other forums people with similar issues that were solved using the SATA 2.0 connector instead. If the drive is sent back for a replacement and the new one does the same now that's a bummer, it won't hurt to try just in case, to find out if the drive is faulty or not

[idahosurge 2]

SATA 2.0 has a max data transfer rate of 300MB/s. That VR peaks at 150MB/s. How is that going to need SATA 3.0? I would try what Alex said because I've seen in other forums people with similar issues that were solved using the SATA 2.0 connector instead. If the drive is sent back for a replacement and the new one does the same now that's a bummer, it won't hurt to try just in case, to find out if the drive is faulty or not

The 300GB Vrap is a 3Gb/s drive and 3Gb/s is usually refered to as Sata II, the tranfer rate is 3GB/s max. The JMicron port is a 3Gb/s port (Sata II).The 600GB Vrap is a 6Gb/s drive and 6Gb/s is usually refered to as Sata III, the Marvell port is a 6Gb/s port so the transfer rate of the 600GB Vrap on the Marvell port would be 6GB/s max, but on the JMicron port it would be 3Gb/s max since the transfer rate is limited by the max allowed by the JMicron 3Gb/s port.Vrap specshttp://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=20Sata II and III specshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

[pager94 4]

The 300GB Vrap is a 3Gb/s drive and 3Gb/s is usually refered to as Sata II, the tranfer rate is 3GB/s max. The JMicron port is a 3Gb/s port (Sata II).The 600GB Vrap is a 6Gb/s drive and 6Gb/s is usually refered to as Sata III, the Marvell port is a 6Gb/s port so the transfer rate of the 600GB Vrap on the Marvell port would be 6GB/s max, but on the JMicron port it would be 3Gb/s max since the transfer rate is limited by the max allowed by the JMicron 3Gb/s port.Vrap specshttp://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=20Sata II and III specshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

Hi Guys,Thank you very much for the virgorous debate. The new 600Gb VR is here today. I'll try that on the 6Gb/s port. The current one has an unbelievable amount of index errors, etc. even after multiple formating and reparticians. CHKDSK freezes when it goes to check it. Hopefully the new drive will remedy things. If not I'll move one of the VR to the Sata 2 port.I'll post results after some testing. I just have 200+ Megascenery Earth tiles to install now!!! :Worried: Thanks again,BillyBob

[dazz 69]

The 300GB Vrap is a 3Gb/s drive and 3Gb/s is usually refered to as Sata II, the tranfer rate is 3GB/s max. The JMicron port is a 3Gb/s port (Sata II).The 600GB Vrap is a 6Gb/s drive and 6Gb/s is usually refered to as Sata III, the Marvell port is a 6Gb/s port so the transfer rate of the 600GB Vrap on the Marvell port would be 6GB/s max, but on the JMicron port it would be 3Gb/s max since the transfer rate is limited by the max allowed by the JMicron 3Gb/s port.Vrap specshttp://www.wdc.com/e...ucts.aspx?id=20Sata II and III specshttp://en.wikipedia....wiki/Serial_ATA

I know that, you're missing my pointFrom your own link: SATA 2.0... "the maximum uncoded transfer rate is 2.4 Gbit/s (300 MB/s)."A Vrap alone is not even close to those transfer rates. I Guess you would need 3 or more of them in RAID0 to max out SATA 2.0. A single Vrap can be plugged in the 2.0 connector with no performance loss

[idahosurge 2]

Where do you come up with the max transfer rate of a Vrap is 300MB/s? For the 300GB Vrap it is 3Gb/s, but for a 600GB Vrap it is 6Gb/s. 2.4Gb/s = 300MB/s so the 600GB Vrap at 6Gb/s plugged in the Marvell 6Gb/s controller is going to be more than 300MB/s. This whole discussion was based on the OP plugging a 600GB 6Gb/s Vrap into the 6Gb/s Marvell controller.

[dazz 69]

Where do you come up with the max transfer rate of a Vrap is 300MB/s? For the 300GB Vrap it is 3Gb/s, but for a 600GB Vrap it is 6Gb/s. 2.4Gb/s = 300MB/s so the 600GB Vrap at 6Gb/s plugged in the Marvell 6Gb/s controller is going to be more than 300MB/s. This whole discussion was based on the OP plugging a 600GB 6Gb/s Vrap into the 6Gb/s Marvell controller.

SATA II / III are just the bus interfaces, it doesn't make the drive run faster or slower (unless the interface speed is lower that the drive speed, hence limiting it) Look at the pics you posted, that 600GB VR peaks at 150MB/s, so it won't need SATA III 's 600GB/s to work. Actually SATA I @ 150MB/s would suffice

[idahosurge 2]

If I ever need to reinstall Win7 I will hook one of them up to the JMicron controller and see if it is just as fast. It would be nice to know either way, but right now I am not going to start swapping hard drives from one controller to another.

[Alex Sarfati 0]

It is just as fast. Look at the max. data transfer rates of those VRaps. 6GB/s is NOT the max transfer rate, its (as Dazz said) the interface it uses. Both a SATAII VRap and a SATAIII VRap will run at max speed connected to a SATAII port. SSDs, however, are different. These new SATAIII SSDs have max transfer rate of around 500MBs. That is a LOT faster than a SATAII port can handle. However, the fastest SATAII SSD I have seen is around 285MBs, still a LOT faster than a 600GB VRap, yet it is SATAII.

[pager94 4]

So far so good. The new VR on the Marvell SATA 6Gb/s seems to have solved the problem. Thanks to Amazon!!! No more regular and random HD dismounts or infinite index problems so far......... I've installed about 60 Megascenery earth tiles. Only about 250 more to go!! :Black Eye: I sure hope Megascenery does Alaska, that would be awesome.