News - Western Digital slips out its first SATA 6Gbps hard drive

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1TB Caviar Black hard drive now available with a third-generation SATA 6Gbps interface.

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Read more.

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Why bother?

Cant really see the point in it being a 7200rpm drive, how about a 10k or 15k raptor type drive?

I am guessing that the higher bandwidth + larger cache means that burst speeds will be increased.....can some one please prod me when something even slightly exciting comes along?

is this like putting a 7 speed gearbox in a reliant robin? from my understanding the drive wont even utilise sata2 to it full potential.

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Originally Posted by [GSV]Trig

Cant really see the point in it being a 7200rpm drive, how about a 10k or 15k raptor type drive?

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because high density platter's shatter very quickly at that speed, and also SSD's will still be faster which is what people look for in those kind of drives due to higher IOPS and random write's.

I think what Trig meant was why not put this on their raptor drives if anything. But yeah what's the point - 7200 drives don't come close to maxing out a 3Gbps link. Just a marketing stunt maybe?

can't see much point either, but i guess it is a marketing thing to go with the new range of 6gbps SATA chips/cards coming out.

Does SATA3 add any new features to the spec, iirc SATA2 (ie 3gbps) added stuff like NCQ and hot-swapping (don't think 1.5gbps SATA had either?)

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Originally Posted by kellyharding

Does SATA3 add any new features to the spec, iirc SATA2 (ie 3gbps) added stuff like NCQ and hot-swapping (don't think 1.5gbps SATA had either?)

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There are other protocol improvements, not just a bandwidth bump

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_...ATA_6Gb.2Fs.29

• A new Native Command Queuing (NCQ) streaming command to enable Isochronous data transfers for bandwidth-hungry audio and video applications.
• An NCQ Management feature that helps optimize performance by enabling host processing and management of outstanding NCQ commands.
• Improved power management capabilities.
• A small Low Insertion Force (LIF) connector for more compact 1.8-inch storage devices.
• A connector designed to accommodate 7 mm optical disk drives for thinner and lighter notebooks.
• Alignment with the INCITS ATA8-ACS standard.

Although a couple of them are to do with the physical interface, notthing logical or electrical.

Its progress.... Pretty meaningless progress I accept, but by the end of the year I wouldn't be surprised if most new HDDs coming onto the market are SATA 6G, and the idea of buying a SATA II drive will be the choice of those saving a couple of quid, or buying an OEM system.