[Spyhop]

The fastest mechanical SATA hard drive (marketted to end users anyway) is the Western Digital Velociraptor 150gb 10K RPM. Sells for $230

Running an amazingly close second place for most read/write tasks is this:
The Seagate 7200.11 7200RPM 320GB

It goes for $65. It benches almost twice as fast for transfer rates than my 500GB Seagate 7200.10.
For $65 this really juiced up my computer. Perfect for an operating drive.

It even beat the velociraptor on one or two tests.

Charts:

My 500GB 7200.10 was way down the list at 65MB/sec lol

Thought some of you would wanna know.

 

[Spyhop]

You're missing the point. For what you're posting I'd have to buy a SAS controller, and then an expensive drive. What I'm posting is 60 bucks.

Your solution - 500-600 bucks on the cheap end.

 

[Spyhop]

I intentionally ignored the SATA part.

Besides, SATA 6Gb is coming soon.......

Not tomorrow. And when it does get here it'll still be awhile between the time it's released and the time most of us upgrade our motherboards and HDs. This is a solution for today, and it's frigging cheap.

 

[Spyhop]

But its only 150Gb.

Did you read anything I wrote, or did you just look at the pictures?
Or did you just stop reading after I mentioned the Western Digital drive?

The drive I posted is 320GB. 320GB is more than enough for an operating drive for your programs.

 

[Spyhop]

So $65 for 320gb velociraptor?

Not quite. The Velociraptor still has the Seagate very beat when it comes to access time.