Originally posted by sammorris:

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Generally, a Raptor will do fine. The others are more for servers.

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Originally posted by dailun:

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Fibre channel is an interface type, Raptor is a Western Digital name for a specific line of SATA HDD. It's an apples vs. oranges comparison.

Fibre channel is a protocol/interface for transmitting SCSI. Fibre Channel uses an optical interface (copper exists, but is rarely used) that is used primarily in Storage Area networks, although direct attach is sometimes used.

"I want the best" is a subjective statement.

"Also what will i need?" demonstrates that TC doesn't really understand the technologies involved.

In either case you will need an HBA (Hard Drive controller) that matches the interface of the drive. Fibre Channel HBAs can cost anywhere from a couple of hundred to a thousand dollars or more, and this doesn include the cost of the optical cable, drive enclosure (FC typically sits outside the server) and any FC switching components, which can be hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars.

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Originally posted by sammorris:

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From what I can see, Fibre Channel is a network standard to connect network servers together, not a means of attaching hard drives. Do you mean SAS drives?
If there was a benefit to using SAS drives in home PCs, there are enough geeks out there to make use of it. I know of nobody who finds it makes sense to use SAS, mainly due to the cost. You would be surprised how well the new Velociraptor fares against the much more expensive 15k SAS drives.

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Originally posted by sammorris:

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Or you could use a cheap RAID adapter (or heck, onboard RAID) and get two Raptors in RAID0 - for less cost... It'd beat the MB/s of the 15k drives, but not the access time.

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Originally posted by dailun:

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"ive seen the host adapter interface cards seeling for as cheap as $200 for the new fibre channel drives."

And you get what you pay for. I can find used FC HBA for $50.00 but that doesn't mean I'd buy one.

And where do you plan to house these drives? HBAs typically don't have internal connectors.

Also, FC HDD typically come in much smaller capacities than SATA drives since they are supposed to be RAIDed together.

I work in the storage industry. FC is uncommon for consumer users because of the high cost and low (relative) capacity.

FC exists because of the need/want to put SCSI on a 2 wire (fibre) interface for distance.

Using FC for internal or short haul doesn't justify the expense when you can use SAS instead.

Why don't you just use SAS instead? You can mount SAS drives internally.

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