Cab Hard Drive Choice

[Minwah]

I am beginning to start thinking of what hard drive to get for my cab (although in the meantime I may also use the drive with my desktop PC).

Does anyone use SCSI drives in their cab?  Presumably SCSI drives are the quickest drive available atm (15000rpm), but I understand they are noisier (not to mention lots more expensive)...

If expense is not an issue, would the speed be worth the extra noise?  I guess the drive could be put in a box or somthing to damp down the noise.

Are there any disadvantages I haven't thought of (except for the requirement for a SCSI controller)??

I've never used a SCSI HD before so any advise would be great

[DaveMMR]

I don't know about anyone else but I definately would not spend the money for the a SCSI drive specifically for a cab.  

You could get by with the most basic of harddrives and still get all the performance you need.   I think the only reason you would think of adding a SCSI drive would be to run high end PC games on the cab -- and even then I'd say the money is better spent on memory, video card, etc.

[paigeoliver]

The only advantage to having a high end scsi drive in a Mame cabinet would be slightly faster load times on those really big games.

Not worth it in my opinion. The small games load instantly on almost any drive, and you will still have to wait a few seconds to load the big games, even with a scsi drive.

[ntjedi]

SCSI drives tend to run a little hotter also then their IDE counterparts.  

I also tend to agree with everyone else that replied.  I dont think you will see a perfomance gain that warrants the cost difference.

[tiggertoo]

Here's a link:
http://www20.tomshardware.com/storage/20030606/index.html
There's probably better on the net or even that website, but basically what that first page says is: with serial ATA being as quick as it is, the only reason you would want to use scsi is if you need greater reliability, say for example on a web server.

If you want quicker loads, I believe a Raid 0 configuration may be more what you're looking for.

[bionicbadger]

The amount of use you get out of the drive one the Mame cabinet, you would still be fine with an old 5400 rpm drive.  Most games are pretty small, and the larger games don't that long to load.  Spend the money on more memory, or a faster processor, or those stainless steel joysticks or something.

[papaschtroumpf]

Because of the introduction of SATA, IDE drive prices have been falling, so I'd get whatever cheapest drive you can find. Here in the US you can get 120G 7200rpm 8M cache for about $60: that's overkill for any but the most demanding MAME machine out there.

Even the size should not matter much, it's hard to find anything under 40G these days, and that's a lot of ROMs, hard-drive images and other artwork!

[aricade]

I have a 40GB 5400rpm.  I am more than happy!  Plenty of space for roms (mame .72 10gb with all the artwork and sound and chm)

I have most snes roms (I think about 4gb)

If it's dedicated as a emulator cabinet 40gb should be perfect.

No performance problems anyway!

Cheers
Aricade

[Shieldwolf]

if you have a frys check there I got a 7200rpm 160 gig western digital hd for 70 dollars!!

[Jakobud]

You shouldn't get a SCSI drive.  They are super loud and made for server usage.  Honestly just because it spins at 15000rpm instead of 5400rpm doesn't mean you are going to get 3 times the transfer speeds...  IDE's have caught up and the price to performace ratio beats out SCSI hands down.

[DaveMMR]

SCSI's are best for extensive video editing though or any other heavy multimedia work.

[Minwah]

Thanks guys.

I guess SCSI is off the list...I have to get a new mother board anyway, so would a Serial ATA150 drive be a good option?

I have a 7200 IDE drive atm, which is pretty quick, but I would just like at least a slight speed increase for my cab

[Tommy Boy]

I've been playing around with this stuff a bit myself lately and I can tell you that, despite what the specs might say, I just don't really 'feel' any difference between serial and standard IDE.  Then again, I don't do massive media work either...

But I would say that the chances of really appreciating the extra performance of serial in a MAME cab are next to nill.  I'd go with a cheap, reliable standard IDE drive and be done with it (just MHO)