SAS or SATA

[animate13]

Hi all, I posted the other day but I can't find that post or the replies. Sorry. Anyway, I am ordering a computer through DELL and I was going to get a SATA 500 GB hard drive but the man at DELL tells me I need 4 SAS drives to act as one hard drive for what I am purchasing the computer. I am doing anywhere between 350 to 2400 dpi large display banners and need something that will perform fast; and he said that four 146 SAS drives at rpm would win hands down over one 500 GB SATA at 7200 rpm. I have very little faith in DELL sales people but I need a computer. I like DELL computers. I don't like DFS. Is the salesman steering me right? Since I am working with heavy graphics, do I need SAS instead of SATA. Boy, am I confused. I never dreamed buying a computer would run into such a task. This is going to cost me over $4,000 so I am a bit leery at what he told me. What is the advantage of SAS over SATA or SATA over SAS?
Please help. I need to get a computer that will work fast or I am going to lose my job.
Thanks,
Donna

 

[iamchickenlover]

the sata drive should be fine though i have a 2 500 gig drives in raid 0 and my desktop is screaming fast. the sas would be really really fast but did he say how much extra it would cost i have not looked in a while but 4 sas drives would cost alot and you would have to sacrifice some of your other parts performance to reach the $4000 budget.
edit: i looked up the drives for 147 gb drives they run around 500 - 600 bucks each. have you thought about building your own? if you are gonna be doing heavy graphics get a really nice graphics card instead like this one
http://ati.amd.com/products/fireglv8650/index.html
and some really powerful cpu's.

 

[A True Folder]

TBH I had to look up SAS drives, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Attached_SCSI)

I have a couple of questions.

What are the rest of the pc specs?
What is the price difference?

 

[animate13]

I hope I am replying to the right person. I sure wish I could build my own. I know I could save money but I am very disabled. I can't even work without lying down. I have a recliner from which I work that lays nearly flat.
I sent DELL a note and ask them if I could buy it without a grahics card and put one in it when I got it but they said no. So then I ask if I could get a 256 graphics card, which was the cheapest and then replace it and they said, "You can but when you buy it that way, it will cost a lot more.
Do you know if I bought it with 256 could it be upgraded without anything but a new card, or would I have to upgrade a lot of things on it to make it work correctly? I did not want to spend over $4000 because I wanted to put it on my credit card that is low interest. I have $10,000 open to buy at DELL but they charge an arm and a leg for interest. They told me when I applied my rate would be according to my credit score and it was over 750 and they charged me 29.49%. They have lowered it a tad to 27 but heck with that. I pay my bills good so I can get better rates and I refuse ot give them that kind of interest. So I need to buy it to where it will be under $4,000 becasue my rate on that card is only 7.1%. I don't mind paying that but I will do without before I will pay DELL's interest rates. Then when I get it I will pay some on the card and then ugrade the graphics card and ram. What else has to be upgraded? What else can be upgraded? Like, what is the mimimum I can spend to get it under $4000 and then upgrade the rest on another card. Is upgrading it something a tech must do or could I just open it and do it? (please remember I am a dummy when considering whether I can do this. plus I can lift very little).
I love your bedwetter saying. That is so cute. I ahve to remember that. I will try and find my way back to your reply when you get back to me. <grin>
Thanks,
Donna
How much would you charge me to go look at the T7400 and help me get what I need for less than $4000. (that has to have tax included because my whole total left on that card is $4,000.

 

[DJ-CHRIS1]

If you want ultimate speed, SAS drives are recommended.

 

[animate13]

Is your post directed to animate 13? Are you replying to me? I am sorry. I don't know much about forums and I am totally lost. ARe you asking me about specs or is your post to someone else? If you are asking me, here is what I was going to get but it came to over $4,000 so I was going to cut it as low as I could and then get the rest later or on another card. DELL won't let me put some on my credit card and some on my Dell business account.
Here are the specs I started with:
My System Details
PROCESSOR Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor X5482 (3.20GHz,2X6M L2,1600)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Professional, SP2 with Media
WARRANTY & SERVICE 3 Year ProSupport for End Users and 3 Year NBD On-site Service
VIDEO CARD 768MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX 4600, Dual Monitor DVI Capable
MEMORY 4GB, DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 800MHz, ECC (4 DIMMS)
OPTICAL DRIVE 16X DVD+/-RW w/ Cyberlink PowerDVDâ„¢ and Roxio Creatorâ„¢ Dell Ed
RAID CONFIGURATION C1 All SATA drives, Non-RAID, 1 drive total configuration
HARD DRIVE 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cacheâ„¢
MONITOR Dell 22 inch UltraSharpâ„¢ 2208FPW Widescreen, Adjustable Stand, VGA/DVI
WIRELESS CARD Dell 1505 Wireless-N PCIe Card
SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION Resource DVD - Contains Diagnostics and Drivers
My Accessories
SOUND Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeMusic(D),Dolby® Digital 5.1,WXP
KEYBOARD USB Entry Quietkey, No Hot Keys
MOUSE Dell USB 2-Button Mechanical Mouse with Scroll
FLOPPY & MEDIA READER No Floppy Drive
SPEAKERS No Speaker option
MODEM Dell â„¢ Data/Fax PCI Modem
My Software
My Services & Warranties
ON-SITE SYSTEM SETUP No Onsite System Setup
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
Labels Genuine Windows® XP Sticker

I want to make sure to which graphics card you are talking about. Is this one it? ATI FireGLâ„¢ V8650 and if so, how much is it and will it work in the DELL? Is it hard to put in. I know back before I became disabled, I put in cd roms, Adrives, and ram but now I can't hardly even get a computer open much less squeeze soemthing into those slots. Do graphic cards fit the same as ram, in those slots?
Thanks, and by the way, this post is to the bedwetter that is lazy. <grin> That is so cute.

Hi, thanks for your response. He was wanting to sell me 4 SAS instead of 1 SATA. When you say SAS is faster, is that one SAS drive with a lot of GB or 4 divided? Which is better SAS, one with a lot or 4 divided and used as one? Or does there have to be at least 4 to use SAS drives? Sorry, I am really confused.

 

[iamchickenlover]

to antimate 13,
if you could find out motherboard is in the dell i could give you a more certain awnser but i will guess yes the the v8650 should work in the dell. i do not own that card because it is to expensive for my uses (school work/gaming) but by the size of that beast you would need some help to put it in but once it is in it it will be in for a while. you could try and ask dell to put one in for you. i do not have experince with dell but they should be ok with doing that if not and they have no good reason you may want to consider another company that is nicer.
sas drives would be faster though. a lot faster.

 

[animate13]

You ask the price difference. When I quoted it on the web thorugh the DELL site, it was going to be like about $6,000 with tax. The salesman I was working with referred me to someone else to try and help work somehing out when I told him I wanted to split my payment between two cards. Another man called me the next day and said if I would take the 4 SAS drives, he would give me a thousand dollar discount. That really scared me. When someone says , "just for you I will" or Today only I will offer blah blah blah, I really get leery. Especially when he was offering me a discount on something that was supposed to cost more than the original order with the SATA. Call me paranoid but I am been stung a lot and I don't want to get stung again. This will be the last computer I will buy and I want to make sure it can be upgraded.
Thanks,
Donna

I did not see a price. What does it cost?

 

[iamchickenlover]

if i were you i would call up someone like these people.
http://www.pugetsystems.com/index2.php
they could probaly help you build a beast of a machine that would last forever.

 

[xtremezx2]

I think the sas would be overboard if you don't have the money to spend. It would be nice I'm sure, but I don't think your going to need the read/write speed of the sas. We have 6 sas drives in our web server, they are awesome drives, but I don't really see you needing them that badly.