If you're running Linux then it's probably worth steering clear of cheap RAID cards (if you're using them for RAID).
Linux's software RAID performance is ridiculously fast these days, it left all the cheap cards we had standing and even gives mid-range cards a good run for their money. Another added bonus is there's no crazy proprietary on-disk format, you can rebuild the array on any Linux machine and in most configurations, pull out a disk, drop it in any other Linux machine and read it.
I'd have sprung for a 10,000 rpm WD Raptor SATA drive. More expensive, but they are large enough now to hold OS + VMs + main data, then you can have less frequently used data on the cheaper SATA RAID drives. Still amazing what you can buy for the price nowadays.
I thought about that too. They stayed out because two of those guys mirrored would have broken the $1,000. But yea, it's definitely good return on the money. If you've got a couple hundred more, I'd go for it.
I think the 750 gig drives are the one to get. I've heard that some of the 750 gig drives are faster than other 7200 RPM drives, not sure about all of them.
Apparently the fastest 7200rpm drives at the moment are the single-platter 250GB drives, as having one platter means the arm for the heads is much lighter than say a terabyte drive (4 platters) or a 750GB drive (3 platters) and can therefore home in on the appropriate drive track more quickly. Not useful if you need lots of storage though. 750GB drives are definitely the most value for money at the moment.
