Erm, obviously I bought one from my post.
Fairly obviously there is no way the current boxes will handle SATA, unless they are upgradeable just like a PC (ie. some PCI slots). Just for example when the new machines come out would be good if they have a SATA interface.
Yep, two 10k Raptors. Wouldn't say they are amazingly loud, although with both on at the same time is obviously a little louder than normal. But if you have a half decent graphics card, then it will probably be louder. But a RAID 0 configuration it is amazingly fast. Stuff RAID 1, just back everything to DVD (esp DL DVD now, or perhaps a portable HD). For the sheer speed of RAID 0, it is hard to give it up. Put it this way, my old Windows XP Pro configuration took about 10 - 12 rotations of the good old XP load up cycle on a 7200 Maxtor. The RAID 0 Raptor configuration takes 2 on the same configuration.
Considering there was enough talk on a few forums about the USB's of 160s being used for uploading to mobile devices (such as my PDA for example), and the fact that I wanted the best machine *now* (ok, so I thought the tech would be newer than the old stuff, but hell, I wanted Sky+ before the end of the month), then I don't regret getting the 160. Fair enough I maybe should have waited a little to find the technology is pretty much exactly the same as the old Sky+, but I wanted it when I wanted it. And if they come out with the PDA USB upload option then it should be a hell of a lot easier than the path of extracting to my DVD recorder, shoving onto the PC, running DVD to AVI software, then transferring to my PDA.
You're just jealous because you don't have one of those 1970's tastic "160" logos draped across the side of your unit
Cheers