WD 74GB Raptor questions

[dizman]

After seeing/hearing so much about these things I decided to order one (yeah just one) to use as my windows install drive.

I just have a few general questions about them:

1) I'm using a DFI UT NF4 DR SLI Expert mobo, will I have install raid drivers for it recognize it ?

2) Do they generate any more heat than a normal hard drive? am I going to have to make sure this thing is kept cooler, more so than I would with just a plain old HDD

3) Will I still notice a performance difference (like load times and what not) using just one and not two in raid?

I think that's about it, thx in advance for the help

 

[dizman]

So nobody at this site has a Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000rpm SATA hard drive?

 

[Mitch693]

yes, a 10.000 r.p.m. drive will run hotter. There are a couple of things to can do. My favorite thing is to put your drive in a hard drive cooler. I prefer Vantec, but there are plenty of other brands, they provide excellent cooling for the faster drives. Just be sure your case is well ventilated as well.

 

[dizman]

yes, a 10.000 r.p.m. drive will run hotter. There are a couple of things to can do. My favorite thing is to put your drive in a hard drive cooler. I prefer Vantec, but there are plenty of other brands, they provide excellent cooling for the faster drives. Just be sure your case is well ventilated as well.

Ventilation shouldn't be too big of a problem as it will be right behind the 140mm intake fan on my case.

I'll have to look into hard drive coolers again. I know the ones fro a 5.25" bay won't work for me as it would be right in front of the air flow into my CPU fan, well the top half of it anyway.

So what about raid drivers? Will I have install those for it recognize? It's not a huge deal I know but I haven't had a floppy drive hooked up to any of my computers for many years and I'd rather not have to find it and and hook it up for all of 2mins.

And will it be faster than my IDE 120GB I was using?

 

[rodney_ws]

I noticed a difference in speed going from a previous generation 7200 RPM drive to a 74 GB 10k RPM Raptor. Load times for Windows was reduced enough that it was noticeable, but I never did any formal testing. If you'll just be using one, I don't see why you'd need RAID drivers.

 

[dizman]

I noticed a difference in speed going from a previous generation 7200 RPM drive to a 74 GB 10k RPM Raptor. Load times for Windows was reduced enough that it was noticeable, but I never did any formal testing. If you'll just be using one, I don't see why you'd need RAID drivers.

Yea, I've just read that some SATA hard drives need the raid drivers install so windows will recongize them, otherwise you can't install windows cause windows doesn't know what the heck it is. So I was just wonder if this was one of those drives or not

But that's good to hear, I'm hoping for one of those less than 10sec startup PCs, hehe, I "hope" :lol:

 

[Mitch693]

You should be fine with the drive behind that big of a fan, however, the reasons I prefer the hard drive coolers is because of the temp. indicator display and the added esthetics it gives your case. I haven't had any ill effects from the hard drive cooler adding any signigicant heat to my cpu. I also have one of them in an Aspire case with a fan in the top of the case and a Lian Li without the top case fan. No noticable diff in case or cpu temps.

 

[dizman]

You should be fine with the drive behind that big of a fan, however, the reasons I prefer the hard drive coolers is because of the temp. indicator display and the added esthetics it gives your case. I haven't had any ill effects from the hard drive cooler adding any signigicant heat to my cpu. I also have one of them in an Aspire case with a fan in the top of the case and a Lian Li without the top case fan. No noticable diff in case or cpu temps.

Well I have a AeroCool AeroEngine2 case, the case has four 5.25" bays, the top two bays have my soundcard front panel and DVD burner, the bottom two are empty (for now, I might add an LCD/Equalizer screen in the top one and lower the two down, so only one would be empty). But the bottom two are just about perfectly lined up with the top half of my Zalman CNPS9500 heatsink/fan and the blank panels are meshed metal so air can flow through them

Wish I had a diagram to explain this but it basically comes down to irregular mobo (my ram is behind my cpu for starters) layout and shorter than normal case.

So basically if I used a 5.25" bay HD Cooler it would just funnel hot air right into my cpu fan

I've thought about getting a HD cooler for 5.25" bay but not putting a HDD in it just to funnel a bit of extra air into the cpu but I've read most are kind of loud.

 

[borandi]

I'm using a DFI UT NF4 DR SLI Expert mobo, will I have install raid drivers for it recognize it ?

Not AFAIK.

2) Do they generate any more heat than a normal hard drive? am I going to have to make sure this thing is kept cooler, more so than I would with just a plain old HDD

HDDs are designed to be run straight out the box. If you find it gets too hot, strap a fan to it or something.

3) Will I still notice a performance difference (like load times and what not) using just one and not two in raid?

I remember 5400 to 7200 being a big step for me - so more than likely.

 

[Mitch693]

Saw your case, looks well ventilated. Saw another forum entry dated Jan. 30, '06 by a dude named Velocci who had the same concerns as you have. You might find it informative.
As far as noise, the Vantec has two speeds, mine are always on lo, hard drive temps never above 34C. Never hear the fans over my awesome sound system anyway.