Raptor or Caviar SE16

[superash]

I know its a stupid question, but I could not decide which one to go for :

WD740GD RAPTOR - 74GB,16MB cache, SATA
or
WD2500KS Caviar SE16 - 250GB, 16MB cache, SATA II

The only thing that stops me from buying RAPTOR is its price. Between these two the price diff is abt $80, so what i wanted to know frm u guys is - whether the raptor is worth the extra $$? Is the Caviar model even close to raptor when it comes to performance? If yes, How close...say 75% ???

 

[Diabetic1]

Get the bigger drive, Raptors are generally over-rated. Now, no one can deny that they are fast, but in a day to day Windows environment you won't notice that difference. You will however notice that you're wallet is missing a large chunk of cash, and your hard-drive is missing space for a large chunk of porn.

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

If you can afford it, get both. I ordered a single 74GB Raptor (16MB cache version) and a pair of those SE16 250 GBs. Will be there when I get home from work. I expect no problems from any of them.

You'll hear conflicting evidence about whether or not Raptors need extra cooling. Some say they run far too hot to live without active cooling or a special heatsink. Others say they run cooler than their other 7200RPM drives. Most agree that they'll do fine with a happy medium - space them apart from the other drives in the bay and they're dandy.

Now, both drives have their advantages. Raptors have extremely fast seek times, but 7200RPM drives could have higher transfer rates. Since there are more non-Raptor drives out there, more innovations (such as Seagate's perpendicular technology) are making them faster - the gap is closing. You'll see the biggest benefit from Raptors when they're in a RAID array, but I'm only buying one for now. I'll probably buy a second Raptor later.

It's up to you - space or speed. If you have the funds, get both like I did and make the Raptor your boot drive and the 250GB your data vault. If I had to choose between the two, I'd go with the large drive. Raptors aren't practical enough to be used by themselves if you have more than games or more than one OS on your computer.

 

[superash]

Does the raptor outperform the Caviar in all aspects or only in server related apps.? I use my desktop a lot for Video editing, 3dmax and corel which require the HD to be pretty fast for loading and stuff....so....is there any benchmark results available comparing these two HDs and what is the performance diff btwn these two?
If the performance diff is more than 50% (i.e. Raptor 150% better than Caviar) then I dont mind shelling out the extra $$. I checked out the HD comparison in the Toms hardware guide site, but i couldnt conclude anything frm tht....can anyone who has used these two just post their thoughts on these HDs.

Thanks.

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

If you do video editing and you wish to have a fast drive, then get a pair of the 250GB drives (16MB cache) and stripe them. For that, you need high transfer rates. Plus, all those video files can and will add up - you'll be glad of the extra space. The RAID 0 (2 x 250 GB) will be your best bet. And they'll cost about as much as a single Raptor.

 

[MrsD]

Raptor is only for the hardcore elite. The majority of us do just find waiting that extra 3 seconds for boot up :lol:
However, get the RE series from Western Digital, they usually run about $10 more but have the 5 year warranty.