What hard drive to pick? (Are raptors worth it?)

[177ine177ine]

Hey guys. Earlier I posted some stuff about raid but I've decided not to use RAID. My system is currently:

ZALMAN VF900-CU VIDEOCARD HEATPIPE GPU COOLER
(VF900-CU)
Price: $42.23 Quantity: $42.23
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

Zalman Ultra Quiet LED CPU Cooler
(CNPS7000B-Cu LED)
Price: $43.26 Quantity: $43.26
Availability: Available While Supplies Last

Western Digital 250GB 7200rpm 16MB RAID Edition
(WD2500YD)
Price: $105.06 Quantity: 2 $210.12
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

INTEL Pentium D E6400 2.13GHz FSB1066MHz 2MB LGA775 Dual-Core
Price: $301.79 Quantity: $301.79
Availability: Coming Soon Accepting Back Order

eVGA GeForce 7900GT CO 256MB DDR3 - 500 MHz GPU - 1500 MHz Memory
(256-P2-N563-AX)
Price: $400.67 Quantity: $400.67
Availability: Please Call for Stock

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Gold XTC
(OCZ2G8002GK)
Price: $307.97 Quantity: $307.97
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

ANTEC P180 Advanced Super Mid Tower Silver
(P180)
Price: $153.47 Quantity: $153.47
Availability: In Stock

OCZ GameXStream Power Supply (SLI Ready) 600W
(OCZ600GXSSLI)
Price: $143.17 Quantity: $143.17
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

NEC 16x Dual layer Black Bulk Pack
(ND-3550A-BK0A)
Price: $46.87 Quantity: $46.87
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

ASUS INTEL 975X 3PCI/2PCI-E X16/2PCI-E X1 D.GB LAN
(P5W DH DELUXE)
Price: $287.37 Quantity: $287.37
Availability: Please Call for Stock

Total:
$1,936.92


Any advice on this system is greatly appreciated. However, my main question is what to do with hard drives. Currently, I have just picked two 250GB WD hard drives but this is temporary. The system must be under 2000 dollars. Please help me pick a hard drive. I would like at least 70 gigs of space but more would be nice. The 150 gig Raptor looked nice but that's squeezing my budget. However, if it's worth I'm willing to pay the extra money to buy it.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Doughbuy]

Get 2 300 gig HDD's in raid configuration. Some of the prices you have are kinda high...

Corsair XMS2 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 Dual Channel Memory, DDR2 800 (PC2-6400), 240-Pin, Model: TWIN2X2048-6400

get that, only around 200 bucks, saves you a hundred bucks, and its a better OC'er.

Also, check out www.Directron.com Their prices are usually cheaper than others. I go to them for everything I need. And, get the Arctice Cooling Freezer 7 pro. Best HSF for LGA775.

 

[mulciber]

Are you kidding me?
A pentium D, and a 7900gt on a 2k budget?

 

[qwertycopter]

Two of these will do you nicely.

As for the rest of the build, you made some poor choices. If you have a 2000 dollar budget, you can build a much better system. Examples of where you went wrong are shown in bold:

INTEL Pentium D E6400 2.13GHz FSB1066MHz 2MB LGA775 Dual-Core
Price: $301.79 Quantity: $301.79
Availability: Coming Soon Accepting Back Order

eVGA GeForce 7900GT CO 256MB DDR3 - 500 MHz GPU - 1500 MHz Memory
(256-P2-N563-AX)
Price: $400.67 Quantity: $400.67
Availability: Please Call for Stock

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Gold XTC
(OCZ2G8002GK)
Price: $307.97 Quantity: $307.97
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

ANTEC P180 Advanced Super Mid Tower Silver
(P180)
Price: $153.47 Quantity: $153.47
Availability: In Stock

ASUS INTEL 975X 3PCI/2PCI-E X16/2PCI-E X1 D.GB LAN
(P5W DH DELUXE)
Price: $287.37 Quantity: $287.37
Availability: Please Call for Stock

Just because an item has the highest price doesn't mean it has the highest value. Some of these items (or equivalents) can be found at 1/3-1/2 the prices you listed.

 

[177ine177ine]

Hey again. Sorry for the confusion but this is Canadian dollars which is probably why some of the prices seem high.

In response to Doughbuy, the XMS memory was an option, however my local dealer does not have it for some odd reason. However, depending on the situation, I might actually order my RAM from a different place so the XMS may turn out to be my choice. In terms of RAID, are you suggesting RAID 0. I am highly unfamiliar with RAID and would have no clue how to set it up.

In response to mulciber. I never noticed the Pentium D, that must be a mistake but it is actually the Conroe E6400.

In response to qwertycopter, that hard drive was what I was leading towards because of prozac26's comment. As for your comment on the rest of the system, remember that this is Canadian dollars which amounts to about 1600 american with tax. If you still think the system is poorly chosen please guide me towards a better build.

Thanks in advance and I hope to hear your replies soon.

 

[frost_fenix]

177ine im running raptors in raid 0. its not that hard to set up either. the speed is amazing. very quick loads for both windows and games and if you have 2gb of ram with ya then oblivion loads are about 3-4 seconds when going into brand new places. wandering loads you dont even notice. i have been very happy with my Raptos and do reccommend them who has the $$ around.

 

[enforcerfx]

Hey guys. Earlier I posted some stuff about raid but I've decided not to use RAID. My system is currently:

ZALMAN VF900-CU VIDEOCARD HEATPIPE GPU COOLER
(VF900-CU)
Price: $42.23 Quantity: $42.23
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

Zalman Ultra Quiet LED CPU Cooler
(CNPS7000B-Cu LED)
Price: $43.26 Quantity: $43.26
Availability: Available While Supplies Last

Western Digital 250GB 7200rpm 16MB RAID Edition
(WD2500YD)
Price: $105.06 Quantity: 2 $210.12
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

INTEL Pentium D E6400 2.13GHz FSB1066MHz 2MB LGA775 Dual-Core
Price: $301.79 Quantity: $301.79
Availability: Coming Soon Accepting Back Order

eVGA GeForce 7900GT CO 256MB DDR3 - 500 MHz GPU - 1500 MHz Memory
(256-P2-N563-AX)
Price: $400.67 Quantity: $400.67
Availability: Please Call for Stock

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Gold XTC
(OCZ2G8002GK)
Price: $307.97 Quantity: $307.97
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

ANTEC P180 Advanced Super Mid Tower Silver
(P180)
Price: $153.47 Quantity: $153.47
Availability: In Stock

OCZ GameXStream Power Supply (SLI Ready) 600W
(OCZ600GXSSLI)
Price: $143.17 Quantity: $143.17
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

NEC 16x Dual layer Black Bulk Pack
(ND-3550A-BK0A)
Price: $46.87 Quantity: $46.87
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

ASUS INTEL 975X 3PCI/2PCI-E X16/2PCI-E X1 D.GB LAN
(P5W DH DELUXE)
Price: $287.37 Quantity: $287.37
Availability: Please Call for Stock

Total:
$1,936.92


Any advice on this system is greatly appreciated. However, my main question is what to do with hard drives. Currently, I have just picked two 250GB WD hard drives but this is temporary. The system must be under 2000 dollars. Please help me pick a hard drive. I would like at least 70 gigs of space but more would be nice. The 150 gig Raptor looked nice but that's squeezing my budget. However, if it's worth I'm willing to pay the extra money to buy it.
Thanks in advance.

Raptors at this time in age, are not worth it. Like prozac said the 7200.10 is probably one of the best. You should change up your 7900GTKO to just a 7900GT, only difference between them is a bigger GPU cooler, and maybe a little higher clock speed. Buy just a regular 7900GT, and use the rest for a E6600 with 2x2MB cache = 4MB cache. I think you would be surprised with the results.

 

[enforcerfx]

nevermind, you bought everything already.

 

[177ine177ine]

Lol, no I didn't. My dealer only had the EVGA CO 7900gt, if I don't get this one, which other brand do you suggest I go for?

After getting rid of some stuff and modifying my system I came up with this:#

Product:
Quantity:
Total:

BFG GeForce® 7900 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 Core 475MHz Memory 1360MHz
(BFGR79256GTOCE)
Price: $345.05 Quantity: $345.05

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Gold XTC
(OCZ2G8002GK)
Price: $307.97 Quantity: $307.97
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

INTEL Pentium D E6600 2.4GHz FSB1066MHz 4MB LGA775 Dual-Core
Price: $421.27 Quantity: $421.27
Availability: Coming Soon Accepting Back Order

Zalman CPU Cooler Copper-Core Fan Speed Controller Retail
(CNPS7700-CU)
Price: $50.47 Quantity: $50.47
Availability: Available While Supplies Last

OCZ GameXStream Power Supply (SLI Ready) 600W
(OCZ600GXSSLI)
Price: $143.17 Quantity: $143.17
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

ANTEC P180B Advanced Super Mid Tower BLACK
(P180B)
Price: $153.47 Quantity: $153.47
Availability: In Stock

NEC 16x Dual layer Black Bulk Pack
(ND-3550A-BK0A)
Price: $46.87 Quantity: $93.74
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

ASUS INTEL 975X 3PCI/2PCI-E X16/2PCI-E X1 D.GB LAN
(P5W DH DELUXE)
Price: $287.37 Quantity: $287.37
Availability: Please Call for Stock

Total:
$1,827.23


That leaves me with . . .bout 180 canadian to do with hard drives. What would be a good hard drive choice in this situation?


EDIT: changed the ASUS card for the BFG one.

 

[blackstone]

Putting my OS and my games on a 74 gig raptor cut my Battlefield 2 level load times in half, at least, even on my ancient P4 system. Totally worth it in my opinion. The drive is very noisy, however.

 

[Mondoman]

I agree with Doughbuy: get a pair of 250-300 GB SATA drives, set them up in RAID 1 (not RAID 0!), and you'll see sustained read speeds faster than a single Raptor, plus you'll have automatic data backup. The board you've selected has a number of different RAID setup options, including an "EZ-BACKUP" quick RAID 1 setup -- just follow the instructions carefully.

 

[177ine177ine]

Raid 1 is where one drive copies what's on the other right? If so, I'll get two 320 gb Seagate .10 drives.

 

[frost_fenix]

keep in mind if you do raid 1 you buy two hard drives and only get the space of one. its usually only reccommended for businesses and other people who want data redundency. for the average person its a waste of the value of the other hdd.

 

[Mondoman]

... for the average person its a waste of the value of the other hdd.

Well, it can double data read throughput. So, the question is, is doubling read throughput and data safety worth the cost of the extra drive? At $70-80/drive (for 300GB or so), I'd say it is, but YMMV.

 

[asdasd123123]

I find the raptors to be worth the price, to me.
My single 320gb WD drive has nothing to set against my
2x36gb raptor raid when I'm unpacking files moving/reading etc.

If I do more than one thing on the 320 it's slow as god knows what..
Copying two files at the same time takes at least four times as long as two files one by one etc.

Raptors are the opposite, I can do a bunch of stuff at the same time without noticing any increased delays..

Some complain about their sound levels though, but I can't even hear mine really..

All up to how much harddrive speeds you feel you'll need I suppose.
A single 36 doesn't perform amazing alone however, good, but these drives are built to work together..

 

[Mondoman]

...
My single 320gb WD drive has nothing to set against my
2x36gb raptor raid when I'm unpacking files moving/reading etc.
...

"Raptor Raid Reads/(W)rites At A Rapid Rate" = RRRRAARR!
:lol:

 

[asdasd123123]

Huh?

 

[enforcerfx]

Lol, no I didn't. My dealer only had the EVGA CO 7900gt, if I don't get this one, which other brand do you suggest I go for?

After getting rid of some stuff and modifying my system I came up with this:#

Product:
Quantity:
Total:

BFG GeForce® 7900 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 Core 475MHz Memory 1360MHz
(BFGR79256GTOCE)
Price: $345.05 Quantity: $345.05

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Gold XTC
(OCZ2G8002GK)
Price: $307.97 Quantity: $307.97
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

INTEL Pentium D E6600 2.4GHz FSB1066MHz 4MB LGA775 Dual-Core
Price: $421.27 Quantity: $421.27
Availability: Coming Soon Accepting Back Order

Zalman CPU Cooler Copper-Core Fan Speed Controller Retail
(CNPS7700-CU)
Price: $50.47 Quantity: $50.47
Availability: Available While Supplies Last

OCZ GameXStream Power Supply (SLI Ready) 600W
(OCZ600GXSSLI)
Price: $143.17 Quantity: $143.17
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

ANTEC P180B Advanced Super Mid Tower BLACK
(P180B)
Price: $153.47 Quantity: $153.47
Availability: In Stock

NEC 16x Dual layer Black Bulk Pack
(ND-3550A-BK0A)
Price: $46.87 Quantity: $93.74
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

ASUS INTEL 975X 3PCI/2PCI-E X16/2PCI-E X1 D.GB LAN
(P5W DH DELUXE)
Price: $287.37 Quantity: $287.37
Availability: Please Call for Stock

Total:
$1,827.23


That leaves me with . . .bout 180 canadian to do with hard drives. What would be a good hard drive choice in this situation?


EDIT: changed the ASUS card for the BFG one.

I would go with either the 7900GT or the x1800xt, or if you can afford it, go for the x1900xt. As for harddrives, get the Seagate 7200.10 320GB harddrive, you dont really need the raptor at this time and age. It may increase performance, but they are a waste and suppose to be loud. But whatever floats your boat man.

 

[Mondoman]

Just some alliteration...

 

[darkstar782]

Hang on, Pentium D e6400?

Do you mean Core 2 Duo e6400? Thats not a pentium anything

 

[1Drivingknight]

Sure Raptors are worth it. It's all about percentages.
Speed is where it's at. Personally....I just bought 2X320 Seagate 7200.10...for 95 apeice shipped.

Also picked up a MSI7900gt from Clubit.com for 249.99 with a 30$rebate=219.99...next day they jumped to 285.

got an Ultra connect 500 watt modular PSU for 59.99-40 rebate=19.99

The deals are out there...if you are patient...but that is the hardest thing right now..

I want a general purpose machine that is a screamer. Raptors are really good for Benchmarking and one upping your friends but I need more space than they can provide.

If your going to be using the machine for gaming, burning, compressing, decoding, ripping...and other such things then go for the big 7200rpm 16meg cache drives....also SATA2. other wise go for the raptor.

Your maching with a core 2 Duo will be faster than anything that you had before.

I intend to use water cooling with the Coolermaster r120 which is around 75$. 10-20 more than a Zalman Air but worth it.....with few hassles.

Sorry about the ramble.....but be fruggle for the moment.....if you order RAM before you get your board......make sure you can test it....people have been having problems with campatibility....and there should be alot of Core2 Duo product getting ready to flood the market.

Don't pull the trigger until you have all the right peices.
Good luck

 

[Plekto]

There is another thing about Raptors to eb aware of. Modern drives of all brands only last 1-2 years anymore, and the Raptors are spinning even faster than normal...

They use these in business almost exclusively in raid arrays with SQL servers and the like. Replacing a drive every so often is not even a problem for them, afterall.

 

[frost_fenix]

dont mean to be rude but your wrong about modern drives only lasting 1-2 years.

if that was true why would seagate put 5 year warrantees on their products?

and in reguards to speed. i know of 15K scsi drives that were bought oem and have been running for 3 years with no problems.

1-2 years MAYBE on old maxtors but thats it (and yes i realize that maxtor was bought out by seagate). WD is second only to seagate on marketshare and there is a reason for that, they make quality products.

 

[dimwhited]

Deffinately get a SATA drive, not an IDE/ATA drive

But dont worry about SATA or SATA2, like knight said. SATA2 doesnt make the drive any faster, it is just a faster connection. Not even the raptors need SATA 2, so a typical 7800 drive will be perfectly fine in SATA1. If you were going to raid together more then 2 drives, I have heard it is beneficial to have SATA2 under SOME circumstances, but I have heard that only once, so IDK.

Also, don't worry about the "dangers" of raid zero. It makes you FAR more likely to lose data, but you will probably have all of your important files backed up anyways. I have never had a hdd crash on me. I always just buy a new one becaues the old one gets to small. You probably wont use your hdds long enough to have any data loss in RAID 0.

 

[michaelahess]

Gotta agree here, I've got dozens of 10k and 15k scsi drives that have run for many years, some as much as 7 24/7 with no probs. Raptors are basically scsi drives, they will last a LONG time if properly handled (as will almost all drives for that matter). Speed of rotation has little to do with failure rate, the head servo's are usually what go first, or the heads themselves.

I'd go with a couple 320's also, wd in my world though. Put them in RAID0 and do backups, though I've never had one fail (got 4 in a RAID5 running 8 months so far no probs). I have samsung spinpoint 250's in my gaming rig and they are almost as fast as raptors in the important benchmarks, not i/o serving