Replacement for a Raptor

I like my Raptor. It is very fast (one of the best improvements to my system in terms of speed) and it has survived through three upgrades. It is over five years old now and keeps ticking. Problem is, it is only 74GB and it's also very loud when seeking.

I would like to upgrade to a 500GB drive but don't want to sacrifice the performance of the Raptor. Any suggestions? Would a 7500 rpm drive with a 32mb cache come close to matching the performance of the Raptor?

I might consider the VelociRaptor (I know it's only 300GB) if it is quieter.

THanks in advance!

The VelociRaptor should be much quieter due to the fact that it is a 2.5 inch drive mounted in a 3.5 inch enclosure. By doing this, the density of the disk is increased leading to fast performance, quieter operation, and lower temperatures. My friend has the VelociRaptor 300GB and loves it. I currently have 2x74GB Raptors in RAID0 and although they are loud, they do offer performance of over 100MB/sec. However, the VelociRaptor 300GB is offering speeds of over 100MB/sec as a single drive. As far as 7200 RPM SATA's, most high end drives will match or exceed the speed of the 74GB in terms of read/write performance. However, 7200 RPM drives will never meet any of the Raptors when it comes to access time simply because you are comparing 7200 vs 10,000 RPM drives. Basically, the 10,000RPM VelociRaptor will probably feel more responsive and offer better throughput throughout the entire disk compared to 7200 RPM SATA drives. Obviously, you need to weigh the performance/storage/cost ratio. Hope that helps.