WD caviar black, WD velociraptor, or other?

the velociraptor isn't worth it, its really not much faster than a Western Digital Black (migh not even b faster)

if you need raw speed, intel ssd (though you would still want another drive for data, the ssd's are not very large)

Hard drives do not improve gaming performance (frame per second). It will improve load times, save times, time need to install / uninstall games.

I personally own the WD Velociraptor. I have used several different hard drives in my current configuration, (HP E9150t, Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit, 6GB Ram, Nvidia 9600GT, 2 Seagate 7200.11 500GB in RAID 0). The Velociraptor beats everything I have used against it. I also have a Samsung Spinpoint 640GB that was swapped out and is in another machine right now. The best way to use the Velociraptor is as the System drive without the data. I have noticably decreased my load time of Windows even compared to using the Raid 0 configuration. However, since the WD is only 150GB, it is will only be used for my system files. Also, you can pickup one on ebay for around $100 with warranty. Hope this helps you.

Well personally, I have a system very similar to yours. I was using a Western Digital Caviar SE 16 @ 7200 rpms from a few years back. I was surfing on the internet when I saw my local Microcenter selling the Intel x25-M 80gb SSD for $199.99 as a deal of the day. Of course they were sold out. BUT, through sheer luck there was one open box they had for $279ish or though. I called and asked if they would discount it to the $199.99 they were selling the NEW ones for, they then told me not only would they match that price, they'd give me a open box discount of 20% on TOP of the $199.99. I was like more excited than I had been for the Core i7 i bought there, so I went down to pick it up. When i'm at the register the lady tells me that it was discounted EVEN FURTHER to $135.46. I was of course shocked and wet my pants a little BUT, that not the point of this post.

The performance increase with the SSD is SPECTACULAR. No it doesn't improve gaming, but it sure as hell improves everything else. Boot time, shut down time, programs respond INSTANTLY without a loading period that you usually get. You click on a program and it works. As soon as it boots (usually around 20s or so) you can instantly begin using programs without any kind of system loading(the annoying waiting a few seconds, looking at your screen waiting for it to load up and not piss you off). I then found that Intel updated the firmware that I just burned to a dvd and installed w/ the next boot. No slowdowns for me.

Caviar Black vs. Velociraptor, I say go the caviar black. The performance is still fantastic w/ a great amount of storage. They are just priced more attractive than the Velociraptor, although, i say don't go raid w/ blacks, save for the maturing SSD market.