I need a new fast HDD.

[phial]

36gig WD Raptors are going for cheap, im very tempted to pick one up. only thing im worried about is:

Heat
Noise
Actual performance


The reason Im cautious is because I had purchased a Maxtor Diamondmax 8 40gig a few years back, and i was super impressed with its performance. So i picked up a Diamondmax 9 80gig, and thinking that because the model number was higher, so would be the performance. Boy, was I ever wrong. These HDD's are CRAP, 16ms seek times that I confirmed was not just my setup because another person who has one gets the same results.


36 gigs would be enough because all I basically want to put on it is Windowxp (3.6gig) , HL2 and NWN and maybe a few other games. So far thats only 13.6 gigs... my MP3's and movies can stay on my existing drive as its fast enough for that crap.


So my question is, do you guys know of any fast HDD's that rival the 36 gig 10krpm Raptor? Im *NOT* looking for capacity, im looking purely for speed. Thank you in advance.

-------
<b>It's a man's obligation to stick his boneration in a women's separation; this sort of penetration will increase the population of the younger generation.</b>

 

[jim552]

There aren't any.

Unless you're going to go for SCSI, or an array configuration there aren't any drives that will beat the Raptors in all-around competition.

You can get some of the larger capacity drives that in a "defragged state", while reading can outperform the Raptors, but if those same drives are forced to seek to find what they want down goes the performance. Case in point, 300gb Hard drive backups up to SDLT at 1.2gb per minute over a 2 hour period. That SAME drive, on a partition that has been "CLEARED" restores at 347mb per minutes over an 8 or 10 hour period. If after you do that restore, you delete the files, clear the recycle bin, and re-restore the files that 347mb will bump up to more like 500mb. (Because Windows won't have to seek as much since space has already been allocated in the MFT.)

Raptors are consistent performers, and for situations like running the OS or where you have multiple processes accessing the drive, or array, they work out great.

I have purchased over 20, and have had two failures replaced under warranty since the 36gb Raptors came out.

NOTE: I purchase several 36gb Raptors right when I could, and purchase 72GB Raptors. I still use high capacity drives when I need the space.

 

[RichPLS]

The Raptors do not seem run hotter or noisier than 7200 rpm drives.

Faster than the 36 gig Raptor is the 74 Gig Raptor.


<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[phial]

cant afford the 74 gig

thanks

-------
<b>It's a man's obligation to stick his boneration in a women's separation; this sort of penetration will increase the population of the younger generation.</b>

 

[phial]

Thanks alot for the reply.


Looks like I will be getting the 36 gig raptor , W00T! My current 80 gig is still enough space for me , and it has a sustained thruput of about 45-55megs/sec so thats decent enough for my movies and music and older games....


Cant wait to see fast windows boots on the new drive

Edit: the 5 year warranty is NICE, totally negates my fears of higher chance of mechanical failure due to the higher RPM

-------
<b>It's a man's obligation to stick his boneration in a women's separation; this sort of penetration will increase the population of the younger generation.</b>

 

[RichPLS]

NewEgg has the 74 gig Raptor for $164 w/free shipping thru 6/12.

That is pretty cheap.

That is only $30 more than the 36 gig model.
So you should dig up the 30 bucks quick, tomorrow is coming.
You will not regret the performance and the deal you will get will make it even sweeter!


<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[RichPLS]

For low price, NewEgg also has a refurb Seagate 8mb cache 80MB SATA drive or a WD 8mb cache 80MB SATA IDE drive for $46.


<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[phial]

im in canada.

-------
<b>It's a man's obligation to stick his boneration in a women's separation; this sort of penetration will increase the population of the younger generation.</b>

 

[RichPLS]

SO you saying you don't have enough money of the WD740? ...TOO BAD!
_________________________________________________________

this coming from am man with teminal cheap-bastard syndrome...


<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[RichPLS]

LOL! OK C-B, well he has already posted a classified ad below!

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[davemar14]

The 74GB Raptor is all over the 36GB. Save up and get a 74GB. Then later down the road, when you get the money, get another 74GB and throw them in RAID 0. Your Maxtors will look like 4200 RPM laptop drives. LMAO, no but seriously I got 2x74GB Raptors in RAID 0, and they have sustained reads over 100 MB/sec.

My System:
<A HREF="http://amdgamingrig.dyndns.org" target="_new">http://amdgamingrig.dyndns.org</A>

 

[phial]

The new Diamondmax10 rivals the 74 gig raptor, all at 7200rpm. and you get 250gigs for the price of 74.. 16 megs of cache too

dunno, tryging to find more benchies

-------
<b>It's a man's obligation to stick his boneration in a women's separation; this sort of penetration will increase the population of the younger generation.</b>

 

[davemar14]

True... in sequential read/writes. But overall performance the Raptor will win. In small read/writes, the random access time of the Raptor (8ms) on a 10,000 RPM drive will beat any 7200 RPM drive.

My System:
<A HREF="http://amdgamingrig.dyndns.org" target="_new">http://amdgamingrig.dyndns.org</A>

 

[phial]

yes, and that is my primary concern, is seek times and whatnot. my current HDDs sustained thruput is fine

-------
<b>It's a man's obligation to stick his boneration in a women's separation; this sort of penetration will increase the population of the younger generation.</b>

 

[davemar14]

The only drives faster than the 74GB Raptor are SCSI drives at 15,000 RPM. And unless you want to lay down $300-$400 for a hard drive, the 74 GB Raptor will offer the best performance available. Here is a benchie I found:
<A HREF="http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-277-1.htm" target="_new">http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-277-1.htm</A>

My System:
<A HREF="http://amdgamingrig.dyndns.org" target="_new">http://amdgamingrig.dyndns.org</A>

 

[mpasternak]

Hey fellow canadian, I just picked up one of these puppies WD-740 for 230CAD at a local Toronto shop.. i think they'll ship since they have a website. check it out

<A HREF="http://www.logiccomputerhouse.com" target="_new">http://www.logiccomputerhouse.com</A>

 

[unoc]

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=117295#117295

and

http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20050523/index.html

may be these links can help you. Consider that the Hitachi T7K250 250 GB (SATA II) costs just like a WD 36 GB Raptor and it is as fast (at least)
It depends also on the interface of your mobo.
If you got a SATA II controller, it is better a SATA II hdd

______________________ <font color=red>A straight line never ends……………….until it comes up against a vicious circle</font color=red>

 

[unoc]

The first 36 Gig Raptor is not convenient. Not enough room if you do not have an other (fast) hdd.
You can consider Samsung spinpoint. These hdd are really a surprise for what concerns performances vs cost.
Moreover for some 100 $ you may get Hitachi new SATA T7K250 160 GB. The size has also its inmportance, if you consider how much you pay per GB, than the WD36GB Raptor will not be so nice.


______________________ <font color=red>A straight line never ends……………….until it comes up against a vicious circle</font color=red>