WD Raptor 74GB vs WD Caviar Black - Which is better?

[The1stCAV]

Ok, so I have a choice at this time and not sure which way to go. Tomorrow I have 2 - WD Caviar Black 7,200RPM, 640GB 32MB Cache, SATA 3GB/s drives coming in - and I currently have 2- WD Raptor 74GB 10k 16MB Cache, SATA 1.5GB/s drives here as well.

I had one Raptor die in a RAID 0, so I was replacing it. I had another drive die in another system I use as a secondary PC - which I was going to just simply use the WD Caviar in and stick both them infor storage & OS, replace the Raptor that died in my main PC, reformat and reload OS in both systems and go on my merry way.

The delima I am having is this: What would be faster?
2 x WD Raptors in RAID 0
OR
2 x WD Caviar Black's in RAID 0?

The reason is my main machine is a beast and I want the fastest thing possible in it - will the 3GB/s & 32MB Cache over run the Raptors? Will I be better off putting both the Caviar blacks in my main machine in RAID 0? Would that be faster than the Raptors in RAID 0?

Anyone know?

[Retsam]

The blacks might have more datatransfer speed but the raptors im pretty sure would have the fastest access times, which is loading games,apps, bootup etc....

Its a tough call for sure. I personally dont see the purpose of raid 0 so ive never used that but, I do run a 74gb raptor as boot drive and have a 640gb black I just bought for slave.

It really comes down to what you do on the HD and if you value some milliseconds quicker access times and faster game loading. Honestly the black is probably pretty close....

If you were asking between the black and velociraptor 300gb then I would definitely be saying the velociraptor but.....the older raptors are probably closer in speed to the black. Id personally still go with the raptors probably. Having faster game loading and application loading is nice.

[Forceman]

The Blacks wouldn't be any worse than the old school Raptors, and quite likely better. I'm sure someone can provide some numbers but I'd definately go with the Blacks in that choice - Velociraptors different story.

[The1stCAV]

Thanks for the replies - so it is still a hard decision I guess.

I see the WD 74GB Raptor has the foolowing Spec's:
Interface SATA 1.5Gb/s
RPM 10000 RPM
Cache 16MB
Average Seek Time 4.6ms
Average Write Time 5.2ms
Average Latency 2.99ms

Where the WD Caviar Black has the following:
Interface SATA 3.0Gb/s
RPM 7200 RPM
Cache 32MB


I really think overall the Caviar Black's are gonna smoke the old school Raptors in RAID 0 - the dual processors and the 32MB cache and the 3GB/s speeds have to be faster overall. Thanks for thefeedback, but I think I am going with the Caviars in RAID 0 on my main machine and retiring the Raptors to my secondary PC............Whew what a tough decision that was.

[Retsam]

They arnt going to "smoke" the raptors at all but.... ;p and the 3GB/s doesnt mean much and 32mb cache means even less, just fyi. Marketing strategy. :)

Anyways, probably a good decision either way.