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Fastest Boot Drive - Non-Raptor

W

willow

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 27, 2004
Messages
77
I am putting together a new build & will be using a Seagate 7200.10 400GB SATA2.0 for the data disk. I want to buy another HDD to be used for the OS & Programs, also SATA.

All I really need is an 80GB drive for the OS, but I am interested in speed. It's not worth it to me to spend the $150-$200 for a Raptor, since I believe the real-world benefit to be quite small - therefore not worth the price premium.

Which SATA drive would be the best bang-for-the-buck Boot drive.

Please support your recommendations. :D
 
willow said:
I am putting together a new build & will be using a Seagate 7200.10 400GB SATA2.0 for the data disk. I want to buy another HDD to be used for the OS & Programs, also SATA.

All I really need is an 80GB drive for the OS, but I am interested in speed. It's not worth it to me to spend the $150-$200 for a Raptor, since I believe the real-world benefit to be quite small - therefore not worth the price premium.

Which SATA drive would be the best bang-for-the-buck Boot drive.

Please support your recommendations. :D
Click to expand...

No questions...fastest boot drive is going to be an Iram. Not really the best bang for the buck, though.
 
Pick up a 160GB/platter drive, like a Hitachi 7K160. I'm pretty sure the 80GB 7200.9s and 10s from Seagate are also 160GB/platter. WD may be shipping 160GB/platter 80GB drives, but there's no way to tell with a WD drive until you get it :(

Of those three, I'd lean towards the Hitachi, as they have traditionally had the best 7200RPM seek performance and pretty good buffer code.
 
Following up on that, CustomPC magazine had a rather complementary review on the 160GB version of the Hitachi 7K160, especially regarding its performance compared to the 750GB behemoth from Seagate. It looks like a really good bang for the buck.
 
That seems like another reasonable choice, though I'd still lean towards the Hitachi. However, popular opinion will be that you buy from ZipZoomFly rather than NewEgg (ZZF does a better job in packaging/shipping OEM drives than NewEgg, so less of a chance of a drive that's DOA).
 
I am hooked on Seagate after testing my 80gb SATA 3.0GB/S and getting almost raptor speeds. I am have been running hd tach on my machines and i was inpressed with seagate's 7200rp, drives and their speed, my vote goes for seagate.
 
gjvrieze said:
I am hooked on Seagate after testing my 80gb SATA 3.0GB/S and getting almost raptor speeds. I am have been running hd tach on my machines and i was inpressed with seagate's 7200rp, drives and their speed, my vote goes for seagate.
Click to expand...


Is it a 7200.9 model?
 
gjvrieze said:
I am hooked on Seagate after testing my 80gb SATA 3.0GB/S and getting almost raptor speeds. I am have been running hd tach on my machines and i was inpressed with seagate's 7200rp, drives and their speed, my vote goes for seagate.
Click to expand...
High HDTach performance != high desktop application performance. Which of HDTach's tests is a real world test? The answer is, of course, none of them.
 
What are your seek times like? That's usually the difference between Raptors and other drives, usually.

 
DougLite said:
High HDTach performance != high desktop application performance. Which of HDTach's tests is a real world test? The answer is, of course, none of them.
Click to expand...


Quoted for truth.
 
7200.9, i am sure hd tach is not the best program to compare to real world, but for apples to apples, i would think it would be ok.
 
Not to tread-cromancy, but I'm actually in the same boat. I just picked up a seagate .10 320 gig drive for storage purposes, and I'm looking for just a boot/program drive. Most games/etc would be on the 320, but stuff like office/sage/etc would be on the main drive.(Sage would be saving to the 320 though)

I'm having a hard time deciding for a couple reasons. Firstly, I was one of those lucky Deathstar owners, which makes me extremely leery of Hitachi. I know they're supposed to have really cleaned up their act but I'm still leery. Whole "Broke college student" thing, I don't want to buy a new drive shortly, and I dont' have the time to redo the boot/installs/etc makes me want to stick to Seagate, but at the same time, if Hitachi's really cleaned up their act, and their faster/better/cheaper, I'd be a fool not to use'em.

So I ask the almighty harddrive know-it-alls if they have a suggestion.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148107

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148148

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822145127
(assuming I decide to give Hitachi another shot)
 
I don't trust Hitachi. I would either a Seagate or WD IMO.

Also have you ever tried a Raptor?

It is soo much faster in games and bootup than any other reg HD i have ever used. Windows normally boots up in half a bar never more than 1.

I suggest you try them if you haven't. It would be difficult for me to go back to a reg drive.



A friend just tried 2 WD 250GB in raid and said the 8mb raptor was faster. He does a lot of burning, encoding, transfering files and such.
 
heh, missed the "broke college student thing" didn't you? ;)

If I had a bunch of money, sure I'd get a raptor, but normal use they aren't much faster from what I've read, and well, I don't have a bunch of money sooo.
 
I was actually answering OP! lol

But in your case I would do a WD or Seagate. I find Maxtor slower and I just don't trust Hitachi. Too fragile.

I prefer the WD becasue they are a tad quieter. Except Rappy of course... in idle they are decent.
 
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