Is my Raptor dieing??? Any non 10krpm drives as fast?

[MX-5 Dave]

I have had this raptor since about 5-6 months after they came out (yes YEARS ago) Its served me very well and I love it, but lately as of the last year or so, it seems to be getting sluggish.
Its not a defrag or how much is on it problem, because it does it even on a fresh install. It seems to chug on things more than it used to, things take longer to open than they used it seems.

I dont have any weird crashes or anything but it seems slower and makes a big more noise than it used to (the chugging sound when its seeking or whatever seems a bit harsher over the last year or so, but that could be in my head.
I guess the slowdown could also be in my head. Would it slow down for over a year if it was on its way out, or would it just die???


Its also getting to be a bit small for my needs, it works as I just put all my storage onto my other drives, but I would love to have at least double the space.
I have a hard time bringing myself to buy the 150gb raptor when that price could get me 500+gb. BUT I dont want to sacrifice loading times ETC.


ANy insight would be great.

I have read that the platter density (is that the phrase?) on the 500+GB drives makes them very fast. Would I see a decrease

 

[Farva]

The benchmarks may be just as fast as a raptor, but in random seeks, the raptor wins hands down. Have you run WD Diagnostics on the drive yet to check for problems?

 

[MX-5 Dave]

I installed WD diagnostics, I ran the quick test, and everything looks fine. Ill run the extended test later.