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Raptors vs. SATA II

A

alkoholik

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 26, 2005
Messages
1,693
After reading some posts on this forum I have begun to ask myself....are the Raptors still the kings of disk storage in terms of speed, price and size? Now that SATA II has come out drives now can transfer data at 300MB/s and have larger 16mb caches vs. the Raptor's 8mb cache and 150MB/s data transfer rate. The advantage the raptor still has is the 10k RPMs but IMO that makes the drive ultra noisy.

I have been debating whether or not to add another raptor to my rig and do a RAID 0 config (yes, i know about the data corruption possibilities and I have a 250GB firewire external drive to handle that) but after reading posts people claim its not really much of an advantage. Now here is where I am interested.....should I just ditch the Raptor I have now (74GB and is used as my boot drive....and games, music, movies, etc are stored on my "D" drive - 160GB WD SATA) and go for 2 SATA II drives probably the WD 250GB 16mb cache 7200rpm drives.

Anybody got any advice?
 
Look at the sticky. DougLite does a good job of explaining which is the best drive to get for your particular needs/price point.
 
dook43 said:
Look at the sticky. DougLite does a good job of explaining which is the best drive to get for your particular needs/price point.
Click to expand...

I was going to suggest the same thing. The Hitachi 7K500 actually performs better then the Raptor in some areas.
 
dook43 said:
Look at the sticky. DougLite does a good job of explaining which is the best drive to get for your particular needs/price point.
Click to expand...

Like i wrote in my 1st post....i have read messages on this forum (which includes the sticky) and come to my own conclusion. I was just wondering if anyone else had their own ideas and not just DougLites opinion.
 
alkoholik said:
Now that SATA II has come out drives now can transfer data at 300MB/s...
Click to expand...
Not really. Most drives still transfer at around 60-80MB/s.
...and have larger 16mb caches vs. the Raptor's 8mb cache and 150MB/s data transfer rate. The advantage the raptor still has is the 10k RPMs but IMO that makes the drive ultra noisy.
Click to expand...
It is noisy, but it also drops seek times.

I have been debating whether or not to add another raptor to my rig and do a RAID 0 config (yes, i know about the data corruption possibilities and I have a 250GB firewire external drive to handle that) but after reading posts people claim its not really much of an advantage.
Click to expand...
Nope, sure isn't.
Now here is where I am interested.....should I just ditch the Raptor I have now (74GB and is used as my boot drive....and games, music, movies, etc are stored on my "D" drive - 160GB WD SATA) and go for 2 SATA II drives probably the WD 250GB 16mb cache 7200rpm drives.

Anybody got any advice?
Click to expand...

Don't do it, man. Keep the raptor for your OS drive. It's still at the top of the SATA pile, and trading blows with the best. However, if you're running low on space with it, check out the 7K500. It ain't cheap, but it's nicer than dual 250GB drives, IMHO. RAID-0 doesn't improve performance much in most areas. In others, it doesn't help at all, or might actually slow your stuff down.

My personal opinion is that you have a sweet OS drive. Use it, enjoy it, don't RAID-0 it, and if you're gonna pick up some more drives, keep your OS on the raptor.
 
TeeJayHoward said:
Not really. Most drives still transfer at around 60-80MB/s. It is noisy, but it also drops seek times.

Nope, sure isn't.


Don't do it, man. Keep the raptor for your OS drive. It's still at the top of the SATA pile, and trading blows with the best. However, if you're running low on space with it, check out the 7K500. It ain't cheap, but it's nicer than dual 250GB drives, IMHO. RAID-0 doesn't improve performance much in most areas. In others, it doesn't help at all, or might actually slow your stuff down.

My personal opinion is that you have a sweet OS drive. Use it, enjoy it, don't RAID-0 it, and if you're gonna pick up some more drives, keep your OS on the raptor.
Click to expand...

Thanks!! That was exactly the type of response I was looking for. The only reason I was debating on replacing the raptor was the noise...I have tried everything to reduce the noise to the point where I have it at a low rumble. That is where I began to look at the SATAII drives where the transfer rate and big cache looked nice. I currently have a 160GB WD SATA drive as storage and was looking at getting something larger. Do you recommend that I go with the aforementioned WD 250GB drive or the 7K500 or even the 7K300 (I think) I read in Doug's post. Thanks!
 
alkoholik said:
Do you recommend that I go with the aforementioned WD 250GB drive or the 7K500 or even the 7K300 (I think) I read in Doug's post. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Honestly, for what I use my large drives for (8GB movie files, ISOs, etc), speed isn't an issue. I just go with the best $/GB. I'm about to pick up another WD 320GB drive in an hour or so for $125. It's about the same $/GB ratio as the 250GB drives, but I require the extra space. Someone else may be able to help you if you're concerned about speed on large-capacity drives.
 
My $.02 -

If your system is water-cooled or phase-cooled, then I would worry about noise. But if you've got more than 3 fans running (including the CPU HSF and/or vid card HSF) you're not going to notice a "hearty" difference in the noise of two difference HDDs. Since you've already got multiple HDDs in your box the noise factor shouldn't really come into play in your case.
 
My system is not water cooled but is fairly quiet. That is until I access the raptor drive. I then hear the rumbling/grinding. I do play games on this computer so speed is essential. I have the raptor as the primary and the 250GB as the secondary (data). I was going to upgrade to either (2) 250GB SATA II drives OR (1) 74GB raptor and (1) 300-500GB SATAII.
 
the 500gb hitachi is quite awsome.. dont get me wrong. id love to have one..... or two... or three...

anyway..

like i said, id span a couple... maybe three? 250gb drives... sure, your access time wont be blazing.. and if you lost the partition, the data wont be gone.. it can be recovered. its also really freakin cheap....

and if u really need to.. just add another 74gb raptor.
 
Jason711 said:
the 500gb hitachi is quite awsome.. dont get me wrong. id love to have one..... or two... or three...

anyway..

like i said, id span a couple... maybe three? 250gb drives... sure, your access time wont be blazing.. and if you lost the partition, the data wont be gone.. it can be recovered. its also really freakin cheap....

and if u really need to.. just add another 74gb raptor.
Click to expand...

id rather only have 2 HDDs MAX in my computer. I have an external drive for any critical data to be backed-up.
 
If you play with headphones, then the sound argument is silly. But if you play with speakers and your case is quiet, then you've got a decision to make. But if you're a "gamer" the decision has already been made. :D
 
alkoholik said:
id rather only have 2 HDDs MAX in my computer. I have an external drive for any critical data to be backed-up.
Click to expand...

then go for the hitachi...
 
WhyYouLoveMe said:
If you play with headphones, then the sound argument is silly. But if you play with speakers and your case is quiet, then you've got a decision to make. But if you're a "gamer" the decision has already been made. :D
Click to expand...

Would I be posting this if noise wasn't an issue....obviously I do not game with headphones....not really sure what u meant by my decision has already been made........
 
Meaning: If you "need" to game, then you "need" the Raptor. :D I was not meaning to sound condescending with my headphone remark. Just trying to clarify the situation.
 
WhyYouLoveMe said:
Meaning: If you "need" to game, then you "need" the Raptor. :D I was not meaning to sound condescending with my headphone remark. Just trying to clarify the situation.
Click to expand...

oh ok...didnt think you were condescending....just wasnt sure what u meant....some people say to put the games on the data drive and not the raptor....i dunno why....i got em on the raptor.
 
yeah.. storage is for media, archives, backups, whatever you dont need instant access to.
 
Jason711 said:
yeah.. storage is for media, archives, backups, whatever you dont need instant access to.
Click to expand...

Then why would you want to put your games on it when you need instant access to them while you play?
 
Raptors are great performers. However, for the price vs. what you can get out of another drive, you might want to look elsewhere for your storage needs. If you already have an existing Raptor, then you should just add a larger storage drive and forget the RAID idea.
 
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