sick of running out of space on raptor

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Hey so I have 2 drives on my main system, a 75gb raptor and a samsung F1 terabyte drive.

Problem is, I have my OS formatted on the raptor, and I install all the most demanding games I own onto the raptor, but I am ALWAYS running out of space.... I really need a bigger drive, but the question is this: What can I get that is larger and won't take a huge hit on performance?
I've heard multi-platter terabyte drives are just as fast if not faster than a raptor, not sure if the samsung is one of those drives, but I have every steam game I own installed on that drive (70gb of games...) and they run just fine... Should I just scrap the raptor and put everything on the terabyte? Or should I find a new drive?
 
I gave up on my Raptor and moved on to 2x64GB Kingston SSD V Series, it's so much faster, it's OMGz O_O Even a single disk is faster, but I have mine in RAID 0 to really give me high performance low cost setup.

The Raptor's sequential read/write isn't as good as some of the higher density HD's as of lately, however the Raptor still has the quicker access time compared to other mechanical drives.
 
you can always get some used drives and put them into raid 0 for double the space.
 
$200 - 300GB Raptor

$245 - Kingston 128GB SSD

raid 0 would work, but you might have a harder time finding a second raptor of that capacity.
 
This might put things into perspective. The Samsung F3 1TB bests even the VelociRaptor (not in access times though; you'll need an SSD for that). But look at how far down the 74GB Raptor is. Most modern disks will significantly outperform it. You could use a fast 1TB drive or throw two decent drives into a RAID array and have plenty of storage for your games while outperforming the Raptor in pretty much everything but access times.

You could get another Raptor to do RAID but honestly, with how much space games require these days, I'd much rather give up a small bit of performance for MUCH greater storage capacity and go with larger drives.
 
you have some options. If you don't want to blow the cash on an SSD just get a couple of Fast Samsung drives for a RAID 0. If you do get a SSD spend a little more and get one with the Indillix for intel controllers. The kingston uses the Jmicron controller and its utter crap. I have two 80GB Vraptors in a RAID 0 and its pretty badass. I am going to get an SSD for my rig later this year as prices on SSDs willl continue to drop. I have one in my work laptop and its pretty amazing.
 
You might want to take a look at the WD 640Gb black edition drives. They're very close to the performance of the Raptors and nicely priced.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319

I thought that to but proven to myself to be wrong
Your performance statement is very untrue in real world...
Even single platter 500gb drives are slow in install and loading apps.
the only thing the can compete are big file transfers and synthetic benchmarks that show exactly that strength.

App. install times:
installs.jpg


App. loading times:
loading.jpg
 
The only true advantage of the Raptors vs the WD 6401 AALS is the access time, 8ms against 12ms. That means small random reads/writes will show an advantage, and that's what the drive is doing most of the time. My advice for OP is to buy a 128GB SSD. You won't believe the difference, even when just normally using the computer.
 
+1
The only upgrade that's actually worth the money!
Sad thing is you'll get used to speed in a day or two and wont notice it. But every other machine you work on from that point on will seam slow for some reason! :p
 
This might put things into perspective. The Samsung F3 1TB bests even the VelociRaptor (not in access times though; you'll need an SSD for that). But look at how far down the 74GB Raptor is. Most modern disks will significantly outperform it. You could use a fast 1TB drive or throw two decent drives into a RAID array and have plenty of storage for your games while outperforming the Raptor in pretty much everything but access times.

You could get another Raptor to do RAID but honestly, with how much space games require these days, I'd much rather give up a small bit of performance for MUCH greater storage capacity and go with larger drives.


I don't think most people realize how important this trait is for a hard drive. How often do you copy/paste large files to/from that drive (read speeds) vs. access individual files and programs? The access time is responsible for speeding up that process of simply opening/closing programs and files, and an SSD destroys any mechanical drive in this category. I used to have a raptor, and after I switched to an 80gb X25 I never looked back... it's literally night and day.

You'd be amazed at how happy a seemingly insignificant measurement like "boot time" can make you.
 
I don't think most people realize how important this trait is for a hard drive. How often do you copy/paste large files to/from that drive (read speeds) vs. access individual files and programs? The access time is responsible for speeding up that process of simply opening/closing programs and files, and an SSD destroys any mechanical drive in this category. I used to have a raptor, and after I switched to an 80gb X25 I never looked back... it's literally night and day.

You'd be amazed at how happy a seemingly insignificant measurement like "boot time" can make you.

Was that post directed at me or the original poster? If you were talking to me, you're preaching to the choir because if you look at my sig you'll see that I already have two SSDs so I don't need a lesson on access times. ;)

The reason I recommended the F3 as opposed to an SSD is because the OP said this:

I have my OS formatted on the raptor, and I install all the most demanding games I own onto the raptor, but I am ALWAYS running out of space.... I really need a bigger drive, but the question is this: What can I get that is larger and won't take a huge hit on performance?

Now I could have suggested the X25-M, but he didn't ask for advice on a drive that was faster. He wants a large drive that will perform decently compared to his 5 year old Raptor. He didn't say that he wanted his OS to be snappier or his games to load faster, he just wants a large drive with good performance...hence my suggestion. Games are pretty nice on Raptors/VelociRaptors, but they aren't very dependent upon access times. Although they would certainly benefit from being placed on an SSD, he would still be in the same situation as far as constantly running out of space unless he gets a very large SSD which I assume is out of his budget.

Now I in no way meant for this post to sound hostile, I just wanted to explain why I made the recommendation that I did. Now it's up to him to weigh the pros and cons of both and decide what would best fit his needs.

If he's willing to consider an SSD, I'd do the X25-M for the boot drive + most played games, then throw less played games on the Raptor and use the F1 as a storage drive.
 
whoa nelly. My comments were directed at that first paragraph, specifically this:

But look at how far down the 74GB Raptor is. Most modern disks will significantly outperform it. You could use a fast 1TB drive or throw two decent drives into a RAID array and have plenty of storage for your games while outperforming the Raptor in pretty much everything but access times.

That series of statements is rather misleading, and my statement was an attempt to explain why. Yes, you mentioned access times, and you appear to own some SSDs (and thus may know personally how beneficial they are), but the quoted text did not communicate that. Perhaps there's a disagreement on what "performance" means on a hard drive--for me, it begins and ends with access times and random 4k reads/writes. Those statistics have shown me the best" real-world" measurements, so unless you're constantly transferring large files around (e.g. on a file server, etc.), throughput is merely an afterthought.

FWIW, a 300GB raptor should fit the bill.
 
Gotcha. I probably could have clarified more, but I was trying to convey that 7,200 RPM drives (despite how far they've come) still cannot touch the Raptor family when it comes to access times, and that's what's important in an OS/boot drive. It is true that the F3 would outperform his Raptor in many areas (not access times, as I pointed out), but I wholeheartedly agree with your suggestion of the 300GB VelociRaptor. It will give him 4x the space while outperforming his older Raptor in every aspect. I'm not sure how popular of a recommendation that will be, since many around here think that there is no point in buying Raptors and V-Raptors now that SSDs have entered the mainstream market ($199 for VelociRaptor vs. $230 for X25-M which will blow it away), but they are still the best of breed when it comes to access times and random seeks in a mechanical SATA disk. For this scenario it is a perfect fit. Faster than what he has in every way, and quadruple the space for his games. So not only will he meet his goal of more storage, he'll also surpass it by dodging a performance hit and actually getting better performance all around in games and the OS.

I think the confusion came from the fact that I thought you were recommending the X25-M which wouldn't give him much space over the Raptor he has now. But we are in agreement as far as access times and their impact on one's computing experience. :)
 
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I'm kinda in the same boat...my issue is that my internal 250gb died a year ago, 74gig raptor is very limited with Vista taking over half the drive(I'm pretty sure). Then I have my external but that can't run programs.

I'm trying to hold out and buy a SSD in a few months when there's a good deal, it will need to be 120-160GB about.
 
I have several 300GB vRaptors for sale.

Fast and Cheap :)
 
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