Thinking about getting a raptor..

[99rollaguy]

I've been thinking about getting a 36.7gb raptor strictly for XP Pro and programs, would this be cost effective? Are they loud? Should I get extra cooling since they spin so fast and would probably create a lot of heat? Where's a good place to get one at a good price? Thanks in advance!

 

[xonik]

Increase your RAM to 1024 MB, and if you are still not happy with performance, consider the Raptor. You should try to add more RAM because hard drive accesses really hamper system performance. It's best to avoid hard drive activity as much as possible.

To answer the rest of your questions...

A fan isn't absolutely necessary for the Raptor, but it would probably extend the life of your hard drive if you kept it well cooled. They indeed run hot. As for the best price, search Froogle for possibilities. NewEgg is usually a good place to buy them, but perhaps not the cheapest of retailers for this drive.

 

[Ice Czar]

I agree with everything xonik said (which isnt at all unusual)

but probably would have just said 1GB of RAM instead of 1024MB
of course some programs will benefit form both more RAM and a faster HDD than others, especially graphics applications which tend to employ virtual memory (swapfile\scratchdisk\pagefile) quite heavily, and will gobble up not only the additional RAM space but also employ the faster drive

 

[99rollaguy]

yeah, I've been meaning to get more RAM...hopefully I can get some that'll be stable at 3.5+ cuz that's where I'm headed after I get some better cooling.

 

[FungalBootDisk]

Hopefully you will use it for something other than just staring at your benchmarks and pondering life while listening to Yellowcard...