$99 74gb Raptor 10k

[HoLoDreaM]

I can get a Raptor 74gb 10k RPM drive here at work for $99.. I originally wanted to get another basic HD to install Ubuntu on, but I saw we had these for so cheap, down from $170.. So I was wondering.. is this HD TRULY worth it? I don't do anything heavy... I play a lot of games, listen to a lot of music and nothing really intensive. So i really just want some basic input on it

[Neo]

While that is a good price there are some things to consider....... do you already have a lot of storage space? If not then you might want to just consider getting a regular 7200rpm drive with more capacity. The Raptor is still a fast drive and probably the best serial-ata desktop drive on the market but the gap has been closing over the past few years as 7200 drives are catching up in some areas and the difference you will see with the raptor is merely seconds. On the other hand the raptor has a great warranty and if you ever want to add another one down the road you can set up a nice little raid. So I guess if you don't need the space get the raptor but just don't expect a dramatic increase of speed. Here is a good article about the current state of Raptor drives

[kingdingeling]

 

for the type of stuff you outlined, its not really worth it. Get a decent 160GB or more 7.200rpm drive and RAID-0 that sometime down the road. That is just what I did, and it works great, fast and QUIET! The Raptors tend to be loud little buggers due to their 2.800rpm more than normal drives.

[HoLoDreaM]

So the speed difference basically does not justify the price?

[sYstEmATiC]

So the speed difference basically does not justify the price?

correct, most of these new sata 7200rpm high capacity drives are really close in terms of performance.

im not sure how accurate this is but ill show it anyways. i just ran a test with HDtach and here is the results i got, blue is the raptor and red is my drive, a WD 250gb sataII 16mb cache 7200rpm. i didnt run the test on the raptor in my system, it was in HDtach's database for comparing your own drives to others.

[HoLoDreaM]

interesting... thats a nice little graph.. ill have to check some prices

Edited March 24, 2007 by HoLoDreaM

[swifty11212]

I just got my first raptor, the 150gig version today and I'll get another this week to convert my seagate raid-0 to a raptor raid-0 and put my 80gig seagate to another folder. Hey a raptor 150gb for only $165 was a deal I couldn't pass up @ microcenter, employee discounts ftw

[ccokeman]

Get 2 and run them as a raid 0 set. Having them set up that way to decease load times for games was the biggest reason i did it.

[Mister_Webmaster]

Agreed.. I went from 1-2 minutes loading time in BF2142 on a 200GB WD caviar, and down (past the first initial load) to below 30 seconds loading times. (even switching maps) It pwns.