Hard Drive Question: How would these two compare?

[leviathan125]

I am building a new computer and I am torn between what hard drives I should get. Which ever two I get will be ran in a raid 0.

It's between:

Maxtor 300GB 7200RPM SATA w/ 16mb buffer (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-359&depa=1)
or
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-160&depa=1)

I know the raptor has a faster seek time and would be better overall, but the maxtor has a 16mb buffer and I am curious to know how much that helps. My question is how much better would it be? Is the Raptor performance going to be that noticeable or is it something that would be only noticed by running some kind of benchmark and just getting a little higher score?

I could have 4 times the storage for just alittle more money. So, can I please hear your experiences or opinions? I really appreciate it. :)

[L337 M33P]

One of each tbh :p

One for fast OS loading and responsiveness, the 300GB for storage. No, RAID0 doesn't make much of a difference in loading times, no the 16MB cache doesn't have much of an advantage over an 8MB cache.

[germanjulian]

well I bet you wont notice any difference if you run either 2 raptors or 2 maxtors in raid.

but then again you will notice the storage difference :)

[leviathan125]

Uhg, I know everything I'm getting except this hard drive situation. This is frustrating because I'm ready to order my parts.

Ok, Here are the options I am looking at, which one should I go with.

1. Two Baracudas in raid0.

2. One Baracuda for the OS and one 300 gig Maxtor for storage.

3. Two 300 gig Maxtors in raid0.

4. One 300 gig Maxtor for OS and storage.

I have never used raid0 before or the raptor drives, so I don't know what to expect performance wise. I don't want to spend alot of money getting a raid0 set up with the Raptors or with the Maxtors if I'm not going to notice any performance gain. So, now what should I do? Thanks.

[Vio1]

for noticable speed improvement you want the lowest access time... therefore the 74gb will feel a lot fast then the other drive.

Get 1 74gb raptor and 1 300gb storage drive.

[dragonhunter]

for noticable speed improvement you want the lowest access time... therefore the 74gb will feel a lot fast then the other drive.

Get 1 74gb raptor and 1 300gb storage drive.


I would go w/ that, he's right you know :D

[Restorer]

RAID 0 will kill the biggest advantage of the Raptors: the fast access time, especially if it's not true hardware raid (i.e. additional PCI card). If you're set on RAID 0, I'd recommend the 300 GB drives; but, I think that using one Raptor and one 300 GB for separate purposes will give you the best results.

[leviathan125]

RAID 0 will kill the biggest advantage of the Raptors: the fast access time, especially if it's not true hardware raid (i.e. additional PCI card). If you're set on RAID 0, I'd recommend the 300 GB drives; but, I think that using one Raptor and one 300 GB for separate purposes will give you the best results.

I'm going with a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe board, so it will have an onboard raid control. So do you still recomend the one raptor and one 300 gig drive?

I appreciate all the feedback and would like to hear some more. Thanks everyone. :thup:

[Restorer]

The trend in motherboards is to include a psuedo-hardware RAID function. The motherboard will have a chipset to support RAID, but the processing of the RAID functions is done by the CPU and the caching is done by the system memory. Dedicated PCI-card controllers have their own processor and on-board memory to control the RAID arrays, usually resulting in less latency and better performance when the CPU is under load.

Regardless, I would still recommend the "one of each" strategy. That way, you can better control the individual volumes, and take advantage of each drive's individual characteristics with proper filing technique (Raptor has a fast access time, Maxtor has a large cache and lots of space as well as NCQ).

[Xtreme Barton]

i would just go all out and get two raptors and put them in raid setup ..assuming your talking the 74gb if you set it up that way then you would have 148gb total space..

i know one thin you will have the fastest setup and still have a large amount of space.. i personally think you will like it !! i know i would

[Xaotic]

I'd have to go with L337 M33P and Vio1, the access time of the Raptor, combined with it's more consistent STR, give it a definite advantage.

http://www.storagereview.com/php/benchmark/compare_rtg_2001.php?typeID=10&testbedID=3&osID=4&raidconfigID=1&numDrives=1&devID_0=259&devID_1=269&devCnt=2

[germanjulian]

also when raid breaks hahahah you loose all your data... that would suck...

well if your not doing raid which I would recommend get 1 raptor and one 300GB maxtor thats more then enough storage.

[dragonhunter]

I'm going with a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe board, so it will have an onboard raid control. So do you still recomend the one raptor and one 300 gig drive?

I appreciate all the feedback and would like to hear some more. Thanks everyone. :thup:


How about 2x 74gb raptor @ raid 0 and 300 gb for back up :beer: