To raptor or to raptor Raid is the question?

[fragile ice]

Ok I got a big tax return this year so I'm looking to upgrade my computer.
I have a AMD Athlon64 3500 a gig of low latency ram ddr500 6800gt wd cavier sata drive. My question if i buy 1 74 gig raptor I know I'll get a performance gain but will going raid be twice as good? Any examples of b4 and afters? I primarilly game with this rig thats it.

[Gabbiani]

You would need 2 raptors to run raid. I will never look back after switching to the 10k rpm raptor. I do not run raid, only one drive but the difference was night and day to me. My cpu/mem is crap by todays standards but my athlon loads stuff a lot (in some cases 2x as fast but not often) faster than my 3.2 p4 with an ata100 drive.

I see some people on here with nearly a TB of storage. I have no earthly idea why... I have a 36GB raptor and a sata 120GB western digital. Speed and enough storage for me. If I had it to do over with current prices I would do 2x 74GB Raptors. I bought my raptor when they first came out, before the 74's.

Hope this helps.

[Vio1]

Hey, try using the search function on this forum... there are a million post about whether to get raptors, raptor raid.... its all answered already. It seems that every week someone asks the same questions.

[electric sheep]

I have been running two 74GB Raptors in RAID0 for the past year. Performance is outstanding. My theory was that these highly acclaimed drives would provide even faster performance if they were RAIDed. I have since seen some magazines utilize the idea as well, with the same great results of course. Also seen a few ready-made desktops using this configuration. Looks like one of my bright ideas actually worked! :clap:

I'll be purchasing some extra hard disks soon and plan to use the RAIDed raptors as a dedicated drive for video capturing / editing.

[warlock110]

i've read some benchies, and it seems that raiding raptors doesn't provide enough performance boost to justify for the price

[kayson]

At first, I'd go with just one 74 gb raptor. The improvement with that alone is amazing. Then, if in the future you get more money, buy a second one and put them in raid 0. With 2x36 gb in raid 0, the storage is pretty small, and the improvement is not much over 1 74gb (it has lower seek times). Then you have the upgradability to a raid 0 setup with 148 gb of storage and ridiculous speeds.

[ajrettke]

From all the benchs and tests I've seen from users in these forums, it's just not worthwhile to RAID 0 the raptors. Also, remember things like mp3's, videos, and other media doesn't need to be loaded quickly at all. What does need to be loaded quickly is OS files, page file, and games....I personaly could fit all that into a 36gb raptor....but would only buy a 74gb raptor (cuz of lower seek times). Even if I needed more than 74gb of space for fast access files I'd just run 2 solo 74gb raptors....RAID 0 just doesn't give the boost in practice and just complicates things.

[Airbornederekc]

i had a raptor fow about 3 or 4 months and i loved it it was great then just a few weeks ago i got anoutehr and set up a raid 0 and i am most impressed. benchies are crap anyways i dont like hdd benches

go for it
i am doin the same with my 3k tax return

[Mr.Guvernment]

Single raptor will be fine - 2 raptors - if one dies there goes ALL your data.

[cooter]

Single raptor will be fine - 2 raptors - if one dies there goes ALL your data.

2 Raptors, if one dies there goes all your data, Single raptor, if one dies you lose all your data. I hate when ppl say that about Raid0

[infinitevalence]

Yeah but raid0 is far more unstable than a single drive, you have twice the number of moving parts. not that i ever back up my raid0, i should do that one of these days....

[dragonhunter]

2 Raptors, if one dies there goes all your data, Single raptor, if one dies you lose all your data. I hate when ppl say that about Raid0

Me too! LOL

Once you go 2x74 Raptor in raid 0. You will NEVER look back :thup:

[RoadWarrior]

Dual recent SATA 8Mb cache drives are within 5% of dual 74G Raptor performance and are gettable for the price of a single raptor, which they'll leave in the dust. Are you buying the performance or the legend? Time has caught up with raptors.

[Mr.Guvernment]

2 Raptors, if one dies there goes all your data, Single raptor, if one dies you lose all your data. I hate when ppl say that about Raid0


as said - because if u have 2 drives - you have now double the failure rate.... so yes a single drive can die - but 2 drives - if one dies - there goes everything, yes obviously if 1 drive dies there goes everything - but your chances are half of what they are if u hve 2 drive in raid 0 - it is a fact.

the chances of one drive dieing are slim, the chances of 2 drives dieing are greater.

Yes i know, drives dont fail that often for many, but for those who do have drives that seems to fail often :(

[Airbornederekc]

jjust back up your important stuff on ur maxtor 300 gig 16mb and then u have nothign to worry about.

oh my drive failed rma it get a new one and get a reason to do a fresh install

[BoogieMan]

Im running the single 74 raptor, not due to choice, but budget :eh?:
Made a huge difference and like said, i would never go back for my gamer.

[thegreek]

the 16mb cache drives in raid are equal in performance to a raptor

[{PMS}fishy]

i've read some benchies, and it seems that raiding raptors doesn't provide enough performance boost to justify for the price

So 110mb/s sustained read is not fast enough? If you have the $ its more than worth it. The only faster option is 2 RAIDed U320 drives.

Nothing else can touch the Raptors for speed. Sure they are more than a regular drive, but they are quite a bit faster.

[{PMS}fishy]

Dual recent SATA 8Mb cache drives are within 5% of dual 74G Raptor performance and are gettable for the price of a single raptor, which they'll leave in the dust. Are you buying the performance or the legend? Time has caught up with raptors.

I have yet to see a pair of SATA drives come close to raptors in performance. Care to share where you came up with that information?

[RoadWarrior]

http://users.adelphia.net/~captain-is-retired/ATTO_C.gif
http://users.adelphia.net/~captain-is-retired/hdtach.gif

Well there's a pair of 8Mb Cache Maxtors not sure which model

And here's a pair of 74G Raptors...

http://premium1.uploadit.org/soundx98//118HDTach.JPG
http://premium1.uploadit.org/soundx98//1110ATTO.JPG

They are on different chipsets though....

It would appear though, that high end intel chipset can get about 10% more out of any RAID 0, and amd systems seem to be topping out around 110MB/sec So I guess you could say it depends on your system.

But here's a diff benchmark, notice the results posted by Carlos, same system with 2x160Gb 8Mb cache and 2x74G raptors....
http://www.padtinc.com/support/benchmark/bm06/

in both sets he posted with identical configurations the 2x160 just beat the 2xRaptor.

Notice the previous gen ATA133 8Mb drives WD800JB setup is noticeably slower, do not be thinking I am saying those are as fast as dual raptors, I'm talking of the latest crop of SATA. 6 Months ago, raptors ruled, now they don't, time moves on.

[RoadWarrior]

Also...

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=caviarre&page=7

I mean, I could just pick one benchie and say look at that, it's actually much faster, but over a spread of them, there's places where the Raptors get pwned and places where they dish pwnage, but overall you should be getting the idea by now that newer drives are very close in RAID 0, sometimes they can be 25% better, sometimes 25% worse, but overall they are in the same class.

Coming in next months episode of "Holy Raptors vs Evil Heretics" will Maxtor's legions of doom prevail? Will raptor fanboys stand as King Canute in the tide of history? Will people still buy raptors anyway, and dream of those golden days of early 2004 when they would have had the fastest SATA disk system known to man? Do they know it's 2005? do they care? ;) :D

Road Warrior

[diehrd]

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