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View Full Version : 300gb VelociRaptor or 640gb WD Caviar Blue

jrank001
03-06-09, 08:25 AM
Hi All:

My two Seagate 410's are on there way out and I want to replace them. Had them in RAID 0 and almost lost some data.

I just purchased two WD640AAKS 640gb HDD'S off newegg. No RAID this time. Having second thought's on speed/performance.

Should I RMA them back and get one new VelociRaptor 300GB? Is it loud? Will I notice a speed difference?

What is the difference on the model numbers on the VR?

Thanks
CGR
03-06-09, 09:29 AM
Its not loud at all, barely hear mine even when its doing a lot of read/writing. Been very happy with it, but dont know how it stacks to the 640's, but I would imagine its better in some areas.
RollingThunder
03-06-09, 01:05 PM
Hi All:

My two Seagate 410's are on there way out and I want to replace them. Had them in RAID 0 and almost lost some data.

I just purchased two WD640AAKS 640gb HDD'S off newegg. No RAID this time. Having second thought's on speed/performance.

Should I RMA them back and get one new VelociRaptor 300GB? Is it loud? Will I notice a speed difference?

What is the difference on the model numbers on the VR?

Thanks

JR,

I'm in agreement with CGR. My 150 VR is dead silent and it's much different from the earlier Raptors in every way. If you have the WD Black drives, they have a great reputation but you'll probably have a restocking fee to return them. You may notice a speed diference in bench marks but for "real world," I don't know. Whether it's worth the RMA to replace it with a 300 VR I can't say.

Since this was a new build and had some money to spare I gambled on a VR and used my older Raptor drive for storage. The VR's are quick!
DarkFury
03-06-09, 01:05 PM
since i have both, both of them are awesome.

i know theres a comparison on a site ill edit once i find it.

The Vraptor performs better than the 640 by a tiny bit ( it is 10k, vs 7200 ....)
Review (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article847-page2.html)
RollingThunder
03-06-09, 01:10 PM
since i have both, both of them are awesome.

i know theres a comparison on a site ill edit once i find it.

The Vraptor performs better than the 640 by a tiny bit ( it is 10k, vs 7200 ....)
Review (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article847-page2.html)

There you go DF, a good comparison. Thank you. :thup:
jrank001
03-06-09, 02:40 PM
Great input! My WD HDD's are the Caviar Blue. If I wont notice any real difference I will most probably keep them. Are the blues as good as the cavair blacks?
squads
03-07-09, 12:23 AM
The blacks are slightly faster in transfer speed and seek time, but not by much.

I am using 2 of these 640 blues and I am very happy with them. If you partition off an OS drive of around 100gb (on the fast part of the drive) it will be very snappy and load quickly. I put my page file in a small partition on the outer part of my second drive and partitioned the rest for storage. I might throw a Linux distro on some of the free space on the OS drive.
jrank001
03-07-09, 07:34 AM
The blacks are slightly faster in transfer speed and seek time, but not by much.

I am using 2 of these 640 blues and I am very happy with them. If you partition off an OS drive of around 100gb (on the fast part of the drive) it will be very snappy and load quickly. I put my page file in a small partition on the outer part of my second drive and partitioned the rest for storage. I might throw a Linux distro on some of the free space on the OS drive.

Thanks squads.

I'm still a novice at building computers. I'm not real familiar with partitioning a drive. When you say fast part of the drive where is that? Page file? Don't know what that is. Is there a link or a "how to" you can recommend?

Thanks
SkankinRatFink
03-07-09, 11:11 PM
The blacks are slightly faster in transfer speed and seek time, but not by much.

I am using 2 of these 640 blues and I am very happy with them. If you partition off an OS drive of around 100gb (on the fast part of the drive) it will be very snappy and load quickly. I put my page file in a small partition on the outer part of my second drive and partitioned the rest for storage. I might throw a Linux distro on some of the free space on the OS drive.

I have a WD Blue and now you've intrigued me ....

What exactly is the "fast part" of the drive?
ou_phidelt
03-08-09, 05:08 AM
Since you already have them coming I would just short stroke them in matrix and call it a day.
jrank001
03-08-09, 10:59 AM
Since you already have them coming I would just short stroke them in matrix and call it a day.

I have no idea what that is. Sorry for being ignorant. Willing to learn.
uberwoot
03-08-09, 11:26 AM
You make your say 1tb hdd a 300gig hdd. This way all the info is stored on the ouside of the platters so they head dosent have to move. Im gonna do this on my laptop when i upgrade from my 320gig to 500gig.

Less the head has to move for data the faster.
ou_phidelt
03-08-09, 02:55 PM
I have no idea what that is. Sorry for being ignorant. Willing to learn.

You use the built in Intel RAID manager to create two RAID arrays. The first will be a RAID 0 array on the fastest portion of the drive. The smaller the array the faster it will be. So typically it will be just big enough for your OS and apps with a bit of room to grow. With the remaining space the most common set-up is a RAID 1 array that will take advantage of the data redundancy but some will do another RAID 0 array. There is a big sticky at the top of this section.