2 36gb raptors in raid 0 vs 1 150gb raptor

[TheNamelessOne]

Ok here's my dilemma. Up until now, I've been using 2 36Gb raptors in Raid for windows/program installs as well as a 250Gb maxtor for data storage. One of my Raptors just failed. Now my question is, considering I bought 2 identical models of harddrives at exactly the same time, used in the same system, what are the chances that my other Raptor will fail soon too? I ask because Western Digital offers an upgrade program where I can get the 150Gb model instead, for a price of course. I'm thinking I could upgrade to one 150Gb for now and then get a second one for Raid 0 later. Of course the best thing to do would be to get 2 150Gb Raptors for Raid 0 now, but I just spent about $900 on a whole new system (HDD's were one of the things I kept from old rig) and I'm not looking at spending another fortune this soon. My second question is, what are the real world performance differences between the two. I'll mainly be playing the latest PC games, browsing the web, listening to music and watching video on the PC. I realize a 150gb raptor is twice as large as 2 36gb raptors, but I'm talking just speed comparison. If anybody has some useful benchmarks (like level loading in Crysis or HL2) feel free to post.

 

[TheNamelessOne]

Also I'm a little confused about the upgrade program. From what I'm seeing it costs $183 to upgrade to the 150Gb model. Why the hell is it so expensive, considering the same model is on Newegg right now for $169 and thats without having to send a defective drive back. Shouldn't they be subtracting the cost of the 36gb model, or at least something close to that? Maybe I'm just not understanding this right, someone help me out.

 

[tuskenraider]

Well WD clearly isn't interested in anyone actually using the upgrade program based on their pricing. Who knows why. Is the old drive out of warranty? If not, get it replaced for the cost of shipping it to them.

As far as using RAID0 for what you do, you may or may not get a performance increase. The improvements I've seen over the course of 5 different RAID0 setups is about 15% at best. Sometimes nothing. Here's some comparison links I had with my last 2x36GB Raptor setup on an NVidia NF4 board.

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~vacationdave/aa.JPG
http://www.wideopenwest.com/~vacationdave/boot.JPG
http://www.wideopenwest.com/~vacationdave/photoshop.JPG
http://www.wideopenwest.com/~vacationdave/obliv.JPG

I'm running a single drive now, but I certainly could just feel like going back to RAID0 if I got bored with my setup.

 

[TheNamelessOne]

My drive is still under warranty. Another thing to consider is I'll be running it on a P35 board with intel matrix raid. Not sure what kind of a difference that will make compared to my old i865PE board.

 

[tuskenraider]

My drive is still under warranty. Another thing to consider is I'll be running it on a P35 board with intel matrix raid. Not sure what kind of a difference that will make compared to my old i865PE board.

Well just get the replacement and set it up as you had it before. I don't think you'll find any difference between the old and new chipsets concerning RAID performance.

 

[fritzman]

If it were me... I'd be going for the 150... especially if you think you will be able to afford to grab a 2nd one later on.

 

[Sam__]

if its still under warranty then you should be able to get it replaced only for the cost of shipping to them.no?