raptors

[Kasso]

sorry to sound like a noob, but whats the deal with raptors? are they for a specific purpose-like gaming, or servers? im asking because i see them all over different sigs.

 

[Enablingwolf]

I don't game much or do any serving. I just use them for the speed they offer.

Most drives are 7200K RPM, the Raptors are 10k RPM. So the seeks and other things are a little bit faster.

 

[tuskenraider]

They're the fastest SATA/IDE drive available, so this being a PC enthusiast forum, you see people wanting the fastest drive(at a price premium of course). Since the hard drive is pretty much the slowest subsystem of a PC and is where a computers OS/data resides to run the whole show, every bit of improvement in HDD speed helps.

 

[Richie13]

I wish I could have had a second exactly configured computer with a standard 7,200 RPM HD also loaded with Vista Ultimate to compare the difference in speed to my 150 GB Raptor. Since I can't do that, I've been looking at other computers average read speeds which are much lower than my 75.6 MB/s with this amazing drive. The only down side is the capacity, but I do intend to get a second one for video editing. The only way I see to gain faster speeds is to have a RAID configuration.

This Raptor is also virtually quiet, but I purchased the model without the plexi window, which I believe adds to its quiet nature. I'd be most interested to know how much slower my computer would boot if I had gotten a standard HD. As configured in my Sig, this computer blows away my XP computer on boot up, although, Vista is designed to be a very fast booter to begin with.

 

[tuskenraider]

I'd be most interested to know how much slower my computer would boot if I had gotten a standard HD.

Compared to the better 7200rpm drives, it really wouldn't be earth shattering. About 5-8% improvement is what I've seen, but that certainly is something.

 

[Enablingwolf]

I ran my computer with a few drives now and various configurations of them drives.
i.e.- RAID 0 and 1 0+1 single drive and JBOD. My board gives some sweet options for the drives.


Every drive has had its chance to boot or do some type of duty in some way.

My boot times are about the same depending on how good the install is. The Raptor did shave a tiny bit off my boot. Though my older IDE Maxtor did about the same at some point.

With both the Maxtor and Raptor. I can see 1.5 'scan' bars on XP boot.
though, the Raptor does feel snappier on many things beyond my old IDE Maxtor drive.

The drives I play with(age determins listing):
Maxtor 80 6Y080PO (This drive is older then my OCF account)
WD 120 (x2) WD1200JB
WD Raptor 74 WD740ADAFD

 

[stunt]

I get about 7/8ths of a bar at boot with my raid 5, 4x80 gig seagate 7200 sata's. And everything is very snappy. I also get security in the form of parity. And all 4 drives are barely more than the cost of 1 74 gig raptor. I'll keep this setup.

 

[tuskenraider]

I get about 7/8ths of a bar at boot with my raid 5, 4x80 gig seagate 7200 sata's.

Measuring "bars" is hardly a scientific way to judge speediness of hard drives. I bet if you did three new OS installs in a row, they'd each show a different amount of "bars" in booting. Trust me, I've tested this. Nonetheless, I'm sure you're happy with your setup.