Satisfaction with Western Digital Raptor drives

[PornStar]

I love my new 74GB raptor and would never go back to the old maxtor I used before.

 

[mata2974]

Biggest upgrade I have ever made......worth every penny thereof...........

 

[JoT]

While I'm very pleased with my upgrade to the Raptor, I'm dissatisfied with the onboard SATA on my NF7-S; it's difficult or impossible to switch to a full SATA system with it.

The Raptor was one of the best upgrades I've ever experienced, GREAT product.

 

[Bobacus]

Just got my 74 gb raptor 2 days ago, and I love it. I have noticed quicker load times on my desktop, the only thing is, I wish it would format, and do drive scans as fast as the scsi raid setup in my poweredge server, but thats just wishfull thinking. Other than that, this is an excellent hard drive.

 

[OS-Wiz]

Going to Cable modem was best upgrade I ever made. Second was dual vidcards in SLI-mode. Third was to go to the 37GB Raptor -- can't wait for the 15k version!!!!

 

[Randyman...]

I have a Raptor 36Gig as my primary OS drive. It seems to run smooth and fast, but I don't seem to get much more bandwidth than my WD 7200RPM 200Gig SATA drive - but the Raptor's Access time is faster. I don't regret buying it, but I doubt I'd buy another.

Shoot - $120 will get you a 200 Gig WD or Maxtor SATA drive (5.5x the capacity of a 36Gig Raptor - and maybe 5%-10% slower?)! Even with high-demand 32-track Audio Projects (32 tracks of 44.1KHz 24 Bit WAVE files), the good ol ATA133 will do just fine, and 7200 SATA drives are more than adequate IMO.

 

[RoadWarrior]

Heh, if anyone doesn't notice a difference between a 5400 drive and any raptor they need slapping. I notice the difference between a 5400 ATA66 drive and a 7200 RPM 2Mb cache drive. And I can just about feel a difference between a WD 2Mb drive and a WD 8 Mb cache drive. As far as I'm concerned though, looking at the benchmark figures, I don't think I'd see/feel too much of a difference between my WD 80G SE 8Mb and the 36G raptor, and until I have an SATA board, the 74G won't do any good either. As an upgrade, I'd just be tempted to get an additional WD 80G SE and run 2 in RAID 0 rather than get a raptor though. I think pretty much all of the 8Mb cache drives just edge out a single 74G raptor using 2 in RAID 0 though, so it doesn't seem to make all that much sense to me to buy 74G when you could get about the same speed or a little better with 2x120G for the same money, or even 2x160 might be possible if you camp for rebates and sales. Of course, if you just have to have the best, nothing ATA beats 2 74G Raptors in RAID.

As far as load times go, a significant portion of my load time is waiting for the network to respond, like 3-5 seconds worth, so there's only so much a HDD can do to improve the overall speed there.

I don't know what the Raptors are like for CPU utilisation, but I know for instance that WD drives in general, thier regular lines, are some of the lowest CPU users out there. But that is another factor to consider. If you happen to be using an application that hammers the CPU and the HDD at the same time, then if you're migrating from a drive with lower CPU utilisation requirements, then you might actually find the raptors slower. But I think that's a fairly unusual situation and raptors like thier caviar cousins are very light on the CPU. If however, you went from say a 2Mb cache caviar to a 8Mb cache maxtor you might see that effect more strongly.

Road Warrior

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

went from a 160g WD 8mb drive to a 74g raptor an will NEVER look back!!! is my main O/s - games drive in my gaming rig with 300g of other drives for storage - i reboot, the post screen goes by then i see the XP boot screen for about 2 seconds and BAM i am at my desktop!

 

[Bobtod]

I went from 2x60gb Barracuda IV's in Raid0 to a single 36gb Raptor and noticed the speed difference! I then bought another raptor for Raid0 but wasn't that impressed by the performance jump as much as when getting the first raptor, if that made any sense?

Overall, they kick a$$, if you haven't tried one yet - you need to.

bt

 

[soundfx4]

I moved from 160 Gig 7200 RPM 8 meg cach to 74 gig raptor, and to tell you the truth, I don't see much difference. I'm sure the difference is there, but I just can't see it. So my theory is that everyone doesn't really see that big of a difference, but they force their selves to find a way to see a difference since the drive is supposed to be very fast. I have not actually performed any benchmarks yet, but as far as real world time, it seams to be only a bit faster. Let me just restart my comp real quick to double check.

 

[Airbornederekc]

went from a seagate baracudda sata to a raptor and loved it then went and got another for raid 0 and i am even more impressed. im a gamer and doom 3 loads alot faster same with far cry and other games. i am most impressed.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

I moved from 160 Gig 7200 RPM 8 meg cach to 74 gig raptor, and to tell you the truth, I don't see much difference. I'm sure the difference is there, but I just can't see it. So my theory is that everyone doesn't really see that big of a difference, but they force their selves to find a way to see a difference since the drive is supposed to be very fast. I have not actually performed any benchmarks yet, but as far as real world time, it seams to be only a bit faster. Let me just restart my comp real quick to double check.

Well, I guess there's just differences between some people who notice no or slight differences in performance versus those who swear by them now.

1. Cache (2MB vs. 8MB)
2. Areal density (high density means less seek movement)

Even though almost everyone has a 7200 drive, there's speed differences/compromises on speed for the sake of noise and/or heat reasons.

 

[mata2974]

but they force their selves to find a way to see a difference since the drive is supposed to be very fast.

LOL.... how can you force yourself to see a difference, its either there is a difference or there is none....

 

[soundfx4]

I didn't word that quite right. Let me rephrase; what I meant was that they convince themselves it is much faster even though it really might not be. That is what I meant, but after I rebooted last night, I did notice a difference, and the drive is faster (I never really doubted that), but sometimes depending on what I'm doing, it doesn't really seam much faster. The real funny thing though is that there is a huge obvious difference between 5,400 and 7,200 RPMs, but the difference between 7200, and 10000, even though it is a larger difference, doesn’t seam quite as extravagant. At least that is how it seams to me. The speed difference from 5400 to 7200 seamed like a much larger leap in performance to me then the jump from 7200 to 10000. But whatever, I know the drive is faster, and that is good enough for me

 

[BoogieMan]

Only been using my 74gb Raptor for about 2 mths now, but dam i love how fast i load the maps in RTCW ET How about formatting? How fast was that.

 

[shellshock]

I wish I had one. My western digital I have now is slow as hell! I hope to get a raptor and get a raid setup going. Im only 15 and money is hard to come buy. It took me about 6 months to get enough $ for my current setup

 

[orion25]

I went from an 80gb WD 8mb cache drive to 2 36gb Raptors in RAID0 and I could not be happier! The windows XP load screen does not even show one blue bar before I am at the log on screen! The 80 went through about 4 cycles. HL2 (the only game I am currently playing on Computer - But playing GT4 on PS2 as often as possible) loads faster to boot!

My only concern is that I am in RAID0 and if one drive fails I am screwed. But I back up and/or store all my important files on a third HDD (WD 80gb 2mb cache) often. So the risk is lessened. When I leave this apartment and move into the house I am shopping for (move in 2 months or less) I will set up a server for backup so this will not be even a remote concern. Can we say RAID5!! I LOVE MY RAPTORS!!

 

[lenzo]

Last year I built a rig with dual 36G Raptors.
I loved the whistle noise they made.
One of the two died on me and I lost my data (only games!).
I RMA'd and later found out replacement wasn't possible due to lack of stock.
Now I sat with only one! Bummer.
Now boot ups and loadings are slower. Time for dual 74g's now so the whistle will drive all the dogs in the neighborhood wild.

 

[orion25]

Last year I built a rig with dual 36G Raptors.
I loved the whistle noise they made.
One of the two died on me and I lost my data (only games!).
I RMA'd and later found out replacement wasn't possible due to lack of stock.
Now I sat with only one! Bummer.
Now boot ups and loadings are slower. Time for dual 74g's now so the whistle will drive all the dogs in the neighborhood wild.

Never heard the "whistle" but I do have a 92mm Tornado on my XP-90

 

[Airbornederekc]

i dont even hear my drive. the only time i hear it is when im doin a benchie and its doin crazy access things. of course i do have 8 case fans but still