Is a WD Raptor HDD worth it?

OK, I have a 3Gb/s HDD ( although its only 150MB transfer rate) And before I was going to get a Raptor. But then, the payment was seen, but so was the reviews. Now, I like game (ex: FEAR, Battlefield 2 etc) and I saw resolts for my 3GB/s, but how well (and should I get one) do these work? At 10,000 RPM they would ware out fast right?

Drive speeds like those on the WD Raptor are compared to SCSI drives in the older days where access time to retrieve stored data on a separate from primary drive was reduced. The speed the Raptor offers makes it choice for fast access to data you have stored there. You current ide drive will probably still be seen running at the ATA133 speed of 7,200rpm despite the support the board offers for the faster ide model drives that could out sometime?

Most games even newer ones will run as expected on an eide or SATA model at 7,200rpm. As far as 10,000rpm the only problems that could arise besides a failed controller card would be a drive platter becoming brittle or read heads fail. WD has an excellent track record however. They generally have already worked out the "bugs".

I love how much faster the raptor seems to go through files such as with virus scans etc than 7200 drives.

I had a RAID with a pair of Raptor 36G's. They are very fast, but honestly, I think my WD 160G is plenty fast. Not worth it IMO...

I'm sure there would be a bit of a speed increase with the 10,000, but for the price tag and the size of the drive you could get a really nice 7,200. I have never had any problems with playing modern games on a 7,200 drive. I think it really depends on what you want and the price you are willing to pay.

For the price and lack of space I'll stick with my two WD 250gb drives unless I get into a pair of 400gb SATAs on an array in the next build. Currently the second drive is being used to backup data off of the primary. Raptor like SCSI drives are for data retrieval at faster speeds for the most part. Go back some 15years or longer and there were no drives larger then 500mb. Several drives or adding a SCSI controller for external drives was the option to increase storage space. Games as a rule are designed to run even on ide drives slower then 7,200rpm.

i wouldnt bother to much money for what it is