Trying to decide which HD

djray77

New Member
Could someone please help me finding a good fast HD.
I was trying to get a 150gb raptor but they are just more then I want to spend so whats another good fast HD??
 
I guess what im trying to figure out is I know all the benchmark number shows the raptors being very fast but would you really see it in every day use?
 
SATA and SCSI drives with RAID to come later were initially intended for faster access to data stored on separate drives. The Raptor would be the fastest for this being that it runs at 10,000rpm over the 7,200rpm seen on other SATA drives and the newer ide drives as well. The real problem is that Windows and other applicatios are geared to run at certain speeds for the most part while you would notice some things loading faster.

One example to go by would be running XP on three different drives. The current ATA133 at 7,200, one ATA100 at 5,400, and an older ATA66 at 3,800rpm. Surprisingly the jump some time back from a 13gb 5,400rpm ide drive to a new 7,200rpm ide model wasn't noticable. The jump from an older 3,800rpm would certainly see an improvement. That is compared with 98SE as the OS installed on the three there. Now add 33% to a 7,200rpm model running XP to see some improvement and speed change noticed.
 
Raptors are very fast...there's no doubt there. However, under normal usage, I don't think you'd see much of a difference between a good 7200RPM drive and a Raptor. I had a RAID with a pair of 36.7G raptors a year or so ago, and it really wasn't anything too astounding. The person I sold them too was expecting more, as well. Plus it's a bit of a pain to setup.

If I were you, just get a good 7200RPM Western Digital. Or, I hear Samsung has some really good drives anymore. Some of the fastest around, too. They might be worth checking out.
 
Personally I will be looking at a pair of WD 500gb SATAs soon enough. But those will strictly storage drives rather then splitting the second drive here for a soon to be cramped backup partition for both OSs in use.
 
I think I might try the one that PC eye posted a link to. The reviews are good and they say its pretty fast.
 
Well I went to the local computer store and bought the seagate 7200.10 250gb. Now the Q I have is should I just replace my raptor 36 with this or still load the OS on the raptor and have the seagate as just a storage drive.
 
You might as well use the Raptor until it dies unless you want to sell it. The 7200.10 drives are perpendicularly recorded which is why you see the benchmarks being very close to the raptor.
 
Im debating if I should by another raptor 36gb and raid0 it with the one i have now and keep the new 250gb I just bought as storage?
What would be faster you guys think? 2 36gb raptors on raid 0 or just keep the 7200.10 drive??
 
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