Any "raptor" equivalent drives ?

Tristun · 15-September-04, 05:12 AM

I'm currently looking for a 10,000RPM SATA hard drive, but not really interested in buying western digital, anyone know of another alternative ? (that is still SATA mind you, not scsi please)

thanks

aaronrkelly · 15-September-04, 05:32 AM

There is no other company making a 10K rpm SATA drive - its Western Digital or nothing.

There are a few 7200 rpm drives that come very close.

Tristun · 15-September-04, 05:35 AM

western digital it is then =) thanks

$SOLID$ Necro · 15-September-04, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tristun


	western digital it is then =) thanks

I have the WD Raptor, but the real world gains were not that impressive over my old 7200RPM 2MB cache IDE drive

I almost wish I had went with 2 inexpensive 7200RPM 8MB cache IDE drives and used a Raid 0 configuration for the fast boot and game loading I desire.

I would think that config would be faster than just 1 Raptor....any opinions?

Of course 2 Raptors in Raid 0 would be the ultimate (Ask Tekxoid about his boot times) but would not be very economical

Tristun · 15-September-04, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro


	Of course 2 Raptors in Raid 0 would be the ultimate (Ask Tekxoid about his boot times) but would not be very economical

If you had 2 - 36gb's in a raid 0 that would rock... I was thinking of getting a 74 so I wouldn't have space probs but DAMN raid would be awesome =D

FunkyFresh · 15-September-04, 09:37 PM

Interesting reading on the subject...
AnandTech: Western Digital's Raptors in RAID-0: Are two drives better than one?

Next best thing to a Raptor might be a Maxtor MaxLine III, or a similar Seagate (400GB!), both of which support NCQ and have 16MB buffers. Find out how they compare to the Raptor here.

I went with a single 36GB Raptor when it first came out, and it was quite noticeably faster than my old 40GB 7200rpm 2MB Western Digital. But that drive was benching pretty slow, anyway.

$SOLID$ Necro · 15-September-04, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FunkyFresh


	Interesting reading on the subject... AnandTech: Western Digital's Raptors in RAID-0: Are two drives better than one? Next best thing to a Raptor might be a Maxtor MaxLine III, or a similar Seagate (400GB!), both of which support NCQ and have 16MB buffers. Find out how they compare to the Raptor here. I went with a single 36GB Raptor when it first came out, and it was quite noticeably faster than my old 40GB 7200rpm 2MB Western Digital. But that drive was benching pretty slow, anyway.

Very good articles, one thing they didn't test was boot time though, but it looks like RAID 0 for gaming is not the hot setup...Hmmm

As far as game level load times on a single drive, as I suspected, at best, there is a 3-4 sec difference between and older 30gig drive and my Raptor 1...looks like the Raptor 2 is the way to go, they did a few tweeks that realy make it shine in real world apps

That new 16MB cache 250gig Maxtor is pretty sweet, but to get all the benefits of NCQ, you need a chipset that supports ICH6...wich is only on the new Intel chipsets, AMD is left out of the loop at the moment.

Arkangyl · 15-September-04, 10:37 PM

MaxPC did the same sort of 'is raid worth it' test and found that raid was either static or degrading of load times

TekXoID · 15-September-04, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro


	I have the WD Raptor, but the real world gains were not that impressive over my old 7200RPM 2MB cache IDE drive I almost wish I had went with 2 inexpensive 7200RPM 8MB cache IDE drives and used a Raid 0 configuration for the fast boot and game loading I desire. I would think that config would be faster than just 1 Raptor....any opinions? Of course 2 Raptors in Raid 0 would be the ultimate (Ask Tekxoid about his boot times) but would not be very economical

Surprising, I noticed the most gain moving from an old WD 7.2k 2MB to the 36GB myself, not just subjectively, an obvious load time performance gain. Everything seems to vary system to system these days.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FunkyFresh


	Interesting reading on the subject... AnandTech: Western Digital's Raptors in RAID-0: Are two drives better than one? Next best thing to a Raptor might be a Maxtor MaxLine III, or a similar Seagate (400GB!), both of which support NCQ and have 16MB buffers. Find out how they compare to the Raptor here I went with a single 36GB Raptor when it first came out, and it was quite noticeably faster than my old 40GB 7200rpm 2MB Western Digital. But that drive was benching pretty slow, anyway.

I didn't agree with that RAID-0 article at all...now that MaxLine III looks great, now only if I could trust Maxtor.

Things they didn't cover were subjective opinion and O/S load times, my boot time shortened quite much after upgrading from a single 36GB raptor to two 74's, and it really feels faster, if you have the money it's worth it.

Tristun; go with a single or dual 74GB Raptor setup. You'll be pleased.

$SOLID$ Necro · 16-September-04, 12:25 AM

Thanks for your insight Bro, I knew you would chime in

I guess was just expecting too much from this Raptor 1..shoulda saved for the Raptor 2

Tristun · 16-September-04, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TekXoID


	Tristun; go with a single or dual 74GB Raptor setup. You'll be pleased.

alright groovy

though, I have a question fer ya

Are you recommending the dual 74's for more space ? or more speed ? cause 36's wouldn't be a problem "space-wise" and I dont have the cash to fork out the extra $150 or so to get dual 74's instead of 36's

thanks

TekXoID · 16-September-04, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tristun


	alright groovy though, I have a question fer ya Are you recommending the dual 74's for more space ? or more speed ? cause 36's wouldn't be a problem "space-wise" and I dont have the cash to fork out the extra $150 or so to get dual 74's instead of 36's thanks

I'm recommending the Dual 74's because they perform better, alone, and in RAID. With R-0
the space will be equal to having a single raptor. Dual 36's will perform well, go ahead.

aaronrkelly · 16-September-04, 02:42 PM

If you look at the benchies the 74s have better performance then the 36s do - so its for both speed and size. They must have sorted a few things out before releasing the 74s. I only have a 36 but the performance gain was still very noticeable - of course I didnt have a very fast drive to start with.

I can, however, say I have a Raptor - just sounds impressive doesnt it.

Argg Argg Raptor ........

Tristun · 16-September-04, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaronrkelly


	I can, however, say I have a Raptor - just sounds impressive doesnt it.

Haha aye, now I'm probly thinking of just saving for dual 74's, thanks guys

Tristun · 16-September-04, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TekXoID


	I'm recommending the Dual 74's because they perform better, alone, and in RAID. With R-0 the space will be equal to having a single raptor. Dual 36's will perform well, go ahead.

I think you are referring to raid-1 ? raid-1 mirrors but raid-0 splits data between the drives.... I have no doubt you probably know this, only thing is r-0 adds the drives GB together instead of having the capacity of one of them

Cyno01 · 16-September-04, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tristun


	I think you are referring to raid-1 ? raid-1 mirrors but raid-0 splits data between the drives.... I have no doubt you probably know this, only thing is r-0 adds the drives GB together instead of having the capacity of one of them

RAID 0 also increases the R/W speed. Its striped across 2 drives, so you have 2 SATA channels and 2 heads reading the data @ once. Granted its not a 2x performance increase, but it is a lot faster. But yeah, i'd reccomend raptors. Dont let brand disloyalty disuede you, all the major manufacturers have about the same failure rate, you were just unlucky w/ WD i assume? RAID is also good. Check out my sig, i know a thing or two about hard drives.

Joose · 16-September-04, 04:49 PM

The best reason to buy a Raptor:

5-YEAR WARRANTY!!!

That's right folks, while all the rest of the drive manufacturers have copped out with 1 year warranties, WD increased the warranty on the Raptor devices to 5 years! They also kept their warranty for all the other drives at 3-years.

That's the main reason I buy them for all the desktops I get at work.

I've had to return close to 200 Quantum/Maxtor drives now, but haven't had to return a single WD yet.

WD pwnz j00

Tristun · 16-September-04, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyno01


	Dont let brand disloyalty disuede you, all the major manufacturers have about the same failure rate, you were just unlucky w/ WD i assume?

Not that something bad happened with WD (I've never actually had a hard drive fail on me) I just pref Seagate is all =)

Edit : forgot to mention that the 5 year warranty is hella sexy

FeRaL · 16-September-04, 06:23 PM

Seagate has decided to reinstate its warranty policy to 5 years... on all it's drives!

LINKAGE

Joose · 17-September-04, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FeRaL


	Seagate has decided to reinstate its warranty policy to 5 years... on all it's drives! LINKAGE

Pimp Joose has called his vendor and has oficially changed his 'Standard Desktop Workstation' to include Seagate drives, rather than Western Digitals, simply because of the warranty.

15-September-04, 05:12 AM		#1 (permalink)
Tristun Apex Master Tech Apprentice	Any "raptor" equivalent drives ? I'm currently looking for a 10,000RPM SATA hard drive, but not really interested in buying western digital, anyone know of another alternative ? (that is still SATA mind you, not scsi please) thanks

16-September-04, 06:23 PM		#19 (permalink)
FeRaL Mutant Moderator	Seagate has decided to reinstate its warranty policy to 5 years... on all it's drives! LINKAGE Last edited by FeRaL; 16-September-04 at 06:31 PM..

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15-September-04, 05:32 AM		#2 (permalink)
aaronrkelly Apex Tech God	There is no other company making a 10K rpm SATA drive - its Western Digital or nothing. There are a few 7200 rpm drives that come very close.

15-September-04, 05:35 AM		#3 (permalink)
Tristun Apex Master Tech Apprentice	western digital it is then =) thanks

15-September-04, 09:37 PM		#6 (permalink)
FunkyFresh 'Da Doctor of Funk	Interesting reading on the subject... AnandTech: Western Digital's Raptors in RAID-0: Are two drives better than one? Next best thing to a Raptor might be a Maxtor MaxLine III, or a similar Seagate (400GB!), both of which support NCQ and have 16MB buffers. Find out how they compare to the Raptor here. I went with a single 36GB Raptor when it first came out, and it was quite noticeably faster than my old 40GB 7200rpm 2MB Western Digital. But that drive was benching pretty slow, anyway.

15-September-04, 10:37 PM		#8 (permalink)
Arkangyl Hoe-lier than Thou	MaxPC did the same sort of 'is raid worth it' test and found that raid was either static or degrading of load times

16-September-04, 12:25 AM		#10 (permalink)
$SOLID$ Necro Mastah Overclocker	Thanks for your insight Bro, I knew you would chime in I guess was just expecting too much from this Raptor 1..shoulda saved for the Raptor 2

16-September-04, 02:42 PM		#13 (permalink)
aaronrkelly Apex Tech God	If you look at the benchies the 74s have better performance then the 36s do - so its for both speed and size. They must have sorted a few things out before releasing the 74s. I only have a 36 but the performance gain was still very noticeable - of course I didnt have a very fast drive to start with. I can, however, say I have a Raptor - just sounds impressive doesnt it. Argg Argg Raptor ........

16-September-04, 04:49 PM		#17 (permalink)
Joose Joosey	The best reason to buy a Raptor: 5-YEAR WARRANTY!!! That's right folks, while all the rest of the drive manufacturers have copped out with 1 year warranties, WD increased the warranty on the Raptor devices to 5 years! They also kept their warranty for all the other drives at 3-years. That's the main reason I buy them for all the desktops I get at work. I've had to return close to 200 Quantum/Maxtor drives now, but haven't had to return a single WD yet. WD pwnz j00