WD Raptors in RAID -vs- Normal SATA

[DakotaDoc64]

I know there are some old threads I found on the search (back to July) that talk around this. But none to the point.

I am going to build a new system using an ASUS A8N-SLI. But am unsure if it is worth the cash to purchase two WD 10,000 RPM Raptors vs other more current 400+ GB SATA drives even though the platter speed is 7200rpm the aerial density is higher and you will end up with more storage space

I would be running two of these in RAID 0. The 150GB WD raptors are out of the budget ($299.00 ea) Looking to get the 74GB versions. Or a pair of larger SATA 3 HD's could be had for nearly the same cash.

Discussion........

[Sir. MatDef]

Re: WD Raptors in RAID -vs- Normal SATA

Just get a 7200rpm drive with a 16mb cache, it should perform almost a good as the raptors for triple the storage.

[sackynut]

Re: WD Raptors in RAID -vs- Normal SATA

^_^ yup what he said. But I mean, I have a 7200rpm 8mb cache, and I dont see how it could perform any better at all. So, there is almost no noticable difference to me.

[Neat_Hedgehog]

Re: WD Raptors in RAID -vs- Normal SATA

Look up some reviews on the Maxtor Diamondmax 10 series with 16mb in the cache. It can keep pace with the high-end Raptors way better than you might expect from a 7,200rpm for a fraction of the price, and way more storage space.

[Darksniper75]

Re: WD Raptors in RAID -vs- Normal SATA

Look up some reviews on the Maxtor Diamondmax 10 series with 16mb in the cache. It can keep pace with the high-end Raptors way better than you might expect from a 7,200rpm for a fraction of the price, and way more storage space.

Indeed, buy a normal harddrive and invest the extra money in your vid card. Should give you better performance gain.

Cheers

[DrunkenPirate]

Re: WD Raptors in RAID -vs- Normal SATA

Moved to Hardware.

[Jofaba]

Re: WD Raptors in RAID -vs- Normal SATA

If you're looking for a noticable peformance boost, then do what they said because a 10K rpm drive won't necissarily give you an equal boost per cost that you're looking for. That said, I notice a faster reaction and seek time, and my friends raid 0 on Raptors is noticably faster (to him), and I'm playing around with the idea of SCSI 15,000 RPM which costs around $180 for a 36gb (raw) and has a 3.3ms seek time (compared to the Raptor's 4.5). Worth it? Probably not, and I don't need the extra security, but it'll be a fun project either way.

So basically it's all about personal preference. If you're asking for a fast noticable peformance boost, put your money elsewhere. SATA will probably turn out to be more hasle than it's worth for you.

(On the other hand, don't try to buy like a 500gb hard drive that costs $100 unless you really don't care about any of the data you put on it. Cheap IDE hard drives are the least secure out of all the formats, from what I understand and have experienced).