Raptors and Velociraptors

[ikix]

Has anyone got any of these? I am thinking of one for my new rig but i don't know whether they are worth buying, is there any appreciable difference noticed?

[GoNz0]

yes its faster, my system boots a lot quicker since a raptor went in

[rufeo]

i've got a 150gb raptor. loading times are faster than any normal drive. but it depends on what you see as worthwile.... in terms of value for money, they are definitely not. alot of the bigger capacity drives like the 750gb and 1tb that are available are almost or just as good for less money. the only thing they can't beat the raptors at are seek times.

if you do alot of video editing or must have the best performance hard drive irrespective of price then go for it! but get the velociraptors, they'll be quicker, quieter and hopefully cooler as well for not too much more when comparing the price for each GB

[Bauer]

I used to have 2 150Gb raptors in RAID 0. Windows XP booted in less than half the time when compared to a standard 7200RPM hard drive.

The only problem I had (apart from one of the drives failing after just over a year) was that they are noticably louder than a number of other 7200RPM drives. The new Velociraptors should be quieter and faster.

They are worth buying to use as a primary boot drive, especially on a fast PC where the hard drive performance is more likely to be a bottleneck. They are also good for improving loading times within certain games.

[NightshadowUK]

Having one as a boot drive is certainly awesome but I still wince thinking about how much it cost. Only you can decide whether or not it's worth it.

[ikix]

Roughly how much louder is it compared to a 7200

[NightshadowUK]

Not at all under normal operation but when seeking it's pretty damn loud. For example before putting mine inside a 'quiet drive', I could clearly hear it clunking away in the kitchen underneath the room the PC's in.

[this_is_gav]

Not at all under normal operation but when seeking it's pretty damn loud. For example before putting mine inside a 'quiet drive', I could clearly hear it clunking away in the kitchen underneath the room the PC's in.

You can't compare the 74GB drives to the 150GB ones though, let alone the new Velociraptors. The recent 150GB drives (no idea if it's been this way from the off) are a LOT quieter seeking than the 74GB ones, and are pretty much silent when idling (I can't hear mine at all over the not-overly-loud graphics card fan). No idea how the Velociraptors compare to the 150GB drives, but I can't see any reason why they'd be any louder, only quieter.

Worth it? Not to most in a standard gaming system, no. If you want the fastest at everything and don't mind paying for it, or you work a lot with HD video files or the likes, then they start to look a bit more viable.

[TooNice]

I can't access Storagereview at the moment, but I remember that the Velociraptors were quieter than most 7200 drives.

[FifthFreedom]

I was looking at a Velociraptor but then I thought
"What the hell is wrong with me?
£200 for a 300 Gb drive?
I could get 2 Terabytes for that!"

They are far to expensive to warrant a purchase unless your a professional of some kind.

Even if you have money to burn, theres better ways to burn it IMO. (e.g. CPU/Monitor upgrade )

EDIT:

From some benchmarks I've seen, these are a good replacement for a 150Gb Raptor.

Obviously not as fast as a Raptor but almost as fast and a whole lot cheaper than a Raptor

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Comparison of this drive to a Raptor:
Seagate's Barracuda 7200.10 hard drive - The Tech Report - Page 5

[MadduckUK]

does no-one make cheapo SAS controllers yet?

[rufeo]

They are far to expensive to warrant a purchase unless your a professional of some kind.

Even if you have money to burn, theres better ways to burn it IMO. (e.g. CPU/Monitor upgrade )

Thats the idea though.... the raptors are aimed at the enthusiasts. its like that with all technology tbh, the best even if its only by a bit will cost alot more than whats 2nd place.

you're right in saying that there are better ways of spending the money, but what if all the components etc were already up to scratch? making a decision on whether to blow that extra money is upto the buyer at the end of the day. the best comparison i can make is this, why buy a lets say mazda mx5 when you can get a ferrari if you had the money? both do the same job, but ones arguably better than the other. thats why it costs more.

i've got a raptor and do a little bit of video editing, so the raptor does make a difference to me. but i don't do enough to warranty me spending that amount of money on one though.... the reason why i got one was that it was the only part left in my computer that i wanted to upgrade and had the money lying around to do so.

[shaithis]

Well, I spend silly amounts of money on feeding my pc habit every year, yet have never bought a raptor due to the value for money factor.

Unless you reboot multiple times a day, all that extra money for a few seconds here-and-there seems like a complete waste.

Ofc, everyone's needs are different and YMMV

[TheAnimus]

Raptor's just never did it for me, they're so much more than normal drives for the GB per £. Yet so much slower than the enterprise stuff if you want speed + reliability.

Its all about the SSDs baby, was using a laptop with one for about 2 months. Utter bliss, so many apps sprang open instantly, even thou the lappy was only a C2D with 2gig ram!

[rufeo]

this may sound hypocritical if you compare it to my last post. but ssds are certainly the future, but the costs.... there will be some ppl out there where money is no object, for them they can spend as much as they want on whatever they want. alot of my friends say that about me (bought a 200 quid lighter....).

but even though i can spend alot of money on most things, i still weigh up the costs albeit to a different level compared to most ppl. i think this is the important thing that ppl need to realise, that just because someone may think its a waste of money others may not. everyones opinions differ and there isn't a completely right or wrong answer.

a couple of hundred i can spend without it putting too much of a dent in my wallet. but a few hundred or more and i'd have to think about it more seriously. ssds are definitely much quicker without a doubt, but right now the prices are very high and they're going to drop in the next yr or two. whereas for raptors their prices aren't going to drop massively. as soon as the prices do drop on the ssds i'll be giving serious thoughts on upgrading again! can't wait....

[aidanjt]

does no-one make cheapo SAS controllers yet?

No, and there's no need to, SATA is the mini-SAS controller for cheap production. The customer needs to decide if they really need SAS features, they rarely do however.