Best Raptor Alternative...

[FifthFreedom]

Right so I've already got one of these:

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

So my question is, should I get another HDD to use as a boot drive or just boot from the big drive.

If yes, what is the fastest non Raptor drive around?

Thanks,

FifthFreedom

[s_kinton]

Well, its always best to have 1 drive for windows and programs, then another for backup. Then even another for a backup of the backup!!! Thats how I have mine setup.

You should really choose a drive based on storage capacity as most 7200rpm SATAII drives will be very similar in performance.

The fastest non-raptor drive around is probably the WD 640Gb AAKS.

[FifthFreedom]

I never keep data on this drive, I got another rig for that on my network.

According this these benchmarks:

Low Price and Great Performance--Western Digital WD6400AAKS Review - CPUs, Boards & Components by ExtremeTech

The drive I have is a better performer that even the WD 640Gb AAKS.

So I reckon I'm gonna save myself £60 and just write my Windows Partition to the TB Drive.

[Richdog]

320MB Samsung F1.

[aidanjt]

Still not seeing what's great about the F1, cheap price aside, I still think Samsung have HDD reliability problems. Not worth it for me.

[Richdog]

Still not seeing what's great about the F1, cheap price aside, I still think Samsung have HDD reliability problems. Not worth it for me.

It's the fastest non-raptor drive... and reliability issues are mainly with the 1TB drives... the 320GB ones seem fine.

[rufeo]

afaik the 1tb and the 320gb are based on the same platters..... i know the numbers don't add up, but i'm pretty sure its true. just partition the tb drive, if it does fail then you won't lose anything since all your data is on another rig. plus you won't need to spend more money on a drive thats not needed now!

i'm keeping my data on my samsung 1tb drive, touch wood hopefully it won't fail. only had one drive fail and it wasn't a samsung. but low and behold a raptor!

[aidanjt]

It's the "mainly" part that concerns me, it's not just the F1 series that's had problems, all Samsung disks regularly develop problems, and given that the AAKS is just as fast *and* very reliable, it's a no-brainer for me.

[Lourdes]

It's the "mainly" part that concerns me, it's not just the F1 series that's had problems, all Samsung disks regularly develop problems, and given that the AAKS is just as fast *and* very reliable, it's a no-brainer for me.

Samsung drives have regualry been the cheapest and have many more owners so you're going to hear about more faults.
I have 50 1TB F1's that are all perfect, I previously owned 60 HD501LJ's and I only ever had to RMA any for bad sectors that were caused by unexpected powerloss (not true bad sectors but I RMA'd anyway).

[vicar]

Lordes that's a lot of hd and TB's. What are you using them all for?

[FifthFreedom]

Lordes that's a lot of hd and TB's. What are you using them all for?

He gotta be hosting something but HDD's are so cheap these days why wouldn't you buy a whole bunch of em?

I got my TB drive for just under £100

So thats £5,000 for enough space to fit 10,638 DVD's

[Lourdes]

Lordes that's a lot of hd and TB's. What are you using them all for?

All my media including uncompressed video and plenty of room for future expansion (using half the space currently). Paid £4500 for all the hardware needed so not a bad price really, wouldn't have minded the new 5400rpm EcoPower F1's but with 'only' 50 drives they would save maybe 150-200w.

[fyz]

This is helpful

[Jay]

the 750gb F1 is supposed to be faster than the RaptorX

[aidanjt]

Samsung drives have regualry been the cheapest and have many more owners so you're going to hear about more faults.

Not true, the AAKS drives were cheaper for many months and people were recommending and buying them up left, right, and, center. I bought 4 and they're all perfect one year later. And I've rarely heard of a complaint from people who own AAKS drives, but I've heard plenty about Samsung disks dying.

I have 50 1TB F1's that are all perfect, I previously owned 60 HD501LJ's and I only ever had to RMA any for bad sectors that were caused by unexpected powerloss (not true bad sectors but I RMA'd anyway).

I'm glad you've had a good experience with them, but that boils down to luck and nothing more.

[TooNice]

the 750gb F1 is supposed to be faster than the RaptorX

Faster at some tasks, slower than others. I think it is misleading to rely solely on HD-Tach and benchmarks which typically tests sequential read/write performance. I am not denying the importance sequential read/write performance, but it's a like doing a review of a graphic card using OpenGL only, without considering Direct3D. Having said that I will agree that the F1 is definitely a viable alternative to the Raptor for those who don't want to shell out for the Raptor [on a similar token, I think it is fair to say that the Velociraptor is a viable alternative to SSD for people who don't want to shell out on SSD - one does beat the other more often than not, but there is a big enough price gap between 7200 drives to Raptors to SSD].

I'm glad you've had a good experience with them, but that boils down to luck and nothing more.

The AAKS is the better Raptor substitute to the T166 because it is the faster drive (though the T166 is no slouch). I am still weary of the F1 because of the widespread checksum error reported on the 1TB.

But I do not agree with your overall Samsung assessment. It's as if you've already decided that 'all Samsung drives regularly develop problems' and you are downplaying people with positive experience to share (and there are many) as 'just luck'. I don't think it applies only people with good experiences with Samsung drives. I find it unlikely that anyone can be firmly certain that any one drive is more reliable than any other, simply because we do not know how the % failure of any single drive. There are odd cases where problem seems 'epidemic', as was the case of the F1 checksum error, the 'DeathStar' and a couple of others, but I have seen very little indication that the Samsung are 'generally' problem drives. Storagereview is the only one I know of with a remotely credible reliability survey system, but I am sure that still is influence by sampling errors. For what they're worth though, the Samsung P120 do compares favourably with the WD4000 RE YR (and both are above average, though significantly behind the Raptor in reliability - they do not have numbers for the AAKS and the T166 (not enough samples to be included in the DB).