WD RAPTOR SATA 36GB 10krpm

[royce]

Does anyone own a Western Digital Raptor SATA 36.7gb 10,000rpm hard drive? I'm really thinking about getting one. Is there a noticeable change from a 7,200rpm drive? All of my drives are 7,200rpm but their buffers are not 8mb. Yah it sucks

[Austin]

Sure there's an increase and it is more than the tiny increase 7200-8 have over 7200-2 but is it worth the cost when you can have a 120GB 7200-8 for about the same money? Expect a LOT more heat and a LOT more noise. In any case for most users there's no substantial increase outside of sythetics so think carefully before shelling out. Maybe even consider SCSI? I don't actually have one so I could be off base here but that's what I've heard.

[royce]

Well the truth is I always wanted to try it out, I ordered it a few days ago and it comes tuesday. I'm gonna use my 80GB caviars for data storage but I plan on running games and things off the Raptor... Noise doesnt bother me when I have music playing while i'm on the comp all the time. I have SCSI on my Dual Xeon servers... SCSI is more expensive thought.

[joshwa]

i think www.storagereview.com have reviewed it - the 36gb version : http://www.storagereview.com/article...WD360GD_1.html

[Oo_Scotty_oO]

For Raid 0 they are very fast , if you intend to use just one then you wont see any bigger improvements over the likes of Maxtor Diamond plus 9 's (both of which i have) . The Raptor by itself is poor value

[TooNice]

With the 2nd gen Raptor is round the corner (lead by the 74gig version - and I am sure an improved 36gig will follow up), I wouldn't really go for one right now.

Having said that, I disagree with the poster above.
If I were getting a Raptor, I would *not* set them up in RAID-0.

If I had a need for RAID-0, I'd probably just get two (cheaper, larger) 7200RPM drives with good transfer rate. This is to take advantage of the increased transfer rate you get with RAID-0 (which is the main strength of RAID-0).

And I'd keep the Raptor on a single drive set-up.

For non-server applications, you need will a *good* (read: expensive) 10k RPM SCSI drive to beat the Raptor.
Add the price of a SCSI Adapter on top, and it becomes a very expensive. Think carefully before you invest into SCSI.

Also, noise/heat wise, the Raptor isn't doing too bad compared to some of the modern 7200RPM drives..
http://www.storagereview.com/php/ben...3=251&devCnt=4

The new one is supposed to be even more quiet..

[dgr]

I own a raptor, a WD and a IBM (as in sig). i disagree ENTIRELY with some of what is being said.

the raptor is not noisy at all, thuogh it depends what you are doing. If its just loading a browser, playing a game, watching a film or loading winamp (), its hella fast and not noticeably noisy (above a few fans, though i really am quite picky with noise so my fans are 7v).

its hella fas,t the bottlenect has always been other peoples connections to my pc. it can sustain a lot of hammering over ftp without breaking a sweat.

And if you are accessing a lot of small files, you will notice it.

basically: it may not be worth spending 4* more per gigabyte, but its a far better investment than say the latest CPU.

btw with the heat issue, mine is fine at the front of the case. you could always put it in a coolerdrive thuogh.

oh and bear in mind the FIVE year warranty you get with it. I feel a lot safer with the drive than any ide drive (of which i have had 3 break down in the last 3 months)

dgr

[royce]

Originally posted by dgr
basically: it may not be worth spending 4* more per gigabyte, but its a far better investment than say the latest CPU.

Eeekkk hah... I just bought a P4 3.2ghz >.< along with the raptor... plus LanParty Pro875 broke down on me so I just got an Abit IC7 Max3 >.<.