Are faster hard drives really faster?

[No.72]

I will shortly buy all of my components for my new pc. I think that every component has been finalized but one. It's the hard drive!
I am unsure to go with a 74 gig raptor or a 300 gig normal speed one.
The raptor of course for gaming and os and I would upgrade to another raptor when funds allow.
But this is my question, are raptor hdd's really that much faster than normal
speed hdd's? is it really worth the money getting a raptor or is it better just buying a large normal speed hdd?
btw I will be playing alot of games, and I would like to have the fastest
performance without being stupidly expensive.

[theuncharmed]

Ooh tough question. To me their not worth it, an extra 3 seconds waiting for a HDD to load a game is not worth losing half the size of a drive and paying 3 times as much.

But then 3 seconds can be an age for some others and the pimip value is worth the £150.

They are faster, they do have very good warranties and they are relativly quiet. But then for £150 you could have 750GBs of storage from Samsung and only slightly slower ...

[Fabula]

Hard drives are the slowest components in a system.

If I was building a complete system costing more than £1000, then I would consider a raptor.

But even then the money may be better spent on bigger storage, or even setting up a RAID striping array for speed.

The extra ~£50 for a raptor to save a few seconds loading/saving/booting would probably be appreciated more on a faster CPU or gfx card.

[FInalD]

I spent the best part of £1400 on a PC, and didn't go near raptors, didn't even consider them. To me space is what matters and there is little difference between raptors and 'normal' drives really. I have two Seagate Baracuda 320GB 7200.10 drives and they are fast enough and also not that expensive.

I plan on getting 2/3 more and setting up a RAID array with them, as I have filled one drive with data I don't fancy losing.

FinalD

[No.72]

Yes that is correct but I already have a 7600gt which will do me until easter time and I am going to get E6600 which I will oc so not much needed there.
If a raptor gives me a few seconds quicker loading time in a game then great that is fantastic, I could then get another raptor or another large capacity hdd and that should be great. It would be nice to have that little bit extra.

[Clunk]

If you arent fussed about the noise of a raptor, then it does make a nice all round difference in speed, but the noise is quite irritating after a while.

[Barrichello]

I just built my new system around a E6600/2gbram/150gb raptor(not the windowed one)

And the raptor gets a vote from me.

Personally im finding the performance of the raptor rather impressive. Things seem alot quicker than im used to, im sure its because of all the parts together really making the difference as well that make it. What i did was use the 150gb raptor as my primary hd for games only and then i have a big cheap 300gb disk slaved with all my "rubbish" on - seems to be a good compromise.

As Clunk rightly says the disk is slightly noiser than most, personally as i always have a headset on its not a big deal tbh, but if the missus starts to moan about it i can always get one of these babies -> http://www.scythe-eu.com/en/products...less-case.html

[scrandman]

The difference is not that great, now when solid state "hard drives" become more viable, then that would be worth a few extra quid.

[Neo_VR]

Ive currently got two 36gb raptors striped.. tasty
They are the old raptors, so no FDB like the newer drives but tbh if your building a gaming system, your gpu/gfx card coolers will be louder anyway.. and theres something... i dunno "reassuring" to be able to hear the discs clicking away to show the computer is actually doing something

Oh, and yes... the discs are very very fast.. i can get to the vista desktop from cold boot in under 30seconds

[BlindMelon7]

Aggghhh! Nobody told me they're loud! I just ordered one from scan along with a load of golfball fans and a quiet cpu fan. Is there such a thing as a hard drive quietener?

Edit: Didn't see that link . Thanks for that.

[Clunk]

I have one of those Scythe things and if you have quiet fans, the raptor will still be the loudest thing in your system!

[BlindMelon7]

*sigh* Whats the spin speed like? The only time I want it quiet is when I'm sleeping 'cos mines keeping me up at night!

[chuckskull]

Once you have everything else as high as you're willing to go a raptor is worth it. If you want a really noticeable difference in seed get two in a RAID0. The entire PC will feel much faster and you'll be the first person in every server, every time.

[s_kinton]

The entire PC will feel much faster and you'll be the first person in every server, every time.

I dont have a raptor, but every Bf2 server i play on, i am in a good while before anyone else, so i get the pick of the vehicles, helis, planes etc. I use an 80gb SATA II hdd.

I personally dont think the raptor are worth the money. For the high price, you got very little storage and an average speed jump imo. Id just stick with a couple of large SATA II drives with 16mb cache and be happy

[chuckskull]

I dont have a raptor, but every Bf2 server i play on, i am in a good while before anyone else, so i get the pick of the vehicles, helis, planes etc. I use an 80gb SATA II hdd.

For BF2 half the loading time is 'verifying client data'. Which is more to do with your internet and CPU.

[this_is_gav]

*sigh* Whats the spin speed like? The only time I want it quiet is when I'm sleeping 'cos mines keeping me up at night!

Spindle speed I can't hear personally (see my spec on the left), though I'm sure the seeking noise could annoy some. Personally it doesn't bother me unless I'm getting up at stupid o'clock and there's very little ambient noise.