Raptor x - Worth it?

Ecl · 27 Jul 2007 at 16:52

Hi. I am looking to buy a new hdd.

This will be my only hdd for now as I don't need a great deal of space and if necessary can buy another later on.

Is it worth buying a raptor x over anything else (does the speed really make the price worth it, or is there a better option that will be a good bang for buck?)

Thanks

.SJ · 27 Jul 2007 at 17:22

Slogan · 27 Jul 2007 at 17:29

Not worth it. Your money can spent better elsewhere.

Ecl · 27 Jul 2007 at 19:52

Slogan said:
Not worth it. Your money can spent better elsewhere.

Any ideas?

squiffy · 27 Jul 2007 at 19:55

Could buy more memory, if memory runs out you'll get far more slowdown.

Greenlizard0 · 27 Jul 2007 at 20:33

The Raptor X is quite expensive, and as somebody else has pointed out you could get other drives which are quieter and cooler to run. Some of the Samsung *.10 series are very compareable on performance and are cheaper.

If you wanna get a Raptor, then you're probably better getting two 36GB versions, setting up a RAID 0 and saving yourself £20.

Ecl · 27 Jul 2007 at 20:41

I don't really understand RAID, what would be the advantages?

I'd rather a quiet hard drive over a super-fast one, are these Samsung ones relatively quiet?

Greenlizard0 · 27 Jul 2007 at 20:57

I don't have one, but tbh if you were to compare the two drives by noise then the Samsungs would be winners.

RAID is very easy to setup, instructions should be in your motherboard manual. You may want to search for the other threads on the Samsung drives.

Ecl · 27 Jul 2007 at 21:07

Would two of these be good then? Still cheaper than one Raptor X.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-036-SA&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=

Greenlizard0 · 27 Jul 2007 at 23:24

Crap sorry I meant the drives by Seagate - not Samsung :/

doctoe2260 · 28 Jul 2007 at 00:12

Samsung Spinpoints are very quiet, I have the 400Gb version and I can't hear it at all. Definitely would agree that the Raptor isn't worth the premium, the biggest plus most people seem to talk about is the fact you can beat other users in to a game when online - but you still have to wait for them to catch up! Unless your doing HEAVY video editing or file transfer I'd save the cash and buy more RAM/better graphics/better processor.

Atom · 28 Jul 2007 at 06:20

I use 2 74gb Raptors in raid0 and don't play games. Internet and watching/listening to music & videos is all my machine does nowadays.

My setup is now nice and snappy which is the reason I went for them. They are a price premium but it is the speed I am interested in.

To impatient to wait!!

R B Customs · 28 Jul 2007 at 07:16

also... if you thought the noise of hard drives wouldn't bother you... wait til you have a raptor... they're stupidly loud when idle, and access :O

Ecl · 28 Jul 2007 at 11:45

Ok so Seagate, possibly two of these?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-097-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=768

Slogan · 28 Jul 2007 at 13:21

Ecl said:
Any ideas?

Would recommend Western Digital drives personally. The AAKS range are pretty quick I find but I'm not sure if they're available in the 250gb size.

As for wanting quietness, it is best to avoid the Raptor. It'll shake your case to the ground and the noise will just be annoying, as mentioned.

Cupra · 28 Jul 2007 at 13:52

just thought id add a benchmark of the wd 5000aak's i prefer them to the samsungs and they are very qiuet

i have 2 of these drives and they will be back raid0 later so ill do some other tests once ive raided them

Ecl · 28 Jul 2007 at 14:15

I'm sorry for being a newbie but what does that chart show/compare with for other hdd's?

XtAsY · 28 Jul 2007 at 21:28

Atom said:
I use 2 74gb Raptors in raid0 and don't play games. Internet and watching/listening to music & videos is all my machine does nowadays.

My setup is now nice and snappy which is the reason I went for them. They are a price premium but it is the speed I am interested in.

To impatient to wait!!

I also use 2 x 74GB Raptors (the newer variety with the 16MB cache) and they are indeed a godsend for bulky file transfers and quickly accessing data (which I do a lot). For games however, I don't believe there is really any worthwhile performance difference. I don't really regret getting them, though they were £105 back in February which was a lot. I use a 500GB seagate along side the raptors for backup

marscay · 29 Jul 2007 at 05:32

personally i think the Raptor-X is overated now recent 7200 drives have the same if not better STR.

you may lose on the seek times but throw 3 AAKS or 7200.10 in raid-o and you have phenomenal STR speed + more storage for a great price.

elfy · 29 Jul 2007 at 10:19

personally i use a pair of 36gb 16mb raptors in raid 0 for my windows drive and then some big drives for data storage. been a dedicated windows user i reformat and reinstall quite often so for me 2 small drives with no wasted space make a lot more sense than 2 large drives with lots of wasted space. custompc did a drive comparison recently (i know it's not the most reliable of indicaters) and the only drives to keep up with raptors in access/transfer were very large drives where all the data would remain near the "edges" (think that's right)