Western Raptor 74gb - fast?

iMacMart

iMacMart

iMacMart

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Hi,

I currently have a 120gb Sata drive, but I may purchase one of the above from OCUK and have that as my OS and gaming drive and then have the other for general files/music/pictures..!!

Would a notice a difference in loading times etc with the Western Raptor? Also I take it the new drive will have to be Sata with those silly small data cables I have on my current 120gb drive or is there a converter for IDE - Sata?

Thanks in advance ppl ;)
 
The Raptor is much, much faster at loading games than any other drive I have had the pleasure of using. I use a cheap 80Gb Maxtor as my Windows drive, the Raptor as my games drive and the larger Maxtor for music etc. However, whether the Raptor is worth it's price premium, I am not sure. I think if I were to build a computer now, I would not pay £120 for a 70Gb drive!
 
Not surprising you're not sure if the raptor is worth if you're not running the OS from it.

I purchased that raptor just recently, and it boots quicker by at least 10 seconds then my hitachi 250gb sata, which by no means is slow.

The only thing comparable to the Raptors at this time in this the larger drives, 500gb drives and the like, which perform just below the raptors.

If you want total performance the Raptor is fast, but it does make some noise when you give it something to do, but as i mentioned in another thread its not louder then the other sata drives for simple tasks like browsing this forum etc.....

I ummmed and ahhed about wether to bother getting one, and i'm glad i did.

Before anyone here starts yabbering about the hitachis suck, please actually do some research or don't post.

Sorry for the above comment, but i've seen people slating the hitachis with very little if any information to back it up.

If you want PURE PERFORMANCE, then i'd say yeah grab a Raptor......

p.s the 16mb cache at this time offers very little performance boost over the 8mb cache versions, however i still opted for the 16mb version, i've always figured, if you can push the budget to the get the higher spec then why not..... my friend has the regular Raptors and his still beat my Hitachi, though i havnt tested with him again, i'm pretty sure i'm faster now (the 16mb cache is proberly accountable for this). Bear in mind i reinstalled more recently then he did and it makes sense for mine to perform better, but as it stands i don't think the 16mb version really gives you a massive increase in performace.

Just go with what you can afford, i'll bet you'll be happy with either one of the raptors.
 
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t31os wrote:

the 16mb cache at this time offers very little performance boost over the 8mb cache versions
Click to expand...

I would disagree with this, the 16MB version would give a 20% increase in Average read in HDTach over the 8MB version, see Here

In my opinion the extra few £s for the 16MB version over the 8MB version is worth it. ;)
 
If i stand corrected then so be it.... :D

I've gone with the 16mb version and very happy with it, but i still think the 8mb version is still a brilliant drive, i've had friends using Raptors for the last year to compare with and they still keep with the best of them.
 
Thanks for the response guys, I think I will try for a 16 but if the budget (and the fiancé & 4 week old baby boy can have bread and H2o for the next month.....joke..!!) can stretch, if not I think the 8mb would add a boost to what I already have so I'd be happy......

I'll do a few before and after results .i.e. boot and loads times on here once I purchase..!! Just for info...

Thanks again ;)

edit: Sorry but need to clear one thing up, if a want fast loading games - have them on the raptor drive and my OS on 120 Maxtor? If I want fast OS load that on raptor and have games on maxtor? Can't I have games and OS on raptor and everything else (data wise) on maxtor?
 
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Just put your OS, games and programs all on the Raptor - there's plenty of space.

Keep data on a separate disk though.

Quick note, looks like all 3 versions of the Raptor have now got the 16mb cache upgrade so personally (read: opinion) I would get two 37GB 16mb raptors and put them in RAID 0.

I've been using a single 37GB raptor for 3 years now and am very impressed with it.
 
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Cheers Imy,

At the moment I can only afford the 1 but that doesn't mean I won't purchase a second in the near future and raid it up :D

cheers mate ;)
 
Imy said:
Just put your OS, games and programs all on the Raptor - there's plenty of space.

Keep data on a separate disk though.

Quick note, looks like all 3 versions of the Raptor have now got the 16mb cache upgrade so personally (read: opinion) I would get two 37GB 16mb raptors and put them in RAID 0.

I've been using a single 37GB raptor for 3 years now and am very impressed with it.
Click to expand...

Any hard drive, as it fills becomes gradually slower.

The larger Raptors benchmark better then the lower ones. Of course the lower ones are in a lower price range, but they do sit lower in the benchmarks.

The raptors are not the be all and end all of performance for HDD's. The higher end sata's, 500gb + are benchmarking just below the top end raptors. Once the technology is used more wide stream, i would think the raptors have some competition.
 
t31os said:
The larger Raptors benchmark better then the lower ones. Of course the lower ones are in a lower price range, but they do sit lower in the benchmarks.
Click to expand...

Up until now yes they have but that's not due to the extra capacity. When the 150GB raptor was released, it was a higher spec drive but as I mentioned above, they've brought all 3 versions into line now, with 16mb cache, NCQ and identical performance stats (on paper). I doubt you'll find any benchmarks yet as this has only recently happened but here's some info on the updates:

Offical Raptor Product Page

DailyTech Article

DailyTech said:
Among the performance updates are increases in 'Buffer To Disk' sustained transfer rates of 84MB/sec up from the previous models' 72MB/sec as well as lower overall average seek times.
Click to expand...
 
jbloggs said:
Here is a bench of the new 74GB Raptor, 16MB cache with NCQ (and 320GB Saegate Barracuda SATA 7200.10) using HDTach. :)
Click to expand...


those drives are problay not getting full speed
they look if their on nvidia chipset
which is a rather poor controller.

i think a raptor on a decent controller would show better rates

i found nvidia chipset i had too disable 2 options to get better rates
1 disable read caching
2.disable NCQ
 
Erm that was a 'joke' mate (as stated in post!!!!)?????? I would give up my life before I'd let my baby go without anything?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Comments like that aren't needed......... thanks!!!!!!!!!!!


You don't know me, so please keep your thoughts to yourself!!!
 
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i think raptors are worth it. i use mine as my main drive (OS + GAMES)

it just feels faster than my old drives (had 120gm maxtor and also 120gb raid 0 on them)

although the raid drives performed better on HD tach the raptor feels snappier even in windows, i am not sure if this is due to lower response times ??.

i am always first into new maps on COD and UO if that helps also :p,,as for windows boot up i cant tell any difference, but i have not really timed it and my pc hardly ever gets turned off/restarted anyway
 
Thanks killer!!

I didn't think it deserved a comment like that, actually I didn't think it deserved a comment at all?



After all, it was in jest!!!!! My son means the world to me and comments like that make me very angry!!
 
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