Which new drive to replace Raptor

[GraemeUK]

Hi guys,

I have a 4 year old WD Raptor 74gig drive, I'm sure it seems to be getting slower, the noise really annoys me because it makes a hell of a sound which in vista is annoying because of the amount of accesses vista has with the hdd and the 74gb being small too.

I had read a couple reviews on OcUK for the Seagate Barracuda 320gb

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-078-SE&tool=3

What I need to know is, will the barracuda be quicker than the raptor & quieter? And do you think its worth swapping it?

Cheers in advance

 

[rpstewart]

The Seagate's average transfer rate will be close to that of the Raptor although the Raptor enjoys a much better seek time due to the faster spindle speed. So in speed terms it's difficult to quantify but I'd suggest that if the noise is starting to bother you then any reduction in performance will be outweighed by the lack of noise. I have a pair of the Seagates in RAID0 so when I access them both drives work simultaneously and even then they're pretty hard to hear.

It might be interesting to compare Vista on the Raptor to Vista on the Seagate and a USB key using ReadyBoost to overcome the difference in seek times.