WD VelociRaptor VR150 300GB

[SugarCoat]

I've noticed the 150gb Raptors are horrendously noisy when they're decently fragmented. Really what they need to do is bundle a copy of Diskeeper with the drive, and really should for what you pay. If you keep that in check though the noise levels stay well within tolerable levels.

 

[Mintmaster]

Ah, but even if that were true, that still takes seeks away from the top priority position doesn't it?

Why are you comparing apples and oranges?

WD made big strides in cache algorithms since the last raptor, getting their 7200 RPM drives nearly as fast. They did what they could, and now seek time is their top priority for improving performance. Looking at the results, that's absolutely true. Comparing between brands and across generations is pointless.

 

[Berek]

I ended up buying a few of the WD 640GBs instead. When it comes down to it, if I can get a couple of TB for the price of just 1 Raptor, and performance is equal or near equal except in seek times, and I have a 74GB Raptor already, its really a no-brainer decision.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to test this baby until I get home in two weeks. It's fun buying stuff from China, only having to wait two weeks until you can open all your "presents" upon arriving home again after being away for a year!

 

[MfA]

One advantage that Raptors aren't likely to lose is their access time advantage

They have lost it by nearly two orders of magnitude to SSDs. Makes the gain the raptors get over cheap 7k4 drives look a little pathetic in comparison. I don't spend that much on storage either way ... but if I was going to pay that kind of money I'd rather get a SSD for OS/games and a cheap drive for bulk storage.

Which is why Seagate is throwing around law suits.

 

[swaaye]

They have lost it by nearly two orders of magnitude to SSDs. Makes the gain the raptors get over cheap 7k4 drives look a little pathetic in comparison.

SSDs are incredibly more expensive than a 300GB Raptor. Cheap SSDs can suffer from performance problems with small files and writes, like flash drives, even though their access times are stunning. Not saying that I am out Raptor shopping, but I think this type of drive still has its place until high-performance SSDs are actually affordable. I'm officially done with that Raptor noise, personally.

 

[swaaye]

I ended up buying a few of the WD 640GBs instead. When it comes down to it, if I can get a couple of TB for the price of just 1 Raptor, and performance is equal or near equal except in seek times, and I have a 74GB Raptor already, its really a no-brainer decision.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to test this baby until I get home in two weeks. It's fun buying stuff from China, only having to wait two weeks until you can open all your "presents" upon arriving home again after being away for a year!

Buy me some stuff or else!

 

[Berek]

Buy me some stuff or else!

Star Trek DS9!!!! . Fine, I'll try to get STNG too .