hard drives should I bother with raptor? - GoFuckYourself.com

farkedup · 05-11-2008, 05:14 PM

Should I pickedup a pair of $100 640Gb WD drives or the 150Gb raptor drives are in the $175 range and the new 300Gb velociraptor drives are in the $300 range.

Looking around at a few of my old favorite review sites the 640Gb WD isn't all THAT far behind in single drive tests but by time I put it into a RAID I should at least match it in performance and still have over 1Tb of super fast storage. all for ~$200 I know there's plenty of anti-RAID people here but this would mainly be for a linux installation which I keep backups of all important data elsewhere anyway. I have an automated system I put together that sends them to my web server and a local storage drive so the issues of a drive failure aren't going to be all that bad for me.

stickyfingerz · 05-11-2008, 05:16 PM

Get a raptor to use as your main OS drive.

farkedup · 05-11-2008, 07:13 PM

I found one where they actually took the 2 640Gb drives into RAID and put them against the newest raptor: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2288836,00.asp

needless to say I think that just answered my question...

At the price I can basically get both the 640Gb drives cheaper than I can get 1 of the latest raptor... get more speed and considerably more storage all in 1 low price.

dav3 · 05-11-2008, 07:33 PM

I still have a set of the 1st gen raptors in use right now. Back then they were the shit!

crockett · 05-11-2008, 08:19 PM

I have a 1st gen think it's the 27 gig and a newer 80 gig. It just really depends what you do with them. If you're a gamer, then you will notice games load faster with them.

farkedup · 05-11-2008, 08:30 PM

from what I'm seeing in most things a single 640Gb is about the same speed as the 150Gb raptors but when you RAID the 640Gb drives they're better than the new 300Gb $300 velociraptor in most things all while still being ~$100 cheaper and so much more actual space.

I don't play ANY games except for the occasional baseball mogul or civilization type DATA intensive one. I don't play any real 3d games. Most of what I do is video encoding and PHP/MySQL development. Fast hard drives do help when it comes to video encoding and extracting data both of which eat up storage space like crazy so a single 150Gb drive won't help me all that much wheras having 1.2Tb worth of fast disk will certainly be handy...

I'm going to be ordering these drives tonight if I get some added paypal before I head to bed ;)

dready · 05-11-2008, 08:41 PM

Raptors are nice, especially in RAID0, but the crazy thing is, the new Samsung 1TB drives are in some ways even faster. I think it was Tom's Hardware did a comparison and it was pretty shocking.

sandman! · 05-11-2008, 09:27 PM

well a decent raid controller will cost you some $$$ unless your planning on using the crap raid built into many boards nowdays.

decent old controller is about $130

rowan · 05-11-2008, 09:37 PM

What OS is this on and is it onboard RAID? If it's Windows + Intel ICHR then I have a few "choice" words about this type of setup. Then again my experience is somewhat tainted by hardware failure: need a drive whacked? Send it to me. Guaranteed it will fail within a few months! (I've had 7 failures in the past 3 years)

What's the application you're using that demands faster access and/or raw r/w speed? If it's just to make you feel better, then consider a single 1TB drive instead.

rowan · 05-11-2008, 09:40 PM

Also, remember RAID is generally for availability, not data security.

RAID0 is the exception, if a drive fails your computer will be down until it can be replaced. How will that affect you?

I would also recommend sticking your OS on a separate drive, keep boot+applications separate to your RAIDed data. It's saved me a lot of headaches doing it this way.

Barefootsies · 05-11-2008, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stickyfingerz

Get a raptor to use as your main OS drive.

Agreed.

05-11-2008, 05:14 PM	#1
farkedup Confirmed User Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Kalamazoo, MI Posts: 2,490	hard drives should I bother with raptor? Should I pickedup a pair of $100 640Gb WD drives or the 150Gb raptor drives are in the $175 range and the new 300Gb velociraptor drives are in the $300 range. Looking around at a few of my old favorite review sites the 640Gb WD isn't all THAT far behind in single drive tests but by time I put it into a RAID I should at least match it in performance and still have over 1Tb of super fast storage. all for ~$200 I know there's plenty of anti-RAID people here but this would mainly be for a linux installation which I keep backups of all important data elsewhere anyway. I have an automated system I put together that sends them to my web server and a local storage drive so the issues of a drive failure aren't going to be all that bad for me. __________________ -- QUOTE ME IT MAKES ME FEEL SPECIAL --

05-11-2008, 07:13 PM	#3
farkedup Confirmed User Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Kalamazoo, MI Posts: 2,490	I found one where they actually took the 2 640Gb drives into RAID and put them against the newest raptor: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2288836,00.asp needless to say I think that just answered my question... At the price I can basically get both the 640Gb drives cheaper than I can get 1 of the latest raptor... get more speed and considerably more storage all in 1 low price. __________________ -- QUOTE ME IT MAKES ME FEEL SPECIAL --

05-11-2008, 07:33 PM	#4
dav3 Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 7,348	I still have a set of the 1st gen raptors in use right now. Back then they were the shit! __________________ Webmasters :: Juicy Ads :: ACWM :: Crak Revenue :: Money Tree

05-11-2008, 08:19 PM	#5
crockett in a van by the river Industry Role: Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 76,806	I have a 1st gen think it's the 27 gig and a newer 80 gig. It just really depends what you do with them. If you're a gamer, then you will notice games load faster with them. __________________ In November, you can vote for America's next president or its first dictator.

05-11-2008, 08:30 PM	#6
farkedup Confirmed User Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Kalamazoo, MI Posts: 2,490	from what I'm seeing in most things a single 640Gb is about the same speed as the 150Gb raptors but when you RAID the 640Gb drives they're better than the new 300Gb $300 velociraptor in most things all while still being ~$100 cheaper and so much more actual space. I don't play ANY games except for the occasional baseball mogul or civilization type DATA intensive one. I don't play any real 3d games. Most of what I do is video encoding and PHP/MySQL development. Fast hard drives do help when it comes to video encoding and extracting data both of which eat up storage space like crazy so a single 150Gb drive won't help me all that much wheras having 1.2Tb worth of fast disk will certainly be handy... I'm going to be ordering these drives tonight if I get some added paypal before I head to bed ;) __________________ -- QUOTE ME IT MAKES ME FEEL SPECIAL --

05-11-2008, 05:16 PM	#2
stickyfingerz Doin fine Industry Role: Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 24,983	Get a raptor to use as your main OS drive.

05-11-2008, 08:41 PM	#7
dready Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Toronto, ON Posts: 5,247	Raptors are nice, especially in RAID0, but the crazy thing is, the new Samsung 1TB drives are in some ways even faster. I think it was Tom's Hardware did a comparison and it was pretty shocking. __________________ ICQ: 91139591

05-11-2008, 09:27 PM	#8
sandman! Icq: 14420613 Industry Role: Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: chicago Posts: 15,432	well a decent raid controller will cost you some $$$ unless your planning on using the crap raid built into many boards nowdays. decent old controller is about $130 __________________ Need WebHosting ? Email me for some great deals [email protected]

05-11-2008, 09:37 PM	#9
rowan Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 17,393	What OS is this on and is it onboard RAID? If it's Windows + Intel ICHR then I have a few "choice" words about this type of setup. Then again my experience is somewhat tainted by hardware failure: need a drive whacked? Send it to me. Guaranteed it will fail within a few months! (I've had 7 failures in the past 3 years) What's the application you're using that demands faster access and/or raw r/w speed? If it's just to make you feel better, then consider a single 1TB drive instead.

05-11-2008, 09:40 PM	#10
rowan Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 17,393	Also, remember RAID is generally for availability, not data security. RAID0 is the exception, if a drive fails your computer will be down until it can be replaced. How will that affect you? I would also recommend sticking your OS on a separate drive, keep boot+applications separate to your RAIDed data. It's saved me a lot of headaches doing it this way.