Western Digital Ratpors

[simon275]

I have a chance to pickup a 32gb Western Digital Ratpor. I am thinking of reformating my computer and putting windows on it. My question is though are there any noticable benifits of having a drive at 10k rmp. I know in theory loading times should be shorter. But does anyone know if they benfits exist in practice?

[nil8]

Are you dealing with pata, sata or scsi?

Yes, technically, there should be improvements. On top of higher speeds, raptors are designed to reliably transfer data quickly. If you were running a raid setup or wanted a drive solely for gaming(with sata), I would suggest it.

I would not suggest putting your OS and your games on the same raptor drive, there won't be enough marked improvement to make a huge difference over a much cheaper 7200rpm model.

If you want the most of your gaming experience and have an extra sata slot to spare, I would suggest a high rpm drive solely for video games. This way the drive using your OS doesn't have the same bus as the drive playing your game. This doesn't work for pata unless nothing else is installed on that channel, and that's somewhat foolish for the design.

[simon275]

I am using SATA. So its not worth it then?

[Crimson Sky]

nil8 said it best, but the short answer is yes, its a very good drive--I use it in raid0 in several of my mods, including Mecanique and Project Nighthawk. In a single disk setup, expect good performance as well over pata.

[simon275]

I can only get one on its own. I have a 250gb 7200rpm WD SATA drive. I am just thinking will a single raptor be good on its own. I know its better then pata but is always been SATA. So I think I might save my money unless I can be conviced otherwise.

[Crimson Sky]

In a single disk setup, expect good performance as well over pata.

thats pretty clear.Yes, a Raptor will be faster than a 7200RPM SATA HDD. Burst rate and seek times will improve as well.

[simon275]

Thanks for all your help!

[fragged]

I'm also thinking of buying a raptor, in my case a 74gb WD Raptor 16mb Cache (Sata), would I be better off getting 2x36gb in RAID0?

from what I've heard, RAID0 is overrated in gaming PC's

Also, I'd even be interested in going Mirror raid so long as there is a significant performance increase

[simon275]

I would go for the single drive really less hassle and you dont get much of a boost with two raptors. Plus once formated you will get more space with the 74gb rather then the two 36gb disks.

[nil8]

If you're data is supremely valuable, go with raid.
If not, then don't.

As for speed, your best bet is sata II on a single raptor.