# Thinking about getting rid of my vraps



## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

so im thinking about getting rid of my 300gb velociraptors and getting 2, 3, or 4 cheaper drives to free up some money for other stuff. 

what should i get?

i have 2 300gb vraps in raid 0

i'd like to get similar performance at half the price or less.


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## Exavier (Dec 31, 2008)

what about Samsung F1s? IIRC the 750/1000gb models are 16mb cache and these are solid performers - I have two myself as they're at quite a competitive price point at least UKside


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

i dont need the size... just the speed. i dont use more than 30gb's max.

the cost has to be $180 or less for the new drives


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## oli_ramsay (Dec 31, 2008)

How about an SSD?


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## kid41212003 (Dec 31, 2008)

I don't suggest SSD, unless you do RAID 0. 

SSD write speed is suck.


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

read you guys please... 2,3,or 4 drives signifies a raid.


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## oli_ramsay (Dec 31, 2008)

Maybe a couple/three 500Gb platter drives?  They'd give you some sick read/write speeds, but obviously the access times aren't gonna beat the V'raptors.


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## KBD (Dec 31, 2008)

well you can get smaller veloci 74gb like i did, they cost me 140 each. Or you can get 15.5K Cheetahs, your board has 2 SAS ports i believe, those will beat your current drives. Ebay is a great place to get them, last time i looked they had some good deals.


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## p_o_s_pc (Dec 31, 2008)

how about 3 of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288


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## KBD (Dec 31, 2008)

p_o_s_pc said:


> how about 3 of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288



i dont like the 7200.11 barracudas, i found that the performance was inferior to 7200.10 3.AAC drives. I ran some benchies in RAID 0 for 320GB versions.


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## p_o_s_pc (Dec 31, 2008)

KBD said:


> i dont like the 7200.11 barracudas, i found that the performance was inferior to 7200.10 3.AAC drives. I ran some benchies in RAID 0 for 320GB versions.



i always heard they were good but never tried them myself so idk ifthey really are


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

if anything i'd get 3 wd3200aaks's

like i said.. i dont need the space at all.

SAS is a possibility but find me a small pair that doesnt cost 3arms and 5legs.


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## KBD (Dec 31, 2008)

p_o_s_pc said:


> i always heard they were good but never tried them myself so idk ifthey really are




i heard that too so i bought 2 320gb for RAID 0 for a build i was doing and then ran benchies and the 7200.10 w/ 3.AAC firmware came out on top. Velociraptors obviously crushed them as well. May be they will be better when a new firmware revision comes out.


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

thats why i said "comparable" and "2,3, or 4 drives" in raid. 

i want something thats comparable to what i have now. not matching performance. if its better thats just a +.


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## kid41212003 (Dec 31, 2008)

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1127374&postcount=8

The benchmark with my drives, incase you missed it.


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

i've had ssds. i really want to go cheap this time. i need the money for something else.


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## KBD (Dec 31, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> SAS is a possibility but find me a small pair that doesnt cost 3arms and 5legs.





heres an examle of a deal i found on ebay for a 73GB 15.5K, the price is a steal, IMHO, considering they sell for double that amount, but its only 1 drive, you'll have to find another elsewhere. Just posting it as an example why you should look on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Seagate-Che...4|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

if i could find a pair of 36/74gb 15k rpm drives i'd do it. they'd have to be under $180 for the pair though


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## KBD (Dec 31, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> if i could find a pair of 36/74gb 15k rpm drives i'd do it. they'd have to be under $180 for the pair though



well, that one is a start, its $90 shipped, if you find another for the same price you'll be all set  

Anyway, good luck finding something.


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

i found a pair of maxtor 36gb 15k's for $100 shipped. is that a deal?


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## KBD (Dec 31, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> i found a pair of maxtor 36gb 15k's for $100 shipped. is that a deal?



thats pretty good, i think. I'm not familiar with Maxtor's 15k drives but if they are SAS not SCSI then id say its pretty good. Just google for reviews for that particular drive.

BTW, that guy has another 73GB Cheetah for the same price, thats 2 for $180, just you like you wanted, may be he'll even combine shipping. I swear, if i had a controller card id pick them up myself.


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

but the real question is...

would they smoke the vraps in raid?


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## KBD (Dec 31, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> but the real question is...
> 
> would they smoke the vraps in raid?



yep, these are real enteprise drives, i think even the maxtors will beat the raptors. I remember reading about the newer 15.6K cheetahs and they outperformed the raptors. Check out reviews for yourself for your own peace of mind.


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

WHA 

find me more info!


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## KBD (Dec 31, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> WHA
> 
> find me more info!



i'm trying to find something right now just to show you. Also, remember results will depend on the controller, with a dedicated card they will be better than software based RAID from the mobo, i believe your board has a Marvell controller. But still, it will be fast, for an OS drive its perfect. One downside is that they are noisier than the raptors.


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

pfffft... have you seen my rig? noise is not a factor 

i just need a decent price. im ready to buy today and get them in the mail.


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## KBD (Dec 31, 2008)

ok, just a warning thats all.

heres one review i found, its for the newer 15.6k but it will give you an idea:

http://hothardware.com/Articles/Seagate-Cheetah-X156-Hard-Drive/

heres another, no comparison to veloci but still a good review as they test single and RAID performance:

http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/hard_drives/SAS/seagate/cheetah15K.6_450gb/p1.asp



fit, if you get em, plz post some results on your board.


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

geeeeez... http://www.pclaunches.com/hard_drive/bitmicro_rolls_out_16tb_edisk_altima_ultra320_scsi_ssd.php

check that out.


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## KBD (Dec 31, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> geeeeez... http://www.pclaunches.com/hard_drive/bitmicro_rolls_out_16tb_edisk_altima_ultra320_scsi_ssd.php
> 
> check that out.



omfg, had no idea such things existed

 The article sed Q3 08 availability but where are they? Only downside i see is going with an Ultra SCSI interface, they should've used SAS instead.


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

im still looking into the sas drives. if anyone has any idea where to get a few drives at a decent price let me know.

i found this gem... http://www.nextlevelhardware.com/storage/battleship/


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## KBD (Dec 31, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> im still looking into the sas drives. if anyone has any idea where to get a few drives at a decent price let me know.
> 
> i found this gem... http://www.nextlevelhardware.com/storage/battleship/



interesting, i'm still kinda wary of SSDs, their time hasnt come, IMO, and the good ones cost a fortune.

i'll look and see if i can find some more deals on SAS drives for you but 80 bucks for 73gb drive is gonna be tough to beat.


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## kysg (Dec 31, 2008)

KBD said:


> interesting, i'm still kinda wary of SSDs, their time hasnt come, IMO, and the good ones cost a fortune.
> 
> i'll look and see if i can find some more deals on SAS drives for you but 80 bucks for 73gb drive is gonna be tough to beat.



Dude, I'm fully agreeing with SAS drives, those things aren't pushovers, and I'm not saying this because of the 15k speed, They have awesome sustained writes, In comparison to the other enterprise drives, such as RE, ES2.

SSd's I wouldn't touch unless it had an intel controller, I was itchin to buy some then realized might as well wait, cheapest out there is OCZ's.  but those use jmicron, and they have good read speeds but writes underperform.


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## RevengE (Dec 31, 2008)

You want to sell those raptor's?


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

uh... yes. thats the whole point of this thread man.


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## 3870x2 (Dec 31, 2008)

kid41212003 said:


> I don't suggest SSD, unless you do RAID 0.
> 
> SSD write speed is suck.



what? the ones ive seen are just behind the read speads (IE 155//110, etc) thats more than double the standard HDD.

I dont see why not get an SSD
i believe a G-Skill SSD @ 64 GB that is about 155//90 for $134:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231220
I dont see why not get an SSD, they are in all ways better than a standard HDD for all but the price and size of disk space (which you say you dont need much)
These will blow any single HDD out of the water.


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

you guys dont ever read do you?


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## 3870x2 (Dec 31, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> you guys dont ever read do you?



was that at my post? or...


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## kysg (Dec 31, 2008)

3870x2 said:


> was that at my post? or...



Dude were talking enterprise drives here, these things aren't a joke,  A cheetah can pull in way better writes than ssd's only ssd that compares is the miton and intel...

also I look over at THG, avg write for a cheetah is 140mb/s

and that is just one drive, but I gotta find the hdtach numbers for these.


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## 3870x2 (Dec 31, 2008)

kysg said:


> Dude were talking enterprise drives here, these things aren't a joke,  A cheetah can pull in way better writes than ssd's only ssd that compares is the miton and intel...
> 
> also I look over at THG, avg write for a cheetah is 140mb/s
> 
> and that is just one drive, but I gotta find the hdtach numbers for these.



you serious, "dude"?
we have about 14 poweredges at work stuffed full of cheetahs, and other 10k/15k drives, 20 at a time in raid-5, i know what they are, but they definately arent the way to go IMO.  And yes I did read.
On that same note, I apologize for my input, i'll make sure I dont help again.
here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ultrastar-cheetah-sas,2004-6.html
didnt realize it was that difficult for you to use google.


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## kysg (Dec 31, 2008)

3870x2 said:


> you serious, "dude"?
> we have about 14 poweredges at work stuffed full of cheetahs, and other 10k/15k drives, 20 at a time in raid-5, i know what they are, but they definately arent the way to go IMO.  And yes I did read.
> On that same note, I apologize for my input, i'll make sure I dont help again.
> here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ultrastar-cheetah-sas,2004-6.html
> didnt realize it was that difficult for you to use google.



wait hold up difficult to use google??? heh okay I won't argue with a dude who wants to act like he's 3 when I know he's 33 you got an ugly habit of making ate up comments

oh yea and THG = toms hardware you can google that as well...:shadedshu


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## 3870x2 (Dec 31, 2008)

kysg said:


> wait hold up difficult to use google??? heh okay I won't argue with a dude who wants to act like he's 3 when I know he's 33 you got an ugly habit of making ate up comments
> 
> oh yea and THG = toms hardware you can google that as well...:shadedshu



sounds great to me.
Back to op, what did you dislike about the previous SSDs you had? i know you are one of the biggest TPU hardware junkies, and i would like to know if there was something distasteful about them, before i go buy one.


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## KBD (Dec 31, 2008)

I doubt fit can afford a good SSD drive right now. they are better than the highest end of SAS but cost accordingly, the whole point of this excersice for him is sell his current veloci, buy better or comparable drives and use the rest of the cash for other stuff. This is why i recomended that he get a couple of low GB SAS drives, i didnt even recomend the better performing 15.6K as thats out his budget. I still think its the way go for him.


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## 3870x2 (Dec 31, 2008)

yeah, he would want to do raid.  When i saw that they were coming down to $100-$150 price range, like they are now, for the first time I was thinking about getting one.  That is a pretty cheap price, in comparison to a couple of months ago.


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## KBD (Dec 31, 2008)

3870x2 said:


> yeah, he would want to do raid.  When i saw that they were coming down to $100-$150 price range, like they are now, for the first time I was thinking about getting one.  That is a pretty cheap price, in comparison to a couple of months ago.



yea, most definately, the price has dropped and the drives themselves have become somewhat better but these are still not great quality drives, perhaps they will be ok for a notebook for joe average but i dont think fit will be happy with them. For him i would've recomended an intel or a enterprise class SSD but they cost so much it doesnt make sense yet. Dont get me wrong, i think SSDs are the future but as of now i'd stick with conventional HDDs.


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## bogmali (Dec 31, 2008)

Fit-Let me know when you decide to unload the V-Raptors


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## Fitseries3 (Dec 31, 2008)

yes........

NONE of you have read this thread and i casn tell from the way you keep telling me to get super high dollar drives.


let me spell it out in plain english...

i have 2 velociraptor 300gb drives that are burning a $360 hole in my pocket. im sick of it.

i want a setup that is faster in all ways than a single regular sata drive and this new setup has to be less than half of the $360 the vraps are. so that gives you $180 or less to find a solution thats comparable to what i have now.

sorry for the one person who has listened. thanks for your help.

the rest of you..... dont get all hissy fissy... just help now that you know what i want.


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## lollerskater69 (Jan 1, 2009)

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=45&threadid=2262263&enterthread=y

Im not good with hdd but this seems like a good deal (9$ea)


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## RevengE (Jan 1, 2009)

fitseries3 said:


> uh... yes. thats the whole point of this thread man.


 my apologizes I only read that you were thinking about getting rid of them the reason I asked was I was intrested in how much you would sell them for..no reason to jump down my throat just a simple question.


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## Fitseries3 (Jan 1, 2009)

i dont mean to sound grumpy but dang... i said like 3 times what my requirements where


xrevegex... i'll shoot you a pm.



anyone care to help now that we have this clear?


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## bogmali (Jan 1, 2009)

fitseries3 said:


> i dont mean to sould grumpy but dang!




 LOL at this thread and Fit getting his "stuff in a bunch"  Must be that time of the month eh


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## Fitseries3 (Jan 1, 2009)

bogmali said:


> LOL at this thread and Fit getting his "stuff in a bunch"  Must be that time of the month eh



its just crazy... you lay out the guidelines and then everyone goes against what you say and does the complete opposite. 

the idea was to free up some money for something else. 

i DO appreciate everyones help. really i do. i may be a hardware junkie but i dont know alot about hard drives these days. some other ppl know alot more than me and i want to hear from them. 


SSD is 90% out of the question. 2 or more would cost too much and stoll wont perform to what i want.

sas is a great idea i just need to find the right price on drives.

sata... i dont need hugh drives and thats all ppl are suggesting so far.


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## philbrown23 (Jan 1, 2009)

I'd say sell your vraps, though you wont get what they normally cost, and get 2 regular raptors then you'll have 2 drives with close performance and some extra cash. But with the holidays over and peoples pockets empty you may get $100 for each drive but you'll be lucky, at least thats my opinion.


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## KBD (Jan 1, 2009)

$100 each? 

he can get more for them if he plays his cards right. I think that if they are like new he can get around $185-$190 a piece assuming he has WD3000GLFS model, the other one is a lot more. You just have to know where to sell. Hint: Amazon. I sell a lot of my hardware and other stuff there and i swear, Amazon customers DO NOT know how to shop around. I sold things on there that cost less on newegg or ebay but people just dont bother to look. I guess Amazon has their own fanbase or something, i dont know. Sometimes stuff dont sell right away but in time everything sells. But software and hardware usually sells quickly from my experience, especially stuff like raptors. I'm tellimg you fit, thats your best bet to get the most for it. Dont try to sell on TPU or you'll get a $100 like phil said.


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## bogmali (Jan 1, 2009)

KBD said:


> Dont try to sell on TPU or you'll get a $100 like phil said.



 He knows better not to sell them for that price cause I'd scoop them up faster than he can type "SOLD" on his thread


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## lollerskater69 (Jan 1, 2009)

lollerskater69 said:


> http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=45&threadid=2262263&enterthread=y
> 
> Im not good with hdd but this seems like a good deal (9$ea)



did anyone look at these scsi drives? 36 gb 9$ea


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## Fitseries3 (Jan 1, 2009)

yeah... i saw them. idk... too much cable to deal with. its a good deal though. thanks for looking man. i do appreciate that.


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## Fitseries3 (Jan 1, 2009)

so according to this chart... 










the SINGLE Hitachi Ultrastar 15k147 36gb SAS drive is faster than 2 raided 300gb vraps?


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## Fitseries3 (Jan 1, 2009)

what about these?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144045R

i found 2 for $100 shipped.


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## KBD (Jan 1, 2009)

fitseries3 said:


> what about these?
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144045R
> 
> i found 2 for $100 shipped.



getting 2 SAS drives for a $100 is great deal, but for that money i'm hoping they'd be new. But if they are not its still worth it. I'm gonna look up that particular model and see exaactly it performs.

Edit: It seems to perform quite well, the only review i found was the one at Tom's but you already seen that one since you have a graph from it posted above. I say go for it, for $100 its a nice deal.


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## Fitseries3 (Jan 1, 2009)

should i get the 2 maxtor atlas 15k 36gb's 8K036S0

or

2 hitachi ultrastar 15k 36gb's HUS151436VLS300

?


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## KBD (Jan 1, 2009)

fitseries3 said:


> should i get the 2 maxtor atlas 15k 36gb's 8K036S0
> 
> or
> 
> ...



Ultrastars are also great, after glancing at that rewiew again it looks like the performance of both drives is pretty similar. I'd say prolly go with the ones thats cheaper. Or you have a choice of either for a $100?


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## Fitseries3 (Jan 1, 2009)

i have a choice but i guess i could get both


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## KBD (Jan 1, 2009)

fitseries3 said:


> i have a choice but i guess i could get both



you could but dont forget that you can only use 2 per i7 board since there are only 2 ports. But if you have another i7 system i dont see why not since the price is right in IMO. 

this SAS thing actually makes me want to go i7 myself on my next upgrade instead of AM3, i love the idea of an onboard SAS controller, it does save one a ton of money on a controller card


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## Fitseries3 (Jan 1, 2009)

just need a port multiplier then you can run up to 10 drives on it.


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## KBD (Jan 1, 2009)

fitseries3 said:


> just need a port multiplier then you can run up to 10 drives on it.



true, true, that didnt occur to me.


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## Sonido (Jan 1, 2009)

fitseries3 said:


> if anything i'd get 3 wd3200aaks's
> 
> like i said.. i dont need the space at all.
> 
> SAS is a possibility but find me a small pair that doesnt cost 3arms and 5legs.



If you are thinking of getting a SAS HDD, I would recommend you wait 'til the new revision is out. It will be out by this year, and it will bump the speed by double. It will go from 3 Gb/s to 6 Gb/s. Knowing how you will be upgrading, I rather you save your money. Go for 74-80 GB HDDs. 

Here's a good HDD for a raid:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148231

It's cheap and has good warranty on it, too.


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