# A 74GB Raptor - Worth the money?



## kyle2020 (Nov 12, 2008)

Would buying a 74GB raptor for my OS be worth the money? I mean, would i see a noticeable improvement over my spinpoint on boot?


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## francis511 (Nov 12, 2008)

They are very fast. You notice it most with slow-loading games


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## kyle2020 (Nov 12, 2008)

francis511 said:


> They are very fast. You notice it most with slow-loading games



ill only be using it with OS, unless i pluck up and buy 2. 

So they are good then?


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## Zehnsucht (Nov 12, 2008)

Haven't newer "standard" 7200 drives caught up with the older Raptor units?
The 300 GB Velociraptor on the other hand... I noticed the difference very much. Not so much perhaps in OS startup, but in game loading times.


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## tzitzibp (Nov 12, 2008)

Zehnsucht said:


> Haven't newer "standard" 7200 drives caught up with the older Raptor units?
> The 300 GB Velociraptor on the other hand... I noticed the difference very much. Not so much perhaps in OS startup, but in game loading times.



true.... the only way you will take advantage of this drive is if you plug two of then in raid 0 (stripe) .... 

negative point of these drives is the heat they produce! you need very good air ventilation inside the case....


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## kyle2020 (Nov 12, 2008)

tzitzibp said:


> true.... the only way you will take advantage of this drive is if you plug two of then in raid 0 (stripe) ....
> 
> negative point of these drives is the heat they produce! you need very good air ventilation inside the case....



hmm . . . for the cost of 2 of those in raid 0 i could get a 1TB spinpoint that, in some tests, is as fast, if not faster, then the new 300GB raptor!

I was basically after a standalone drive for my OS, so i thought id might aswell buy a piece of computer hardware legend and get a raptor. Suffice to say, im thinking twice now haha.


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## Mussels (Nov 12, 2008)

i see no noticeable difference between my 150GB raptor X, and my 500GB samsung (7,200RPM, 16MB) - apart from the fact the raptor cost twice as much, and has about 1/3 the storage capacity.

if you want a fast OS drive, grab a 16-32GB SSD. check out OCZ's new value ones.


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## tzitzibp (Nov 12, 2008)

I recently bought a raptor (150gb clear view) for the same reason... just wanted to check how fast they really are and be the proud owner of a hardware legend....so I  pluged  it on the port (eSata) you see, and left it there as it looks fantastic.... my 500gb .11 drives are as fast, so there is no reason to use it as a system disk.

I just use it as a back up disk!


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## kyle2020 (Nov 12, 2008)

Mussels said:


> i see no noticeable difference between my 150GB raptor X, and my 500GB samsung (7,200RPM, 16MB) - apart from the fact the raptor cost twice as much, and has about 1/3 the storage capacity.
> 
> if you want a fast OS drive, grab a 16-32GB SSD. check out OCZ's new value ones.



Still too expensive to justify buying one, even with the "value" name tag haha. Im a little disheartened to say the least, i was expecting more rave reviews about them!



tzitzibp said:


> I recently bought a raptor (150gb clear view) for the same reason... just wanted to check how fast they really are and be the proud owner of a hardware legend....so I  pluged  it on the port (eSata) you see, and left it there as it looks fantastic.... my 500gb .11 drives are as fast, so there is no reason to use it as a system disk.
> 
> I just use it as a back up disk!



Yeah, it does look nice, loving the little window on it!


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## tzitzibp (Nov 12, 2008)

I also love the sound of it spining up.... you can feel the speed!


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## Mussels (Nov 12, 2008)

tzitzibp said:


> I also love the sound of it spining up.... you can feel the speed!



yeah even in a scythe quietdrive, i can FEEL the speed through my desk... rattling the whole damn thing.


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## kysg (Nov 12, 2008)

LOL, I hear you on that one.   But seriously if you want something dedicated for the OS, just go with an SSD drive, granted SSD's writespeeds arent that great.  but if you want killer startup then get an SSD.


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## Mussels (Nov 13, 2008)

kysg said:


> LOL, I hear you on that one.   But seriously if you want something dedicated for the OS, just go with an SSD drive, granted SSD's writespeeds arent that great.  but if you want killer startup then get an SSD.



OCZ's new value series, the USD launch price was $90 for the 30GB model. Thats still a little expensive, but thats a good price and size for an OS drive.


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## kysg (Nov 13, 2008)

heck 3 bucks a gig, well guess thats the price for something like that.

actually 3 bucks don't sound too too bad.  that means 16gig is about 50dollars.

besides 74gb raptor is still over 100 bucks.  and its been on the market for a while.

and I think 30 gigs is more than enough to hold just vista.  when 7 comes out it may be even faster.  Could be looking forward to instant on.


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## cdawall (Nov 13, 2008)

get some used 36GB like i am going to run a bunch in raid0 and back it all up onto a 320GB seagate


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## farlex85 (Nov 13, 2008)

Load times are significantly faster for me w/ a Raptor X. The read and write speeds are normal, it's their access time that sets them apart. My start up I've found has almost everything to do w/ cleanliness of the install (meaning defrag and start-up programs). I noticed virtually no difference there. SSDs of course have nearly no access time and high sustained read and write. Much better eventually, still to expensive imo.

In short, if you can get it for $100 bucks, sure, gaming could see some improvement. Although patience is a virtue and the difference could be quite small.


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## spearman914 (Nov 13, 2008)

You'll only notice improvement when loading games not specifically increasing fps.


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## DaMulta (Nov 13, 2008)

DaMulta said:


> http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-memoright,1926-10.html
> 
> Keep in mind this review is the slower ones
> 
> ...



G.SKILL fastest on the market atm, and in raid as shown above with slower sdd drives rule!!!


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## DaMulta (Nov 13, 2008)

Mussels said:


> i see no noticeable difference between my 150GB raptor X, and my 500GB samsung (7,200RPM, 16MB) - apart from the fact the raptor cost twice as much, and has about 1/3 the storage capacity.
> 
> if you want a fast OS drive, grab a 16-32GB SSD. check out OCZ's new value ones.



U need to raid 0 them, 2 really really see it.


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## brianyu (Nov 14, 2008)

i got 2 raptor 74go(raid 0) ..yes is faster then 2x normal sata 80go
is my test raptor raid 0 = 130 mb/s read/write 
               normal sata raid 0 = 100 mb/s 
but i read that ssd can go up to 150 mb/s in single drive only ...


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## Mussels (Nov 14, 2008)

brianyu said:


> i got 2 raptor 74go(raid 0) ..yes is faster then 2x normal sata 80go
> is my test raptor raid 0 = 130 mb/s read/write
> normal sata raid 0 = 100 mb/s
> but i read that ssd can go up to 150 mb/s in single drive only ...



some of the SLC models can do 200MB/s, they're scary fast.

SSD's arent about MB/s, its the access times - no matter how many raptors you RAID, they'll never match an SSD in access times.


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## brianyu (Nov 14, 2008)

thanks , i hope 1 day i can bought those ssd in cheaper price.


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## DaMulta (Nov 14, 2008)

Mussels said:


> some of the SLC models can do 200MB/s, they're scary fast.
> 
> SSD's arent about MB/s, its the access times - no matter how many raptors you RAID, they'll never match an SSD in access times.



IN SDD there is also no mechanical parts which limit how fast the drive can really be.


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## brianyu (Nov 14, 2008)

ok dudes lol ... we all know ssd is faster then raptor ... just buy it then ...


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