Fast HDs

[Aosh]

By far my slowest components in my system are my HDs. Everytime there's a huge lag, I know my HD light is flashing -I don't even need to look anymore. I know in part it's because I need more RAM (1GB so far), but on the other hand, when I'm working with huge photoshop files that can't possibly fit in RAM, I need some fast HDs for virtual RAM paging.

So what are some fast HDs? I was originally thinking:
74GB Raptor (OS)
750GB Seagate Barracuda (Data)

But I read that both are very loud and hot. I like fast, but I also hate intrusively loud. Any suggestions?? Should I go RAID 0?

 

[L00ker]

I have a 74gb ADFD raptor (The one with 16mb cache as opposed to 8) and it really isn't that loud, I run a watercooled setup and have a slightly loud fan (thermaltake) and I can barely hear it over the fan sometimes but only when it's accessing data but personally I like hearing it not because I think it sounds cool but as a reassurance that my system is doing work and not locked up and stuff...

 

[John]

The 750GB 7200.10 is no sluch and should be a nice all-around drive. However I run a 74GB 8MB Raptor but I am not biased.

 

[acegazda]

What's your budget? If you have a ton a $$$ to spend then by all means, get the raptors, but they are really expensive. The 7200.10 seagates are a much better value. Raid 0 is great, just don't download any viruses. Most hdd noise will come from vibration, so you can either get rubber linings, (some cases include them) or a new rack type thing that quiets it. The linings do the trick most of the time.

 

[Aosh]

Are all the 7200.10 seagate's really fast? I'm considering the Raptors mostly because I feel the 10K would make it faster for random access..which I'd assume heavy paging of Virtual RAM will require?

 

[L00ker]

Originally posted by: acegazda
What's your budget? If you have a ton a $$$ to spend then by all means, get the raptors, but they are really expensive.

Lets be realistic here, a 74gb raptor sells for ~$150 all day long and really thats not THAT expensive, especially not when compared to a 7200.10 750 which is ~$350 if your looking at drives in the $300-$400 range wtf is ~$150 for a 10k raptor? Although I am sure the 7200.10's are a pretty fast drive 10k is well 10k, I find it hard to believe (and someone correct me if I am really this far off) that ANY 7200rpm drive is going to rival a 10krpm drive, and believe me I am NOT a WD fanboy personally I like seagate but the raptor seems like a hard drive to beat for random access and even sequential access

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: L00ker

Originally posted by: acegazda
What's your budget? If you have a ton a $$$ to spend then by all means, get the raptors, but they are really expensive.

Lets be realistic here, a 74gb raptor sells for ~$150 all day long and really thats not THAT expensive, especially not when compared to a 7200.10 750 which is ~$350 if your looking at drives in the $300-$400 range wtf is ~$150 for a 10k raptor? Although I am sure the 7200.10's are a pretty fast drive 10k is well 10k, I find it hard to believe (and someone correct me if I am really this far off) that ANY 7200rpm drive is going to rival a 10krpm drive, and believe me I am NOT a WD fanboy personally I like seagate but the raptor seems like a hard drive to beat for random access and even sequential access

Raptors are not loud when u mount them properly. There are two ways, to mount them so they are extremely secure (i got mine raptor mounted between 2 drives) or to suspend it in air lol. When i remove the top drive the raptor get about 3 times as loud as it can vibrate the drive cage.
And the heat, well the 74gig raptor is the coolest drive i got in my system, so go figure about them being hot running

Well the newer 7200rpm drives do beat the raptor in read speed at the start of the drive anyways, when it comes to random access and dealing with small files or files in different areas of the drive the raptor obliterates all 7200 rpm drives. I dare to say that even the old 36gig raptor will be substatially faster for booting windows and just random usage than the 7200rpm drives.

 

[acegazda]

Originally posted by: L00ker

Originally posted by: acegazda
What's your budget? If you have a ton a $$$ to spend then by all means, get the raptors, but they are really expensive.

Lets be realistic here, a 74gb raptor sells for ~$150 all day long and really thats not THAT expensive, especially not when compared to a 7200.10 750 which is ~$350 if your looking at drives in the $300-$400 range wtf is ~$150 for a 10k raptor? Although I am sure the 7200.10's are a pretty fast drive 10k is well 10k, I find it hard to believe (and someone correct me if I am really this far off) that ANY 7200rpm drive is going to rival a 10krpm drive, and believe me I am NOT a WD fanboy personally I like seagate but the raptor seems like a hard drive to beat for random access and even sequential access

but the reason you're looking at the 750gb $300 drive is b/c you need that much space. The raptor has 74-150gb and is really on good for booting the OS and games that you use all the time, so should only be considered if you have like a $2000 or $2500 budget.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: L00ker
I have a 74gb ADFD raptor (The one with 16mb cache as opposed to 8) and it really isn't that loud, I run a watercooled setup and have a slightly loud fan (thermaltake) and I can barely hear it over the fan sometimes but only when it's accessing data but personally I like hearing it not because I think it sounds cool but as a reassurance that my system is doing work and not locked up and stuff...

I hear my 74GB ADFD raptor seek, but it's not disturbingly loud. It is also my OS drive.

I do not recommend the 750GB due to price reasons. It's just not worth it unless you have an HTPC or something. If you ahve extra bays, grab the 320gb. I grabbed 2 even.

Originally posted by: Aosh
Are all the 7200.10 seagate's really fast? I'm considering the Raptors mostly because I feel the 10K would make it faster for random access..which I'd assume heavy paging of Virtual RAM will require?

Are 7200.10s fast? Yes. I can feel 1 being faster than my 7200.9 already even when both are using fresh installations of Windows. Both drives are fast, but the 7200.10 is marginally faster. Now when I RAID-0 the 7200.10s, somehow the boot worked out a little faster, but that may be because I used a slipstreamed Windows installation that made the installation a little cleaner.

Now when I face my 7200.10s (RAID-0) against my Raptor, there's absolutely no comparison in boot time. Raptor wins HANDS DOWN. 7200.10s don't even come close. They beat the 7200.9 easily, but still the Raptor wins by a long shot.

Sure I may have uber fast OS access, but did I really need the Raptor? I think I could be doign even better with a 3rd 320gb 7200.10, although that would just be WAYYyyy too much space.

 

[Boyo]

I have a 74GB Raptor 8MB cache and it is not loud at all, although that doesn't necessarily translate that the new 16MB cache Raptors are not loud, but from what I've read, they are pretty quiet if mounted correctly. I would get the 74GB Raptor 16MB cache, and then a larger 7200.9, but not the 750GB Seagate for money reasons.