My WD Raptor died...

[LizardFace]

The title says it all. Here are my current system specs:

Windows 7 SP1 64 bit Home Premium
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775
GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 (see http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128337)
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s
Seagate Barracuda ST3500641AS-RK 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Diamond Radeon 6850 1GB
Antec earthwatts EA500 500W PSU

So I've had that raptor since August 2006 and without warning it died on me yesterday (like 2 months after the 5 yr warranty expired). I ran the OS off of that drive and used the seagate for backup. I desperately need this PC to start working again and I read through the sticky on SSDs and after browsing around I'm thinking of sticking with an Intel 120 GB SSD if I can find it at my local Fry's.

I'm kind of hesitant because even though an SSD can't suffer mechanical failure there does seem to be a lot of electrical failure. Plus I'm not sure if I should go with the 520 or 310 model (I don't plan to run RAID). What do you guys think, should I go for another HDD SATA with a 5 year warranty? or should I get an SSD?

 

[volcane]

HDD prices are going through the roof right now due to the floods in Thailand that affected Seagate and Western Digital factories.

If you've been hovering over the fence on SSDs, I say now looks like a good time to try.

Intel SSDs have a good reliability record. Another model with speed and good reliability to consider is the Crucial M4 128 GB: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...4_SSD_2_5.html

 

[LizardFace]

Do most of these 2.5" SSDs come with some type of adapter to fit in a 3.5" drive bay? I looked up pics of that crucial drive on newegg and it only shows a box with the SSD in it.

I just ran WD DataLifeguard Tools for DOS and it caught errors with just the quick test.

 

[volcane]

Well, for that Crucial, this is the part number with the adapter: http://www.crucial.com/store/partspe...CT128M4SSD2BAA

 

[Shmee]

hmm, does that motherboard support AHCI? would be good to have if going to SSD.

 

[fatpat268]

If you're in need of an adapter, here's one cheap for $8. Fits two drives in one bay and is solid quality construction

http://www.amazon.com/SILVERSTONE-SD...0732775&sr=8-4

 

[LizardFace]

The board does support AHCI, however if I enable it will it affect the 500 GB Seagate SATA drive? Windows 7 was not installed to that drive, it just has backed up data.

I tried to test AHCI, by default the BIOS had it disabled, but once I enabled it both the Raptor and the Seagate disappeared from the BIOS Standard CMOS features list.

 

[Cerb]

I tried to test AHCI, by default the BIOS had it disabled, but once I enabled it both the Raptor and the Seagate disappeared from the BIOS Standard CMOS features list.

That's normal. If you try to use MS-DOS, it won't see any hard drives . Drives plugged in to ports running native or AHCI will not show up in that list. The only problem I've had mixing drives that support and don't support native or AHCI, as well, is hot-swapping not working.

<- GA-P35-DS3R

 

[jhansman]

Now's the time to move up from 20th century technology; I replaced my 74 GB Raptor with a 64GB Crucial M4 and have never looked back. My dilemma at the time was the one you face, namely, do I want to put a SATA3 part in an aging SATA2/USB 2.0 system. In the end I just upgraded my whole system. Glad I did; it should hold me for a few years, anyway.