New Raptor

[ereshkigal181]

Well first review of the new 300gig wd raptor and it looks very promising.

Raptor

 

[Tweakin]

It looks nice!

 

[scottb75]

Here are some benchmarks of it on TomsHardware

http://www.tomshardware.com/re...lociRaptor,1914-9.html

 

[LittleNemoNES]

I was just thinking about these babies.
Will probably get one if all turns up well once they fix the firmware issue.
Wonder what the price will be, though...

$250?

I hope there will be pricedrops for the 150GB drives at the very least. Not to mentio the 74GB drives cost about as much as they have for the past few years.

 

[Sheninat0r]

The MSRP is supposed to be around $300... fun, no?

 

[SickBeast]

I don't see why they didn't compare it to the 6400AAKS.

From the look of things, the new Raptor will be barely faster than it. Not worth it IMO. The seek times are low, but the transfer rates appear to match the 6400AAKS for the most part.

 

[scottb75]

Originally posted by: Sheninat0r
The MSRP is supposed to be around $300... fun, no?

Considering that these new Raptors are comparable in performance to SAS drives its not really that bad of a price. Not only are these new Raptors faster than any other SATA drive, they also run cool, and have low power consumption needs. It is obvious that Western Digital put a lot of effort into developing these new Raptors.

 

[scottb75]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
I don't see why they didn't compare it to the 6400AAKS.

From the look of things, the new Raptor will be barely faster than it. Not worth it IMO. The seek times are low, but the transfer rates appear to match the 6400AAKS for the most part.

The seek times alone would make a big difference.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Originally posted by: ereshkigal181
Well first review of the new 300gig wd raptor and it looks very promising.

Raptor

Interesting review, but it's too bad that Eugene doesn't have a WD640 or Samsung F1 1tb to compare the numbers to.

The Hitachi 1Tb is pretty old design-wise now, with 5x200Meg platters, the new WD and Samsung drives with 333Meg/platter drives seem to be faster then the old Hitachi.

Oh...techreport has it's review up as well, with comparisons to these drives:

Link

So for most single-user usage, it's ~5% faster, with ~10% on some tests?

Power and noise look good though.

Overall? I think I would rather have 2 640/1Tb drives to allow flexibility of data storage on two spindles, as well as way more storage for the same price as one 300Gig Vraptor.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Originally posted by: scottb75

Originally posted by: SickBeast
I don't see why they didn't compare it to the 6400AAKS.

From the look of things, the new Raptor will be barely faster than it. Not worth it IMO. The seek times are low, but the transfer rates appear to match the 6400AAKS for the most part.

The seek times alone would make a big difference.

Not always true...firmware optimization plays a big role.

Just look at the newest 10K and 15K SCSI/SAS drives. Their single-user performance hasn't gotten any better with higher STR from denser platters over the past 2 generations, and are now beaten by the newest SATA drives (in single-user tests)

 

[scottb75]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
I don't see why they didn't compare it to the 6400AAKS.

From the look of things, the new Raptor will be barely faster than it. Not worth it IMO. The seek times are low, but the transfer rates appear to match the 6400AAKS for the most part.

Here you go with a test that compares the 6400AAKS. http://www.hothardware.com/Art...ciraptor_300GB/?page=6

 

[n7]

Hmm, pretty impressive.

I didn't even know this was in the works.

 

[scottb75]

Originally posted by: GarfieldtheCat

Originally posted by: scottb75

Originally posted by: SickBeast
I don't see why they didn't compare it to the 6400AAKS.

From the look of things, the new Raptor will be barely faster than it. Not worth it IMO. The seek times are low, but the transfer rates appear to match the 6400AAKS for the most part.

The seek times alone would make a big difference.

Not always true...firmware optimization plays a big role.

Just look at the newest 10K and 15K SCSI/SAS drives. Their single-user performance hasn't gotten any better with higher STR from denser platters over the past 2 generations, and are now beaten by the newest SATA drives (in single-user tests)

Well for a gamer like me the Raptors I had previously were faster at loading times than the 6400AAKS drives I have now. Don't get me wrong, these 6400AAKS drives are fast but in many cases such as Windows boot times, and loading screens in games the faster access times of the Raptors had its advantages. Now with these new Raptors you get the best of both worlds. The fast access times plus the transfer speeds of of SATA/300.

 

[DSF]

Nice looking tests, I just couldn't ever justify spending a dollar per gigabyte.

 

[Skott]

I like the Raptors ( I have a couple) but in today's economics the new 500 drives are much more attractive for the cost concious buyer. WD took too long in getting a larger Raptor drive to market I'm thinking. I havent looked at performance numbers yet though so I suppose its worth it if you got the extra cash to spend. Just a shame they didnt launch a 500Gb version as well.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: scottb75

Originally posted by: GarfieldtheCat

Originally posted by: scottb75

Originally posted by: SickBeast
I don't see why they didn't compare it to the 6400AAKS.

From the look of things, the new Raptor will be barely faster than it. Not worth it IMO. The seek times are low, but the transfer rates appear to match the 6400AAKS for the most part.

The seek times alone would make a big difference.

Not always true...firmware optimization plays a big role.

Just look at the newest 10K and 15K SCSI/SAS drives. Their single-user performance hasn't gotten any better with higher STR from denser platters over the past 2 generations, and are now beaten by the newest SATA drives (in single-user tests)

Well for a gamer like me the Raptors I had previously were faster at loading times than the 6400AAKS drives I have now. Don't get me wrong, these 6400AAKS drives are fast but in many cases such as Windows boot times, and loading screens in games the faster access times of the Raptors had its advantages. Now with these new Raptors you get the best of both worlds. The fast access times plus the transfer speeds of of SATA/300.

Do whatever you need to convince yourself that the Raptor was worth it, benches show that larger drives caught up and surpassed it eventually, the access times don't really do that much for most things (and game load times isn't really even one of those things where the Raptor truly shines...)

I will add that these Raptors are always best when new - its quite clear the VelociRaptor is easily one of the best single user drives you can buy (certainly the fastest without going extreme or exotic), but with time they're eventually caught by standard drives, and the Raptor's price doesn't fall anywhere near as fast as those drives...the Raptor X is still going for its ~$200 MSRP unless its on sale or sold online as OEM...completely not worth it in today's market for the largest niche the product line is targeting (heck, the 74GB version is still ~$150, ridiculous).

 

[Dashel]

Meh. For 300 bucks I'm not impressed. They say it's 90% optimized. Once it's fully read to rock I need to see it beating everything out there handily. Even then I dont know that I'd get one. It's nice for an enthusiast with money to spare though.

 

[scottb75]

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles

Originally posted by: scottb75

Originally posted by: GarfieldtheCat

Originally posted by: scottb75

Originally posted by: SickBeast
I don't see why they didn't compare it to the 6400AAKS.

From the look of things, the new Raptor will be barely faster than it. Not worth it IMO. The seek times are low, but the transfer rates appear to match the 6400AAKS for the most part.

The seek times alone would make a big difference.

Not always true...firmware optimization plays a big role.

Just look at the newest 10K and 15K SCSI/SAS drives. Their single-user performance hasn't gotten any better with higher STR from denser platters over the past 2 generations, and are now beaten by the newest SATA drives (in single-user tests)

Well for a gamer like me the Raptors I had previously were faster at loading times than the 6400AAKS drives I have now. Don't get me wrong, these 6400AAKS drives are fast but in many cases such as Windows boot times, and loading screens in games the faster access times of the Raptors had its advantages. Now with these new Raptors you get the best of both worlds. The fast access times plus the transfer speeds of of SATA/300.

Do whatever you need to convince yourself that the Raptor was worth it, benches show that larger drives caught up and surpassed it eventually, the access times don't really do that much for most things (and game load times isn't really even one of those things where the Raptor truly shines...)

I've owned 2 x 150GB Raptors in Raid-0 and now currently own 2 x WD6400AAKS in Raid-0. It is not I who needs convicing of the benefits of faster access times in gaming. The difference between 12.4ms access times and 8.0ms access times are sometimes noticed. Try loading up a saved game of Oblivion or Sims 2 with a 150GB Raptor and tell me it doesn't make a difference.That load time bar in Oblivion goes a bit faster with the Raptors, as does the trasition from an indoor environment to an outdoor environment.

 

[Quiksilver]

Bah, give me cheap high capacity solid state drives.

 

[tomt4535]

This is the first 300gb 10k RPM 2.5in Hard drive I have seen anywhere.Hopefully HD Mfr's will come out with similar drives for the enterprise market. Currently its 146gb for 10k and 73gb for 15k drives. These drives would be pretty sweet in the enterprise server market.

 

[Synomenon]

So could we take it out of that fancy heatsink and use it in a laptop?

 

[deepinya]

new king in town

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: IsLNdbOi
So could we take it out of that fancy heatsink and use it in a laptop?

No, it's too thick.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: Rubycon

Originally posted by: IsLNdbOi
So could we take it out of that fancy heatsink and use it in a laptop?

No, it's too thick.

are you sure? WD is shipping it in both the 3.5 inch standard (with convertor) and in a stand alone 2.5 inch model (without convertor)... I don't see how they could sell it as 2.5 inch if it doesn't conform to the standard...

Although it wouldn't be a huge surprise if they did...

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: taltamir

are you sure? WD is shipping it in both the 3.5 inch standard (with convertor) and in a stand alone 2.5 inch model (without convertor)... I don't see how they could sell it as 2.5 inch if it doesn't conform to the standard...

Although it wouldn't be a huge surprise if they did...

It's too thick! Look here.

more info