The new Raptor is out!

[cbns]

I've been looking into improving my PC performance, especially since I'm low on HD space and they are slow and loud and RAID doesn't work with them (properly).

I was thinking of picking up two Raptors and putting them in RAID 0.
However, it's been a while since they have been out, and money does not grow on trees.
I know something is coming soon in the hard drive department, but I don't know what, and when.
I read somewhere that next-gen HDDs are on their way to being released, but I can't remember where.

Does anyone know ANYTHING about what is going to replace the Raptor in terms of performance? I don't want to wait, since I only have about 5GB left on my two drives and loading windows takes about 4 minutes. But if I go ahead and pay the hefty price for two raptors (after all, you don't get good Gbyte per $ with raptors at 74GB per drive) and the next thing you know new drives come out with more space, more cache and less expensive I will commit suicide!

so your news and assumptions are greatly appreciated!
thanx!


EDIT: Tah-dah! The new raptors are out! Patience is a virtue!
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28577

edit 2: yes ic opied the wrong link. apologies, it's now fixed

 

[Vegito]

4 min loading = format C:

above raptors are scsi. above scsi are flash drives.

If price is an issue, the newer 300/400/500 gb drive are almost faster than raptors.

HDD are mechanical, not much more you can do on improving them

 

[cbns]

i know too little about scsi. i must look into it.

I cannot format C. Well I can, but it's not worth it. I have so much data and programs and settings.
I wouldn't know where to put eveything!
I have 2 drives, C and G. C is windows & programs, G is files and storage/backup.
G is full so I can't use it to backup C.

and if i do format C, in about 5 months my windows will be just as sluggish.
i have anti virus software and anti spyware software and scan regularly.
on top of that my hardware is fairly high-end, nevertheless windows never fails to become extremely slow very fast.

 

[Sunrise089]

um...maybe you have the worst anti-virus program ever? Seriousely I have a P4 Northwood 2.0ghz, 756 memory, and Windows loads from power button to everything loaded in background in less than 45 seconds. My install is about a year old and I have tried to keep my system clean - periodic defrag, spyware sweeping, deleting stuff I don't use. If your PC that probably cost 5x what I paid (used) runs that slowly (even at startup) you need to reformat and change your user habbits.

 

[cbns]

well, i've formatted many times and my windows has always given me crap after a few months.
i cannot explain it. i've minimised startup programs in msconfig to only the essential things for me, doesn't help.

i can't see what user habits i have that can explain this :-/
and i use norton antivirus 2005.

 

[Jeff7181]

I reinstalled Windows XP on February 16th of this year... it was not a clean install... I installed over top of a previous installation that was about a year old also. I have zero problems with Windows giving me crap. Not saying that to brag, or saying this to insult you... but this isn't a Windows issue, it's a user issue.

 

[Vegito]

Originally posted by: cbns
i know too little about scsi. i must look into it.

given the price problem, dont waste time on scsi.

and agreed that norton is probably the worse POS in the world. Google CA etrust - free or AVG, and there are a bunch of free ones out there..

 

[cbns]

regardless, i've only had norton for about a month now.
the windows problem has been on my pc for 2 years now.
every windows i ever had has always been extremely sluggish.

i cannot imagine what user issue there could be.
hell, what is a user issue in this case?

 

[cbns]

anyone?

 

[Makaveli]

Either u buy now or wait. Those are your choices, and since there isn't a release date for new raptors yet you could be waiting a long time.

As for windows taking 4 mins to load, that is a issue on your system, having a full hard drive shouldn't slow down bootups like that. The other fellow might be correct when he said user error.

 

[tjpark1111]

it's definitely spyware if it keeps doing that after a couple of months, same crap happened to me. Get the following programs, update definitions/program versions, and do an in-depth full scan: Ad-Aware, Spybot, Spy Sweeper(if u dont wanna pay then dont get it), and Zone Alarm Plus. 2GB of memory should be plenty to handle all of that, but I suggest you turn off some annoying shields. I have an old laptop,(celeron 2.6ghz, 768mb ram, 40gb 5400rpm)and the thing boots in under a minute with the hard drive leaving only 20mb of space left lol. I have a suggestion. STOP visiting sites that give you spyware, or just get those programs.

 

[cbns]

I have adaware pro 1.5 and i update definitons each time i scan.
i also have spybot and i update that each time i scan as well.

WHAT IS A USER ERROR?

aaah why is this happening to me?

 

[imported_drx]

Originally posted by: cbns
WHAT IS A USER ERROR?

EBKAC

 

[doggyfromplanetwoof]

Originally posted by: cbns
aaah why is this happening to me?

God hates you.

 

[cbns]

Originally posted by: drx

Originally posted by: cbns
WHAT IS A USER ERROR?

EBKAC

what
?

 

[cbns]

Originally posted by: doggyfromplanetwoof

Originally posted by: cbns
aaah why is this happening to me?

God hates you.

apparently.

so instead of posting useless commentary can someone actually help me figure out why windows needs 5-8 minutes just to start up?

 

[Polish3d]

Windows for me loads before the bar makes its first full pass

 

[GamerExpress]

The Raptors are not as wonderful as most people think, overpriced!!!!! You can go with a 7200.9 or some of the other new NCQ 16MB cache drives and get about the same performance as Raptor and much more space to play around with. I think what you want it if you are into speed is a nice Ultra SCSI 320 drive.

 

[dopefish21]

Originally posted by: GamerExpress
The Raptors are not as wonderful as most people think, overpriced!!!!! You can go with a 7200.9 or some of the other new NCQ 16MB cache drives and get about the same performance as Raptor and much more space to play around with. I think what you want it if you are into speed is a nice Ultra SCSI 320 drive.

No.

I have 2 raptors and a 300GB Maxtor 16mb.

The maxtor is definately MUCH slower.

Try downloading 50 files/torrents at the same time and loading a game with your 10ms drive, then come back.

The raptors are fast, they really are, and if you're usign it for more than just load games, they are well worth the money.

 

[Gamer X]

You can get a 400 gig WD that's as fast as the raptor for 180 bucks,
the Caviar SE16 or the Caviar RE2

 

[GamerExpress]

Originally posted by: dopefish21

Originally posted by: GamerExpress
The Raptors are not as wonderful as most people think, overpriced!!!!! You can go with a 7200.9 or some of the other new NCQ 16MB cache drives and get about the same performance as Raptor and much more space to play around with. I think what you want it if you are into speed is a nice Ultra SCSI 320 drive.

No.

I have 2 raptors and a 300GB Maxtor 16mb.

The maxtor is definately MUCH slower.

Try downloading 50 files/torrents at the same time and loading a game with your 10ms drive, then come back.

The raptors are fast, they really are, and if you're usign it for more than just load games, they are well worth the money.

Strange becuase I have two 74 GB Raptors as well, and also a new 500GB 7200.9 Seagate, and the only time I there should be a noticible diference is in the boot times. I think you have it in your head that the Raptors are faster, take a look at some of the benchmarks....run some benchmarks yourself and see what you get, trust me the Raptor isn't all it's cracked up to be.

 

[ribbon13]

The Raptor's faster seek times and higher I/O are undeniably. It is faster. People just like to harp on it's price tag to the point of dramatization.

The WD4000s are about as fast, based on the Raptor so much they were considering the name "Raptor 7200", and have some damn nice benchmarks

 

[dexvx]

I doubt there will be a sucessor to the 10K Raptor.

It's target audience was supposed to be high-end (as an alternative to SCSI). But in reality, the most they've done in penetrated the high-end enthusiast market, only with marginal success. Most people would rather dump their money on graphics, CPU, motherboard, memory, PSU... high-speed HDD's are rather low on the priority list.

Combine this with the rapid fall in SCSI prices ("old" flagship controllers like the 29160 can be had for around $25. A current/prev generation 15K drive being had for less than $100), and you got some stiff competition.

 

[Makaveli]

I also agree, Raptor are faster, they just feel faster when using that as ur OS drive, OS feels more repsonsive.

Look at the benchmark posted today with the 500 GB 7200.9 its the slowest out of both 500GB drives and the 400GB WD.
They also thru in the 74GB raptor in the charts. The only one the raptor loses really badly is Doom 3 level loading, which seems to like the high density on the larger drives. Other than that it at the top or close to the top for most of the benchmarks.

Which hasn't changed in the last 2 years. When it comes to storage yes there are better drives, but Speed in the SATA area belongs to the Raptor, even tho some people are in denial.

HD benchmarks

 

[cbns]

i'm sure that the 7200.9 is as or more expensive than the raptor with all it's space.

also, i'm still stuck with this windows loading problem.
can anyone help?
i may not need raptors if i can fix this!