WD Raptor question

[CotswoldCS]

I've just purchased Western Digital's latest 150Gb Raptor. It will replace my WD1200JB (120Gb PATA) hard disk. I've a couple of questions:

Will I notice a difference in performance - leading question I know but I want to feel this was a good decision!!!!

My old WD drive was enclosed in a SilentDrive hard disk enclosure. This kept the noise down which is very important in my v quiet water cooled PC (Zalman Reserator 1 Plus). I'm assuming that putting my 10,000rpm Raptor into the SilentDrive would be A VERY BAD IDEA. Assuming I DON't use the SilentDrive do you think I will find the Raptor noisier than my old WD drive????

My Antec Sonata case does have rubber grommets on the HDD cage which I hope will reduce vibrations and noise a little.

 

[Mellman]

Is it going to be noisier? Yes (unless WD did something to make it significantly quieter than the 74GB raptors)
Is there going to be a performance difference? Assuming your cpu wasnt a bottleneck before, yes. Huge. With my raptor, otherwise identical systems would take considerably longer times to load maps in PC games. Applications also load faster for me, and multi-tasking bogs down less. I envy your 150GB raptor, but im just fine w/ my 74gb version

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Depends on what you do with your computer. For gaming and general usage you won't see much of a difference. But if you encode video or transfer/ photoshop large files, you will see quite a difference.

 

[Bobthelost]

The FDB raptors aren't all that loud at idle, although they do make some noise when running full pelt. If you've got some airflow over the silentdrive it could be done, put it in and then run a full low level format on the disc, if the temps go over 50 then stop it. Otherwise it should be fine.

It might be louder, it might be quieter. Try it. The short version is that you chose the wrong HD for silence.

 

[CotswoldCS]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
The FDB raptors aren't all that loud at idle, although they do make some noise when running full pelt. If you've got some airflow over the silentdrive it could be done, put it in and then run a full low level format on the disc, if the temps go over 50 then stop it. Otherwise it should be fine.

It might be louder, it might be quieter. Try it. The short version is that you chose the wrong HD for silence.

Fair point - well said. You are correct of course.

I don't think I'll risk the SilentDrive.

How do I find the temp of my hard drive????

 

[sygyzy]

With modern hard drives there are built in temperature sesors as part of S.M.A.R.T.

Download software such as SpeedFan which will give you a comprehensive list of data about your drive, including temps.

 

[markkleb]

The raptor 150 needs GOOD AIR FLOW! Its quieter than the 74's and you will notice a diff.

The picture window in it looks cool too.

I read a review that said the 150 was almost as fast as 2 74's in raid0.

 

[F1shF4t]

I got a 74gig raptor and it can be quite loud at full load, if u secure it properly (i have mine in a 4 HDD rack, with 3 HDD and 2 fans blowing right past it, and in fact its the coolest drive i have) i found if i removed the top drive in the rack the noise level from it would be much louder. So secure it well, prefrebly so its well conected to ur case and it should be much quiter.

In terms of performance, windows loading is great, quickest i've ever had, but thats about all i've noticed. I found more difference from having more than 1 HDD and having different things on each one, so when i use then all at once there is absolutely no lag.

 

[sygyzy]

Dark Cupcake,

If you could do it over, would you not get the Raptor?

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
Dark Cupcake,

If you could do it over, would you not get the Raptor?

That question is hard to answer, originaly my friend convinced me to get the raptor
I donno, i think i would still get it cause i like the quick boot, and loading is great, but at this point it would be only for the fact that i dont want to loose what i already have. Also i like the fact that its rated to be able to run reliably 24/7 unlike most desktop drives.

So if i had another choice i would probably get a 120 gig SATA wd drive set it up as boot drive and have the rest of the set up that i have now. I doubt i would loose a lot of performance (i used a partitioned 200 gig PATA drive before i desided to do a major drive upgrade), and it would be a lot cheaper .

 

[sygyzy]

And you'd get 50 more gigs to play with.

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: markkleb
The raptor 150 needs AIR! Its quieter than the 74's and you will notice a diff.

The picture window in it looks cool too.

I read a review that said the 150 was almost as fast as 2 74's in raid0.

Are you sure that's right? Most of the reviews i've seen say that the 150 is a bit louder than the 74 model. Also the 150 doesn't have a window (that's the Raptor X) and the reviews i've seen show the raptor 150 performing better than 2 raptor 74s in RAID0.

All HDs need air, someday i'll describe my experiment with submerged HDs...

 

[markkleb]

I just bought 2 of them and they ARE QUIETER and have a window!

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101257-1-RFB

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/ A review here

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost

Originally posted by: markkleb
The raptor 150 needs AIR! Its quieter than the 74's and you will notice a diff.

The picture window in it looks cool too.

I read a review that said the 150 was almost as fast as 2 74's in raid0.

Are you sure that's right? Most of the reviews i've seen say that the 150 is a bit louder than the 74 model. Also the 150 doesn't have a window (that's the Raptor X) and the reviews i've seen show the raptor 150 performing better than 2 raptor 74s in RAID0.

All HDs need air, someday i'll describe my experiment with submerged HDs...

Lol submerged Hdd's, did u just chuck em in water, cause i bet that didnt work out well

 

[BFG10K]

Your gaming load times should be faster.

 

[Luckyboy1]

Spin faster... more heat.... answer your own question with that information.

Better? For what? Yeah, somewhat, but it varies by application. Now, go get another one just like it and make a 0 RAID array and don't blink or you'll miss some older games loading!

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake

Originally posted by: Bobthelost

Originally posted by: markkleb
The raptor 150 needs AIR! Its quieter than the 74's and you will notice a diff.

The picture window in it looks cool too.

I read a review that said the 150 was almost as fast as 2 74's in raid0.

Are you sure that's right? Most of the reviews i've seen say that the 150 is a bit louder than the 74 model. Also the 150 doesn't have a window (that's the Raptor X) and the reviews i've seen show the raptor 150 performing better than 2 raptor 74s in RAID0.

All HDs need air, someday i'll describe my experiment with submerged HDs...

Lol submerged Hdd's, did u just chuck em in water, cause i bet that didnt work out well

Oh no, i had a rather elegant snorkle and drysuit system for them, sadly i forgot that not all plastic is waterproof and it looks like i had leakage. I'll try again sometime in the future with better materials (and lots of sillicone sealant!)

Worked for a while though, so the idea is sound!

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: Luckyboy1
Spin fastger... more heat.... answer your own question with that information.

Better? For what? Yeah, somewhat, but it varies by application. Now, go get another one just like it and make a 0 RAID array and don't blink or you'll miss some older games loading!

Actually my raptor runs much cooler than any otehr drive i have, something like 5C cooler. And yea there is no loading screen on old games .

Your gaming load times should be faster.

Yea the loading should be quicker, that is if u use the drive to instal games, i use it as my boot drive only and simple progs, have a separate Sata 2 wd 200gig for games and programs. And in fact using the raptor as boot drive to run windows has decreased benchmarks by about 10%.

 

[Luckyboy1]

I remember when I purchased two, 36 GB WD Raptors for my first 0 RAID array. I almost cried in my soiled diapers as it booted! For resons mostly beyond me, there is a longer loading of the bios and I guess RAID drivers? Then Cousin Billy loads faster, but it only cuts two seconds off the total time from hitting the on switch to the weclome screen.

So I'm having more than a bit of buyers remorse at this point. Then I start loading applications and the buyers remorse subsides, but not by much. I get my FB/PF flight sim game all loaded up and patch the patch of the patch of the patch and did I patch that patch correctly? Anyways! With my old 8 MB cached 7,200 Ultra drive, the game took 32 seconds to load. I hit the IL-2.exe and it loads in 8 seconds! Same computer in every respect except for the drives.

Buyers remorse is gone and in two years, never a drive failure or problems with noise. Of course, I have a steel, full sized case and pay attention to power and cooling issues, but I'm sure that had nothing to do with it either!

 

[fire400]

faster is better, newer is stronger.