Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB Hard Drive Review

[gvblake22]

I would agree with Ranger. But I have to ask you, have you tested your Raptor performance with a single 36GB drive compared to the RAID 0 setup? Is there a noticeable difference? At least enough to justify the added cost?

[RangerXLT8]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

I would agree with Ranger. But I have to ask you, have you tested your Raptor performance with a single 36GB drive compared to the RAID 0 setup? Is there a noticeable difference? At least enough to justify the added cost?

Atleast 75 percent faster. To me that is worth the cost.

[Tyreal]

I have a question. Those WD Sata drives that you compared it to. What is the cache on them? 75% is alot, i have one 36 raptor right now and if the difference is actually noticeable, i might get another one.

[RangerXLT8]

Originally Posted by Tyreal

I have a question. Those WD Sata drives that you compared it to. What is the cache on them? 75% is alot, i have one 36 raptor right now and if the difference is actually noticeable, i might get another one.

I'm sorry I thought you meant had I compared 1 single Raptor vs. 2 Raptor in RAID0, so what I was saying is 2 Raptors in Raid0 are 75% faster then one single Raptor. The 2xWD80gb SE SATAII 8mb in RAID0 are almost as fast as the 2xRAID0 Raptors in read\write the but Raptors dog them in seek time, and the raptors are still faster all around. Is it worth it, to me it is. You just can't beat 10k rpm for your main drives. Put all the big stuff(storage)on the 7200rpm drives. The 80gb SATAII drives cost like 55.00 at newegg.....

Blake, especially how cheap the 36gb raptors are now, about $104.00 at ZZF, free shipping and no tax. I'm picking up a 3rd 36gb raptor for my RAID0 at the end of the week.

[gvblake22]

Yeah, I was referring to the RAID 0 Raptors like you, not the 80GB drives. 75% improvement seems like a lot! Is this in all around useage in prettymuch every aspect or select cases where you can notice the difference. I'm referring to things like game load times, average seek times, how long it takes to save files and open programs, etc. (single user general useage type stuff...)

And I'm suprised you have your storage drives in RAID 0 too, wouldn't you be better (or safer) with a RAID 1 on your storage drives?

If I had to choose my ideal HDD setup, I would have two raptors in RAID 0 as my primary OS and applications drive and then have two larger capacity drives in RAID 1 for mass storage and backups.

[RangerXLT8]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Yeah, I was referring to the RAID 0 Raptors like you, not the 80GB drives. 75% improvement seems like a lot! Is this in all around useage in prettymuch every aspect or select cases where you can notice the difference. I'm referring to things like game load times, average seek times, how long it takes to save files and open programs, etc. (single user general useage type stuff...)

I mean 75% in game loadup(bro I'm the first person on the BF:2 map EVERY time, get to pick any vehicle, no hoofin it for me, lol), copying entire Ghosted drives, large movies file, 8gb folders of pictures, AND XP load up.

[gvblake22]

DAMNIT, this is just making me too jealous, I think I'm gonna have to be done with this thread :oops:

[RangerXLT8]

Blake you can't be done I forgot to answer the second part fo your post! lol

For my 80gb drives, I ran RAID1 for about a year. Then just this past week, I purchaed a 320gb 16mb WD SATAII drive. So then I switched the RAID1 to RAID0, and now I back BOTH of my RAID0 arrays to the 320. Now this whole RAID0 80gb drives is temporary untill I can afford another 320gb to match with my current one to run in RAID1, replacing the 80gb drives!

[Tyreal]

Oh my mistake. :(

I mean 75% in game loadup(bro I'm the first person on the BF:2 map EVERY time, get to pick any vehicle, no hoofin it for me, lol), copying entire Ghosted drives, large movies file, 8gb folders of pictures, AND XP load up.

Thats pretty impressive. With my single raptor, i'm already one of the first people in COD2 to get into the map. There was a thread quite recently at OCF about the MAXLINES and how they were so much better than raptors in raid.
Heres is a link: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.p...7&page=2&pp=30

What do you think of this? I'm really torn between the two in terms of hard drive setups.

[gvblake22]

How easy is it to rebuild a RAID 1 array from one drive that already has the data on it (like when you get your second 320GB drive to RAID 1 with the first)? I don't know much about the actual process of creating a RAID setup...