will this computer play CSS?

[RangerXLT8]

Originally Posted by yurimxpxman

Raptors are lame - overpriced and overrated. He'd be better off buying a 250GB drive that could store more games. He wouldn't even notice any difference in speed whatsoever.

Someone Clearly has not ever run a Raptor. 7200rpm drives are slower in every aspect, bottom line. Spindle speed is 30 percent faster, seek times are lower, and that's only the beginning. Raptors are enterprise drives, they weigh twice as much as regular HDD. For straight up speed, you know damn well Raptors are the best,a nd if you don't I suggest you look at the benchmarks. That said, if dude needs more space, he should invest in a 74GB Raptor, 74GB is alot of games even at 50% capacity. 7200rpm drives are for storage and nothing more; if you can afford Raptors. To say Raptors are LAME, is flat out irresponsible on a forum where there are newcomers/

And speaking for longevity of the systems usefulness: going with anything less than AM2 or Socket 775 foolish and money not well spent. We are talking 5K here, not yuri's allowance LMAO

[Hitman]

Originally Posted by RangerXLT8

Someone Clearly has not ever run a Raptor. 7200rpm drives are slower in every aspect, bottom line. Spindle speed is 30 percent faster, seek times are lower, and that's only the beginning. Raptors are enterprise drives, they weigh twice as much as regular HDD. For straight up speed, you know damn well Raptors are the best,a nd if you don't I suggest you look at the benchmarks. That said, if dude needs more space, he should invest in a 74GB Raptor, 74GB is alot of games even at 50% capacity. 7200rpm drives are for storage and nothing more; if you can afford Raptors. To say Raptors are LAME, is flat out irresponsible on a forum where there are newcomers/

Calm down Ranger, Breathe. You're right to a point. The larger 7200 RPM drives are starting to close the gap on the speed difference between 10K drives. For a budget build the sacrifice in HD space, for speed is not worth the difference in price. For this build though a Raptor doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[yurimxpxman]

Umm, actually, I'm using a Raptor as I type. I have been for quite a while and it was not worth the money at all. Sure, it's a tiny bit faster, but there's no real-world performance boost that justifies its price per gigabyte.

[simple_inhibition]

i agree with yuri and hitman here. the small boost in loading time speeds isnt worth the price premium. (and thats coming from someone who runs 2x 36gb raptors in raid 0) he's better off with a 7200rpm drive. if all these systems are for is CSS then the 160gb hard drive i put up there is even overkill. you have to remember that this game came out when athlon xp and pentium4 processors were out and agp was the main gaming video card interface. theres no need for am2 or a 775 system here. thats just added cost for an unnecessary upgrade path. besides if he throws in a 3200. he still has a pretty nice upgrade path. the main thing he needs is a Pci-E slot so he can upgrade the video cards if they decide to play different games later on down the line. plus he can overclock a bit with that motherboard. the 754 version i have overclocked my 3000 venice (2ghz) to 2.6ghz just fine

[Captain Crunch]

it's a tiny bit faster, but there's no real-world performance boost that justifies its price per gigabyte.

I really hate it but I'll have to agree here. Unless your trying to build a super rig the money is simply better spent in other areas. If I cant see a real world difference or have to lie to my self to feel better about the purchase. (been there done that) then it's not worth it.
We here at HL tend to be a little more Bang for Buck kinda guys anyway.
At least I am cuz my butt is in no way rich........OH hell I'm just poor ....LOL

[RangerXLT8]

Originally Posted by yurimxpxman

Umm, actually, I'm using a Raptor as I type. I have been for quite a while and it was not worth the money at all. Sure, it's a tiny bit faster, but there's no real-world performance boost that justifies its price per gigabyte.

Couldn't tell from the sig. Our ideas of a gaming system clearly differ. My opinion is that 7200rpm drives, especially single, are ghetto for any type of gaming PC.

And me personally, I can see a real world difference in every single application. Ever notice a correlation between who is loaded on the map in CS first, and their HDD quotes in their sigs?

[Capper]

My opinion is that 7200rpm drives, especially single, are ghetto for any type of gaming PC.

Thats just quite simply not true.

I've run a single 150GB Raptor, a pair in RAID, and to be perfectly honest, there little to no difference in gaming performance, and to be honest a little more, most people won't tell any difference between a 7200.10 and Raptor drive in anything except benchmarking. you might see a slight decrease in load times, but not much. I run a single Seagate 7200.10 drive, I switched from the Raptors, and my loads times are not noticeably slower....the money is definitely better spent on a better video card, more memory, things like that