WD Raptor worth it?

[Gabb]

Hey all, I'm planning to build a new computer for the next generation of games and was wondering if a WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 16M Cache Hard Drive running at 10,000 rpm would be a good choice as a primary hard drive.

I know there fast but also very expensive ( the lack of space in comparison to normal hard drives doesn't bother me ) , and I was either opting for this or 2 regular 7200 rpm hard drives raided 0. If I choose the Raptor option, I would always have the future option to get a 2nd one and raid them, however initially I only can afford 1 and was wondering if having the operating system on the same drive as all the games and all would effect performance? What do you guys think?

 

[Private_Shon]

no, its not worth it, the 2 regular raid 0s are like 2milliseconds difference in load times compared to a raptor single, might as well get more space. and yeah its not gonna make much difference what hard-drives you run your games on. might just load that millisecond faster.

 

[M733mhz]

I don't think it's worth it. Get one of the smaller sized raptors and put your windows installation on that then get a 250GB or whatever size you want 7200RPM drive and use that for storage. You won't notice an amazing difference between the two. It'll be faster, But not worth the amount of money they cost, Unless you don't care about spending it.

 

[veg1992]

heck no! its more fast true, but its more expensive than drives with 2X or more disk space

 

[Gabb]

I don't think it's worth it. Get one of the smaller sized raptors and put your windows installation on that then get a 250GB or whatever size you want 7200RPM drive and use that for storage. You won't notice an amazing difference between the two. It'll be faster, But not worth the amount of money they cost, Unless you don't care about spending it.

Er I mentioned I don't really care about large amounts of space and 150 GB of space is really sufficient for me, since I don't plan to fill my hard drives with loads of pRon videos ( the only thing I can think of that takes so much space ).

I am just wondering, performance wise, is 1 WD 10k 16mb cache raptor faster then 2 regular 7200 rpm hard drives raided 0? Which would have a longer lifespan since I heard Raid 0 kinda shortens the life span possibly?

 

[NosBoost300]

i didnt get to read anything here.. but here's my 2 cents

after having difficulties trying to ship off mine.. and having it declined (lol), i shoved it back in with my ds3.. and i must say, this raptor flies, it skips the text based boot up screen.. and jumps straight into the windows load.. and only does 1 and a half to 2 bars (its different everytime... why i don't know).

But with my last motherboard (the MSI 975x PUE) it ran slow as crap... but now that i shove it with the ds3... its amazingly fast, i've never seen anything run so fast.... matched with a c2d i can't believe some of the load times i'm getting... i'm considering picking up another 74gb raptor now so i can run raid

if you can find one for about 100 dollars i'd say go for it.. and i mean the 74 gig, because otherwise... i wouldnt spend 150 for a 70 gig hdd