36 GB Raptor VS new 500GB WD KS

[BoboKatt]

Hey all,
Recently I got an amazing deal on a new WD 500GBKS SATA hardrive. I originally was running my system (X2-4800) with my older WD Raptor 36 GB SATA drive as my OS drive and had an older 160GB for storage etc. I would love folks opinion on whether I am better off leaving the 36GB Raptor as my OS drive... and just keep the 500 as my storage.

I do all my work from the current OS drive.. i.e.. the Raptor. Would the newer 500GB WD actually be faster and snappier than the older Raptor just based on the aerial density of its platters? I cannot find any reviews that actually compare older drives to newer ones -- all the reviews I've read are of 500-750GB drives being compared to each other.

The one game I ever play is on my 36 Raptor which is also my OS... and all my work files, documents and video encoding programs and web development are also all installed on the 35GB Raptor and even my swap file For storage and back-up all goes to the older drive. Anyhow any suggestions or personal experience would be great especially before I go re-install everything/format rather than just adding my new drive as just another drive.

Thanks

 

[hammong]

The WD5000KS (and YS) drives are some of the fastest 7200 RPM drives ever produced, and the performance is going to be pretty good in comparison to a 36GB Raptor.

You can do your own performance benchmarks and see for yourself. Hook the 500 GB WD up as a second disk, and benchmark the Raptor and the new drive using the same tools. The benchmarks won't lie.

Personally, I'd ditch the 120 GB and 36GB Raptor and use the 500 GB by itself. Don't forget to pick up a copy of Diskeeper...

Greg

 

[Auric]

The pagefile and game would be better on a seperate drive than the OS, as would processing or downloading/PAR checking large files -or alternatively download to the OS drive and unarchive to the the other, for instance. Partitioning should be beneficial too. Perhaps a less conventional idea is to use the 500 for both the OS (small partition) and storage (large partition(s)) with pagefile, processing and downloading on a different drive (the 36). The question remains how you're going to backup everything without at least another drive of equal capacity though unless your total useage is not more than the 160 drive.