Anyone Here Have Dual Raptors?

[ManBearPig]

If so, how do you like them? Worth the purchase? Any improvements over your previous HDDs?

Im probably gonna get a maxtore maxline 3, but im not quite sure and i'd like to hear if other people do indeed like their RAID 0 Raptors.

Edit: Can you reccomend what you WOULD get if they werent worth it, please? thanks again!

 

[Mik3y]

raptors are cool. worth it? definitely not in the logical sense. i would love to have dual raptors in raid 0, but unless i have the ability to shed out $350, the maxline would seem to be the best choice for price for performance vs the raptor.

 

[boomerang]

I have two 74GB's in RAID 0. I am quite pleased with them. Mine are quiet. Yes, Anand did a review that had less than favorable results. I don't much care about that.

I set mine up for the experience of both SATA and RAID. I very much like the long warranty.

Screw the naysayers. If the money is not a problem, do whatever you wish. It's your rig.

 

[ManBearPig]

Its only like 60 bucks more than the maxline. I dont need 300 gb of space either, so thats why im wodnering. Well, its 60 bucks less right now with neweggs rebates If i dont buy my computer for another 2 months, it' may fall and be that price by default, so...

 

[yankeesfan]

yep, fast load times and large file-transfers. Can't say they're worth it, though.

 

[ManBearPig]

Oh, can you reccomend what you WOULD get if they werent worth it?

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: Heen05
Oh, can you reccomend what you WOULD get if they werent worth it?

I have a 36GB raptor and I notice barely any difference between it and my 120GB Maxtor w/ 8MB cache. I felt like I had wasted $165CDN after I purchased it.

I would reccomend just about any 7200RPM 8MB cache SATA drive over the raptors. 160-200GB drives seem to be the sweet spot lately.

 

[stevty2889]

I have 2 raptors in raid 0, and while they are slightly faster, I don't think they are worth it. A 7200rpm 8m cache drive around 160GB would be better I think.

 

[Trey22]

I'm looking to upgrade to a single Raptor from my WD 80GB 8MB Cache HD. Will use my current drive as a destination image drive, better than reformatting and reinstalling Windows.

 

[JimRaynor]

i went from a 40gb barracuda 4 and noticed NO performance increase loading games. the only think I really noticed was that little programs like aim or whatever installed a lot faster. I'm lucky I don't need the space or I would be really regretting it. If i had to do it all over again, I would just get a big seagate. (raptor is loud compared to my old seagate).

 

[Imyourzero]

I thought a single Raptor was so fast that there was barely any performance increase by putting two of them in a RAID 0 array? If that's the case, I don't understand why so many people RAID their Raptors. Why risk your data integrity and waste the additional storage by going with RAID 0 if a single Raptor is 95% as fast? Doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I'm just looking at the wrong benches though.

 

[charloscarlies]

Programs install faster, games load quicker, files transfer faster....but overall considering Price/Performance...they aren't worth it. Don't get me wrong I love my Raptors, but with some of the deals on the plain ol' 7200 rpm 8 meg drives...it just isn't worth the extra money.

 

[ManBearPig]

Thanks alot guys! Its surprising to see some of the stuff you've said heh.

 

[golgotha]

I have 2 Raptors that are NOT in a RAID0 config. I installed my OS on one, and I install my applications on another. I have to tell you, I am loving the performance I am getting from this thing.
I think separating the OS files from the Application files was a good move because the OS can call system files and application files simultaneously without tracking the head across the HD and back again.
The performance increase has been amazing. For example, I like to play Rainbow Six. Single Player maps used to load in 20-30 secs or more (on a 20gb-8mb-7200rmp HD). Now they load in 2-5 seconds. Sure it's a combination of MB, Proc, RAM etc, but the HD is typically the bottleneck, and having a fast drive goes a long way to speeding up the entire system.
I can't wait to see what effect a 16mb cache will have, though.

edit: If you go this route, you may want to considera 36gb Raptor paired with a 74gb raptor, as 74gb is a lot of space for just an OS that takes up no more than 10 gigs.

 

[Zelmo3]

Last winter I decided my Battlefield levels were loading too slowly, so I got two 36GB Raptors and set them up with RAID 0. They were very fast. But eventually when I couldn't get working Linux firmware for my RAID controller and then the new kernel dropped software RAID support, I split the two drives and run them independently. Guess what? They're almost just as fast.
If you're looking for speed, I'd say skip the RAID 0 (for the above stated reliability concerns) and get one of the 74GB Raptors.

 

[Shagga]

I have 2 x 36GB SATA Raptors in RAID0. I have not had any issues with them and they seem quite fast and quiet as well. I am more than happy with them at the moment and have no plans to upgrade in the near future...(famous last words...)

 

[vetteguy]

I recently moved from 2 36GB Raptors to 2 74GB ones. In a way I wish I hadn't, because the 74GB ones are extremely loud when being accessed (sometimes I wonder if my machine is going to get tossed around the room by the arms swinging so hard).

 

[caz67]

I had a choice between to 74Gb Raptors in RAID0 or 2x200Gb WD 7200 SATA in RAID0. I chose the later.

 

[blakeatwork]

I picked a couple 36GB's in February for Mirroring.. I found the system increased a bit in performance, and it's actually a fair bit quieter then the 2x20GB Quantum Fireballs I had in there..

I was more concerned about some redundancy (SOHO business PC) then i was with performance..

 

[ManBearPig]

I heard the 36gb are slower than the 74 gb. I was thinking about getting one 74gb raptor + one other HDD, but i think im just going to get a 300gb maxtor maxline 3 or diamondmax10 with 16 mb of cache. Thanks dudes!

 

[GnomeCop]

I had 2 36gb raptors in raid 0 when they first came out... it was fast and all but they werent that quiet.

I have a single 74gb raptor now and I think its a much nicer solution. Quieter too.

 

[golgotha]

Originally posted by: Heen05
I heard the 36gb are slower than the 74 gb.

This was true, but is no longer the case.
The 74gb drives shipped with a revised controller which made them faster than the original 36gb drives. That controller is now on both the new 36gb drives and all the 74gb drives.

It seems counter-intuitive that the larger drive would be faster, but there it is.

 

[nageov3t]

I have 2 36GB raptors in a RAID1.

RAID0 is the devil, though, and you probably won't notice a significant speed increase.

 

[imported_buggs]

Nothing in this world is worth it as the cost for everything is a rip off when you know how much things cost to make, the final cost like is 3 times as much or more in some cases.

raid sucks cus it's only good for writing to it, not reading from it. it's slower when read from, gaming etc would be worse. now, i have a WD 10k rpm sata 74gb and it's awesome. i really notice a difference over my ata133 7200rpm 8mb cache drive. boot time is better, install is faster for apps and even windows etc. real noticable to me.

but worth the cost? no, nothing is.

 

[boomerang]

Cheer up buggs. Someday you'll be dead and you won't have to put up with all this BS.