Looking for faster HDD

[saratoga172]

So I think I'll be setting my budget at around $200.

Now What I've got is an older 7200RPM 160GB drive. I have an external for music and other random storage.

What I need is a fast drive to put my main apps on. I was thinking that for the $200 range a 300GB raptor would be perfect. It'll let me put the OS plus games and programs on it with plenty of room to spare. I can use maybe 100GBish currently. And it'll also hold school docs that'ss be backup up on my flash drive, laptop and or external drive.

What would you recommend though with this budget. SSD, Raptor or otherwise? Anything I get will be a major improvement, but I'm leaning towards at least a Raptor. I don't need tons of space. Looking around 100-150GB and up though. I'd like to put the OS, some Steam games and a few programs on it. I'm looking at, Windows 7, MW2, CS:S, DOD:S, TF2, SC2, Dreamweaver, Photoshop and maybe a few other things.

Recs welcome. And the cheaper the better.

System specs: i5-750 (stock), 4GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600, Radeon 5770, 585W PSU, MSI P55 mobo.

 

[Jadow]

get an SSD intel x-25m 80gb, a little smaller, but it will blow you away

 

[lsv]

get an SSD intel x-25m 80gb, a little smaller, but it will blow you away

Agreed.

 

[pcslookout]

get an SSD intel x-25m 80gb, a little smaller, but it will blow you away

Disagree it is faster but mainly while multtasking.

 

[saratoga172]

Thanks for the input. Keep it coming. I'll check out that SSD. Don't know much about them. Any references for how much faster than a Raptor they are?

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Get an X-25M or a Corsair Force, both are excellent SSDs. The Force is more expensive, but it's also better-performing.

As for how much faster than a raptor, much, much faster. Probably 100MB/s faster sequential writes for the SSD (except for Intel's drives, which are capped at 80MB/s writes); they are saturated by SATA II more than anything else. And as for random accesses, SSDs just blow the velociraptor away. As in, they're about 100x faster.

 

[pjkenned]

I would suggest SSD OR actually think about the Momentus XT (or two).

And just for reference, I switched from 15k rpm 2.5" SAS in 8x disk Raid 5 with an Adaptec 5805 + 15k rpm 3.5" SAS on a 3085 for extra storage to SSD's. If you aren't sure what that is, think about a current-gen raptor, and imagine MUCH faster.

Now every system I use (aka non-server) is completely on SSD's. There is simply no comparison. Noise, heat, durability, speed all favor SSD's.

 

[allthatisman]

Disagree it is faster but mainly while multtasking.

+1

Mainly due to cost/space limitations though. SSD's are faster, but I don't think they are worth the two main limitations. The more I use it, the more I like it... check out the momentus XT for the best of both worlds.

 

[ShawnD1]

Disagree it is faster but mainly while multtasking.

Multitasking is what your primary drive does. It's trying to load windows, write to logs, open firefox while closing excel, install autocad, and all of this is going on at the same time. When I was installing stuff on the cheapest (slowest) SSD I could find, what blew me away was how firefox ran normal while I was installing 3-4 programs at the same time; there was no lag at all.

For stuff that isn't multitasking, just a regular hard drive is good enough. I bought some cheap 1.5tb drives for something like $120 a few months ago and they're incredibly fast when it comes to loading stuff sequentially. Great for backup, main storage, games, etc.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

+1 for the SSD. Its faster, a lot.

 

[FishAk]

Read this thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2082646

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

After time, those 2nd gen 300G raptor's whining, gets annoying...

 

[Voo]

Mainly due to cost/space limitations though. SSD's are faster, but I don't think they are worth the two main limitations. The more I use it, the more I like it... check out the momentus XT for the best of both worlds.

The momentus has an interesting concept, but 4gb flash is just not enough. It may very well feel faster than a normal 7.2k rpm drive, but anand himself also said that it's not the same as a real SSD and I don't think that's far fetched..