Raptor (150GB) vs Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA

[imported_Salamander]

I've been looking at the 150GB Raptors, for their speed at booting up and their speed handling other tasks. I currently have a three year old Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA drive with 8mb cache.

Does anyone have experience with both of these drives? I'd like to know how much louder the raptor would be compared to my current drive.

After the raptor, what is the next best (speed and performance wise) comparable drive that is quieter? And how would it compare to my current drive?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: Salamander
I've been looking at the 150GB Raptors, for their speed at booting up and their speed handling other tasks. I currently have a three year old Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA drive with 8mb cache.

Does anyone have experience with both of these drives? I'd like to know how much louder the raptor would be compared to my current drive.

After the raptor, what is the next best (speed and performance wise) comparable drive that is quieter? And how would it compare to my current drive?

A lot louder. The 7200.7 is virtually silent.

I have had a 7200.8, 7200.9, and 7200.10. The 7200.9 is the loudest of them all.

The 7200.9 has audible seeks and the Raptor is just about as loud, but basically the 7200.9 can't even come close to my Raptor in boot time. As for my 7200.10s, I had them in RAID-0 and even then the Raptor was winning.

The Raptor makes a nice boot drive, but other than that... ehhh?

Then again I only have the 74 GB Raptor (the 16mb cache one) which is slightly faster than the 150, but basically hte same, and so it's too small to put anything other than 2 OSes on. My games are still on my 7200.10s and 7200.9.

 

[Rubycon]

If you mount the drives in an isolated enclosure (a box inside a box with rubber-foam shock absorbers) the seek noise issue is virtually non existent.

True a quiet drive like the seagate will become a silent drive and the raptor tolerable but it all boils down to what you want to hear and what you don't. (and how much money and patience you have! hehe)

 

[imported_Salamander]

If I put the Raptor in the Antec P180 case - w/o a separate enclosure, how noticable with the noise level be?

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Salamander
If I put the Raptor in the Antec P180 case - w/o a separate enclosure, how noticable with the noise level be?

There is no way to predict exactly how it will sound.

A single drive will be quiet. Adding more of the same drives often sets up a slightly off zero beat sound that if amplified by the case will be annoying!

I've never used a P180 so I cannot comment. The mounting in the CM Stacker 830 works well. My FX60 box has four 150G raptors and is very tame. I mounted the same model drive in the horizontal cage of a LL PC70 and the seeking AND spindle motor off beat sound was quite pronounced. Not X15-36LP loud, but annoying. :Q