Raptor WD360GD VS WD740GD (36GB vs 74GB)

[t0ny]

Hi there, I am just about to buy a new drive to run my OS from.

I was thinking a Raptor would serve me pretty well and I could leave my DiamondMax Plus 9 for the data side of things.

Every review I have read (inc Anandtech) except for 2 say that the WD740GD is faster than the WD360GD

The 2 reviews that say otherwise say the WD360GD has now been updated, so it is as fast as the WD740GD and has the same fluid vibration part too like the WD740GD. Does this mean there is a 2nd Gerneration 36GB or do they have it all wrong??

Could someone please please clarify this for me. I do not need 74GB at all as I am only running the OS from this drive; so 36GB is ample. Just need to know if it is as fast as the 74GB!?

On the other hand could someone explain to me if this is a worthwhile upgrade?
I have an ASUS P4C800 Deluxe; so I am pretty sure I can't get a SATAII drive, although I have read this will give me nothing extra??

Thanks for any help

 

[MobiusPizza]

Please give me a link on the two reviewers
Cause it has been said the W740GD is much better than the WD360GD to the extent that 360GD is not worth it.
I don't understand why you wonldn't install applications and programs on these drives as the lower latency makes program load faster. Using it solely for OS is a waste.

And you are right. SATA-II give you no performance improvements

 

[t0ny]

You are correct, I did mean to say that I will run my apps from there too and just leave the data on the other drive. I will look for the 2 reviews, but another thing I have noticed is on the WD site they report both drives to have a 4.5ms read seek time. It is so confusing!!

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: t0ny
You are correct, I did mean to say that I will run my apps from there too and just leave the data on the other drive. I will look for the 2 reviews, but another thing I have noticed is on the WD site they report both drives to have a 4.5ms read seek time. It is so confusing!!

Official specification is nothing and you shouldn't base your judgement on them.

The problem is I never know there's a new reversion out. And to be safe I don't know how you garantee to buy the newer reversion drive from retailers. For this matter the 740 would be a better choice.

What are the price difference for those?

You can even hold extra backups from your data drive, or install games on the Raptor. Extra space is always a good thing. But well I'll see if I find info whether they have revised the design of 360GD

 

[t0ny]

I think at least one of these reviews i am talking about just said that the 36 and the 74 were the same except for sizes, but he only tested a 36gb; so i think maybe i can disregard that. The other was on the Australian Overclockers site I think where they said one would likely be coming out.

Looks to me like you are correct and the 74gb is the better option. The question now then is, is it worth it.

Here in the UK the 36GB is £70ish and the 74GB is £120ish. Obviously for that money I can get like 300-400GB, but I want to have a fast system drive.

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: t0ny
I think at least one of these reviews i am talking about just said that the 36 and the 74 were the same except for sizes, but he only tested a 36gb; so i think maybe i can disregard that. The other was on the Australian Overclockers site I think where they said one would likely be coming out.

Looks to me like you are correct and the 74gb is the better option. The question now then is, is it worth it.

Here in the UK the 36GB is £70ish and the 74GB is £120ish. Obviously for that money I can get like 300-400GB, but I want to have a fast system drive.

Oh you are from UK as well?
I am in UK right now going to HK in December. I can probably grab you one for 100 quid from HK

I am running off Raptor right now. It definitely is fast but I cannot judge how fast it is over a normal drive; as I built this computer in Summer recently and changed everyting from CPU to RAM of my old system.

To be honest the newest SATA drives are quite fast already in transfer rates. Comparable and even better than Raptor due to their aerial platter density. However for access latency Raptor still owns. It all comes to your usage patterns. File searching, File server, Windows loading, application loading would be faster on Raptor.

 

[t0ny]

To be honest the newest SATA drives are quite fast already in transfer rates. Comparable and even better than Raptor due to their aerial platter density. However for access latency Raptor still owns. It all comes to your usage patterns. File searching, File server, Windows loading, application loading would be faster on Raptor.

Ahh ok, so would you reckon it is worth it for the money. All I use at home mainly is Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Counter Strike Source! I just decided i need to rebuild and the new drive seemed to be a good idea for a performance boost in how windows responds.

If it is not worth it, I could get the best 7200 available, but not be too worried about the size of it?!? ..

 

[t0ny]

Are 16mb Cache drives out yet?

 

[GamerExpress]

Originally posted by: t0ny
Are 16mb Cache drives out yet?

yes

 

[t0ny]

Ahh stuff it, i think i am going to opt for a 74Gb Raptor. Going to order one up today.

Thanks AnnihilatorX for your help. Going to hunt the cheapest price now!!

Bet i don't get under £120!!

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: t0ny
Ahh stuff it, i think i am going to opt for a 74Gb Raptor. Going to order one up today.

Thanks AnnihilatorX for your help. Going to hunt the cheapest price now!!

Bet i don't get under £120!!

The performance of Raptor is quite good on Photoshop if you don't have 2GB RAM
Good luck

Anyway I forgot to mention the good thing is you have 5 years warranty on these drives

 

[t0ny]

I have 2gb of Ram at work for use with Photoshop, but not at home...
£120.77 is the cheapest i have found from Ebuyer...

 

[t0ny]

One thing though as i am thinking of money and a whinging wife, would the 36gb Raptor give a better performance than the 7200 drives, or is it only the 74gb that has the great preformance??

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: t0ny
One thing though as i am thinking of money and a whinging wife, would the 36gb Raptor give a better performance than the 7200 drives, or is it only the 74gb that has the great preformance??

The 36GB one isn't just slower. It's bugged with problems such as heat, noise and reliability that I heavily advice against getting it.

Well though I am not sure whether you will feel significant performance gain by upgrading your HDD.
Please tell me your computer spec because your money may better spent on CPU instead. And if I know your current drive I might know how much performance gain there will be

 

[GamerExpress]

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX

Originally posted by: t0ny
One thing though as i am thinking of money and a whinging wife, would the 36gb Raptor give a better performance than the 7200 drives, or is it only the 74gb that has the great preformance??

The 36GB one isn't just slower. It's bugged with problems such as heat, noise and reliability that I heavily advice against getting it.

Well though I am not sure whether you will feel significant performance gain by upgrading your HDD.
Please tell me your computer spec because your money may better spent on CPU instead. And if I know your current drive I might know how much performance gain there will be

I have one of the 36GB drives that I got when they first came out, it has run well now for about 2 years I guess it is. I agree that the 36GB drive isn't really worth it now, the 74 has a pretty good advantage as far as speed.

To you AnnihilatorX, I don't know where you see that the drives are riddled with problems though. My drive has run very well no problems at all, it doesn't have a problem with heat in any way, actually it stays relatively cool. I do think the drive is noisy though, but inside my Antec P180 it's not really audible at all.

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: GamerExpress

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX

Originally posted by: t0ny
One thing though as i am thinking of money and a whinging wife, would the 36gb Raptor give a better performance than the 7200 drives, or is it only the 74gb that has the great preformance??

The 36GB one isn't just slower. It's bugged with problems such as heat, noise and reliability that I heavily advice against getting it.

Well though I am not sure whether you will feel significant performance gain by upgrading your HDD.
Please tell me your computer spec because your money may better spent on CPU instead. And if I know your current drive I might know how much performance gain there will be

I have one of the 36GB drives that I got when they first came out, it has run well now for about 2 years I guess it is. I agree that the 36GB drive isn't really worth it now, the 74 has a pretty good advantage as far as speed.

To you AnnihilatorX, I don't know where you see that the drives are riddled with problems though. My drive has run very well no problems at all, it doesn't have a problem with heat in any way, actually it stays relatively cool. I do think the drive is noisy though, but inside my Antec P180 it's not really audible at all.

Well personally I don't own one but I heard many others saying to avoid it at all cost cause it's problematic. Well

 

[T9D]

I have two of the 36 gig drives. I love them. Fast and have no problems. One is a little older and one is newer. They have probably done improvements since they first came out I'd imagine. All I know is the ones I have are very good drives and much better than my 7200 rpm drives I had 🙂

 

[teezee3000]

I have a question regarding the raptor 74gb drives, I already own (2) sata 200gb 7500rpm drives in my system, I wanted to install 2 74gb in raid 0 in this system while keeping my 2 200gb drives for data, I have a asus P4C800-deluxe motherboard, and it has connections for 4 sata drives, has anyone tried this before? any pros and cons to this setup? any other things I will need?

 

[GamerExpress]

Originally posted by: teezee3000
I have a question regarding the raptor 74gb drives, I already own (2) sata 200gb 7500rpm drives in my system, I wanted to install 2 74gb in raid 0 in this system while keeping my 2 200gb drives for data, I have a asus P4C800-deluxe motherboard, and it has connections for 4 sata drives, has anyone tried this before? any pros and cons to this setup? any other things I will need?

Yep I have a suggestion, don't use a Raid 0, it's a total waste of time.

 

[teezee3000]

Yeah after reading up on the subject some more, I found that out. Maybe I should take out one of my 200gb drive and replace it with a raptor 74gb, will I see any performance increase with that? I will use the raptor for apps and os.