Smaller drive for OS

[Dorkenstein]

I have a 36 gb raptor that I was going to use for my OS but is 36 gb enough for a Vista drive?

If there are better, as in quieter and less hot options please let me know. Thanks.

 

[Rike]

36 GB drive (33.5 GB to Vista) is plenty for a Vista only OS disk. I have my Vista HP (OS only) on a 40 GB partition and I'm at 19 GB used.

As for quieter and cooler, that would be almost any 7200 drive made in the last two years. And many of the newest high density single platter drives will beat an older 36GB Raptor in many speed tests and you'll never know it's there. And you'll have 100's of GB left over.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Can you cite any examples that will trump my raptor? Also, what is a good drive cooler? Thanks for replying.

 

[Rike]

320 WD single plater vs. 150 Raptor vs. 500 Samsung SpinPoint
The new 320GB WD is on a single plater and runs much cooler and quieter. This article does not prove my point about the it being a faster drive because it's matched up with the 150 GB Raptor. Notice that the gap between the two drives is not huge. Also note that the 150 Raptor is about 5-15% faster than a 74GB Raptor which itself is anywhere from 0-15% faster than a 36GB Raptor. (Reference 1, Reference 2) I'm not sure what gen your 36 GB raptor falls in; if it's 2nd or 3rd, it will be a little faster than the first gen drives the the articles I linked to are covering.

I guess my real point is this: if you're going to spend some money on a drive, the $75 you'll spend to get almost 9 times the space will be nearly as fast and sometimes faster than the only whiny, hot 36 Raptor. That said, you already have the raptor; go ahead and use it!

 

[Dorkenstein]

Cool, that looks like a good option. How does it compare to a Samsung F1 750gb? Does the 32mb cache make a big difference? Thanks for replying.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Anyone know if 32mb of cache makes a big difference? Thanks.

 

[Rike]

Yeah, I honestly have no idea about the Samsung drive or the 32MB. Fast drives are nice, but I tend to look for better bang-for-my-buck performance in my GPU, CPU, and memory, generally in that order.

 

[Rike]

Hey, here's another article for you.

WD SE16 320BG vs. WD SE 640GB vs. Samsung F1 750GB

I think that might help answer some of your questions.