Thinking of upgrading raptor 74GB to 150GB

[perdomot]

My old 74GB raptor is coming up on its 5 year warranty and I think its performance has reduced a bit although it could just be my imagination. I was considering getting the 150GB raptor(the 300GB VRaptor is too expensive) but was wondering if its worth it or should I be getting one of the newer larger hdds? I know the WD 640GB has a higher read/write rate but that low access time of raptors really makes things feel faster. Any advice?

 

[Magusigne]

Hmm maybe 2x640gb WD's in Raid 0?

 

[perdomot]

I bought a 640 and tried it out as a C drive and while transfer rates were high, it somehow felt slower than my Raptor. Using it for storage right now and it works great in that capacity.

 

[The Odorous One]

How did it feel slower?

 

[perdomot]

When I was opening folders or starting programs, it seemed to talk longer.

 

[TC91]

i dont think the 74gb -> 150gb is that much of an improvement, but 74gb -> velociraptor 300gb would definately be faster (but also expensive). anyways, try defragmenting your current 74gb raptor if you havent done so. file fragmentation can cause notable slowdown in loading times.

 

[perdomot]

I defrag once a week so I think it might just be its age catching up with it.

 

[The-Noid]

Get a Samsung/OCZ SSD. I have been very happy with mine, although a bit cost prohibitive.

I would recommend a velociraptor. They are pretty nice drives.

 

[Old Hippie]

I'm voting imagination.

You, I, and probably everybody else that uses these drives, get used to the speed and it's no longer noticeable like when they were new.

I have an older 74, a newer 74, and a VR. The VR gets my attention because of the speed, but I'm sure it will "wear-in on me" and I'll get used to it.

I've also partitioned the VR and am using just 70gb for my OS and programs. The remaining part is unallocated.

I gotta tell ya, on a good day, the speed on that thing is just plain scary!

If I play with another system without a Raptor, then I really notice the speed.

If I were you, I'd wait for my wallet to catch-up with the solid state drives.

I don't feel a 150 is gonna bring you any real joy!

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: perdomot
When I was opening folders or starting programs, it seemed to talk longer.

Talk longer? Shoot, I'd be happy if I could get my drives to talk at all.

 

[taltamir]

eh, i moved from a raptor 74GB to a WD 640GB... i figured the higher sequential speed would benefit me... it feels slower and sometimes windows chugs down. (vista64 with 4GB of ram and E8400 OC @3.6ghz). I am gonna use clonezilla and go back to the raptor.
But this is just reminiscent of the days I had one drive for both windows and other stuff...
for years i used a dedicated OS drive and a seperate drive for certain programs and games and data (now i have a ZFS fileserver for the data).
So I will keep both drives, the raptor for OS and pagefile, the 640GB drive for games and P2P programs and download destination, and the server for large scale storage...

But 74 to 150 raptor? mmm... that is a fairly small improvement.
I would get 8GB of ram and a faster CPU and GPU first, and then finally make that upgrade you mentioned.

oh but ANY two slower drives are faster then one faster drive... And I am not talking about raid0... a dedicated pagefile + os drive of any kind and a second drive/drives for everything

 

[perdomot]

Originally posted by: taltamir
eh, i moved from a raptor 74GB to a WD 640GB... i figured the higher sequential speed would benefit me... it feels slower and sometimes windows chugs down. (vista64 with 4GB of ram and E8400 OC @3.6ghz). I am gonna use clonezilla and go back to the raptor.
But this is just reminiscent of the days I had one drive for both windows and other stuff...
for years i used a dedicated OS drive and a seperate drive for certain programs and games and data (now i have a ZFS fileserver for the data).
So I will keep both drives, the raptor for OS and pagefile, the 640GB drive for games and P2P programs and download destination, and the server for large scale storage...

But 74 to 150 raptor? mmm... that is a fairly small improvement.
I would get 8GB of ram and a faster CPU and GPU first, and then finally make that upgrade you mentioned.

oh but ANY two slower drives are faster then one faster drive... And I am not talking about raid0... a dedicated pagefile + os drive of any kind and a second drive/drives for everything

I guess my experience with the 640GB wasn't unique then. I just ordered another drive since its so inexpensive and plan on testing my performance but I am now expecting it to feel the same as the first one. Guess we'll see.