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Two 74gb Raptors vs one 150gb Raptor

T

Trevelyan

Diamond Member
I got a really good deal on the 8mb cache 74gb Raptor drive. I picked up two of them for $200.

How should I set them up? Put them in RAID0, or keep them as separate drives? OR, I could sell these and get a single 150gb Raptor, with 16mb cache. What would give me the best performance?

I mainly play games and work with Photoshop. I also have a 400gb Seagate 7200.10 I will be using for file storage.
 
Hum, I thought all Raptors have 16 MB cache? Raid with Raptors does not make much difference. Anandtech did an article on this, search for it. I have the 150 GB right now, great drive, but loud so I could just imagine two of them running together!!
 
Well the older Raptor 74gb only have 8mb of cache.

I guess I'm just wondering if RAID would be fastor, or if a single 150gb Raptor would?
 
Originally posted by: Trevelyan
Well the older Raptor 74gb only have 8mb of cache.

I guess I'm just wondering if RAID would be fastor, or if a single 150gb Raptor would?
Click to expand...

One is slightly faster than the rest, but I'm not sure which. That is, if 1-2% difference really counts. :disgust:
 
Well, how much you think you can get for those 2 Raptors? The 150 GB costs about $200 after $30 rebate.

 
Put them in RAID0

Since you already have them, that would give you the best performance. You could also use one for OS and one for backup. Seems like a waste of a good drive though.
 
Originally posted by: Steven the Leech
Put them in RAID0

Since you already have them, that would give you the best performance. You could also use one for OS and one for backup. Seems like a waste of a good drive though.
Click to expand...

What about using one drive for the O/S and programs, and the other for games? I could also use the 2nd drive as the scratch disk for Photoshop... I'm thinking that will help its performance as well, right?
 
Originally posted by: Trevelyan
Originally posted by: Steven the Leech
Put them in RAID0

Since you already have them, that would give you the best performance. You could also use one for OS and one for backup. Seems like a waste of a good drive though.
Click to expand...

What about using one drive for the O/S and programs, and the other for games? I could also use the 2nd drive as the scratch disk for Photoshop... I'm thinking that will help its performance as well, right?
Click to expand...

Use one for the os isntall and one for games, that should give a major boost than just using one drive for both os and games on it. Having separate drives for each for a particular task would prolly be better than using raid 0 and having both tasks run of the raid.
 
the best option is DEFINATELY one as boot disk, the other for games. best all round performance gain.
 
Originally posted by: Trevelyan
Well the older Raptor 74gb only have 8mb of cache.

I guess I'm just wondering if RAID would be fastor, or if a single 150gb Raptor would?
Click to expand...


No some of the 74gb drives had 16MB cache there a different model though, they are the WD740ADFD whereas the ones you see most are the 8mb but are the WD740GD I havd an ADFD and it's pretty quick and definetly has 16MB cache
 
Originally posted by: Trevelyan
Okay... I guess RAID0 is not as fast as I thought.

On another note, think I should install Vista instead of XP?
Click to expand...

sure, if you are building this system in 6 months. 😉 Chuck XP on there, and re-evaluate in 12 months.
 
Originally posted by: L00ker
Originally posted by: Trevelyan
Well the older Raptor 74gb only have 8mb of cache.

I guess I'm just wondering if RAID would be fastor, or if a single 150gb Raptor would?
Click to expand...


No some of the 74gb drives had 16MB cache there a different model though, they are the WD740ADFD whereas the ones you see most are the 8mb but are the WD740GD I havd an ADFD and it's pretty quick and definetly has 16MB cache
Click to expand...

74GB ADFD beats the 150gb actually.. barely, but it does beat it.... the GDs definitely die cuzt hey're the old 8mb cache ones
 
Originally posted by: Muzzy
I have the 150 GB right now, great drive, but loud so I could just imagine two of them running together!!
Click to expand...
I've just added 4 Raptor X's to my system, and I didn't notice any noise increase at all, and no my system isn't loud, I've actually gone out of my way to make sure it's as quiet as possible and ... it's pretty damn quiet.

Back to the OP's original question though, the two 74 GB raptors will give you better performance than a single 150 GB raptor, simply because there are two of them. In a RAID-0 setup the 74's would have a higher sequential read/write speed. And if you were to use one for Windows, one for games, you wouldn't have to worry about the OS doing random crap in the background to the drive you're trying to load your game from.
 
Since you already have the two Raptors, I would keep them and run one for your OS and apps, and the other for games. That leaves your 400GB HD for media and backups. That's going to be your fastest setup.

I don't think it's worth the cost to get one 150GB Raptor when you already have two. I have the same Raptor as you and it's pretty damn fast and not that nosiy. Also, don't be so quick to run out and get Vista just yet...
 
Thank you very much for the replies! I will keep the two Raptors and put the O/S and programs on the first one, and games on the second one.
 
Originally posted by: Steven the Leech
Put them in RAID0

Since you already have them, that would give you the best performance. You could also use one for OS and one for backup. Seems like a waste of a good drive though.
Click to expand...

From anandtech's OWN review:

"Final Words
If you haven't gotten the hint by now, we'll spell it out for you: there is no place, and no need for a RAID-0 array on a desktop computer. The real world performance increases are negligible at best and the reduction in reliability, thanks to a halving of the mean time between failure, makes RAID-0 far from worth it on the desktop."

RAID is for servers, not the desktop.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2101

 
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