VelociRaptor...worth it anymore?

[conlan]

Been outta the loop awhile, it seems from what i'm reading that the newest generation of HDDs such as WD Black and Samsung F3 are close to VelociRaptor speeds.

Anyone w/ actual experience on this?

TIA for any and all help

 

[FishAk]

It depends on your needs. If you are willing to pay $0.33/GB for mass storage instead of $0.06/GB, then you will get almost half the access time of a regular drive. Sequential speed is about the same- especially across the first 600GB of a regular 7200 drive. There's also the noise and heat, but if you need that little extra speed, and don't want to pay the premium for SSDs with much much less access time...

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

IMO the VRaptors are too noisy. I can't handle a faint whinning constantly.

 

[RobertPters77]

Not really. SSD's killed them.

 

[LagunaX]

Around the $250 mark:
1) 600gb velociraptor
2) 60-90gb SSD + 2TB fast 7200rpm drive.
3) 2 x Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid 500gb Drives in raid 0 - effectively SSD performance with 1TB of storage.

I have a 600gb velociraptor and am very happy with it.
I am going to migrate to an OCZ Vertex 3 240gb drive though for the SATA6 500mb/s read/write potential.
I am curious though of the RAID 0 Hybrid solution which would render SATA3 260mb/s read/writes with 1 TB storage (albeit raid 0) space.

 

[Emulex]

only one of the above has TLER the rest are garbage in raid.

 

[Zap]

It depends on your needs. If you are willing to pay $0.33/GB for mass storage instead of $0.06/GB, then you will get almost half the access time of a regular drive. Sequential speed is about the same- especially across the first 600GB of a regular 7200 drive.

That's pretty much it.

SSD = $1-2/GB depending on model/sale

VelociRaptor = $0.30-0.40/GB depending on model/sale

7200RPM HDD $0.06-0.12/GB depending on model/sale (yes, price out the RAID edition drives)

SSDs are faster but cost more than VelociRaptors. VelociRaptors are faster but cost more than 7200RPM HDDs. It is your job as a consumer to analyze your budget and needs/desires, and purchase the right product at the right price/performance point that is best suited for you.

IMO the VRaptors are too noisy. I can't handle a faint whinning constantly.

Strange. I've owned several of the 300GB VelociRaptors, and felt them to be no noisier than most 7200RPM HDDs, and indeed to be quieter than desktop WD Blacks. I also owned a previous gen Raptor (ahem, three of them), and those things were freakin' noisy.

 

[smakme7757]

For my use i would take either a 7200rpm drive or an SSD. I've taken an SSD for my system disk every time.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I suppose it depends on your needs. I run a ssd for a system drive and I also have 600gb velociraptor for programs as well as other seagate, hitachi and wd black drives for storage. Although the raptor is slower than the ssd it's much faster than my other mechanical hd's. As for noise my vraptor isn't any noisier than the other hd's.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I'm not even sure it comes down to cost per GB anymore when you can get an excellent ~60GB OS SSD for ~$100 and a Samsung 1TB F3 for $50

Faster for most apps (the ones you can fit on the SSD) and far more storage capacity all for roughly the same cost as a 300GB raptor, plus you don't have that pesky single read/write source limitation

there are very few niche situations where velociraptors make sense anymore, and chances are if you don't already know that you're someone who could benefit from them then you're likely better off sticking with 7200RPM or even 5xxxRPM HDD drives.

 

[Emulex]

remember velociraptor's (all the ones i have) are enterprise edition (TLER)

 

[exdeath]

If you're not going SSD, go Raptor/Cheetah all the way unless you like 16 day random access times.

 

[Zap]

remember velociraptor's (all the ones i have) are enterprise edition (TLER)

Right. When price comparing, people forget that they have to get the RAID edition 7200RPM drives for best RAID results. Thus, the VelociRaptor is worth it, if you find the right niche for it.

 

[taltamir]

only one of the above has TLER the rest are garbage in raid.

TLER isn't a real feature. It is disabling of a real feature ("Deep Sector Recovery") because shit raid controllers get confused, panic, and kick a perfectly fine drive from the array if it is recovering sectors; so TLER just doesn't try to recover them (for more then a few seconds).
Good controllers / software raid is not bothered at all by TLER / Lack of TLER.

 

[greenhawk]

I suppose it depends on your needs. I run a ssd for a system drive and I also have 600gb velociraptor for programs as well as other seagate, hitachi and wd black drives for storage.

+1, nearly the same as myself

SSD for OS / Common programs
600Gb V'Raptor for programs/games/ect
2Tb Black for bulk storage/processing

multiple 2TB Green drives via Sata/USB dock for longer term storage.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

They can make sense. For me, I think this is the best compromise in terms of price/performance if you're willing to handle your stuff being in different drives:

60-80GB SSD : $100-160, good for the OS and most important applications.
300GB VelociRaptor: $120-150, good for all your games and the rest of your applications.
2TB 5400 RPM Hard Drive: $80, good for all the media you can store in it, which is to say a lot.