WD Raptor Retail 36GB 10,000K 8MB Cache for 129.99 after MIR at LV Fry's

[gucio69]

The ad for Las Vegas Fry's has the Western Digital Retail 36 GB Raptor drive for $179.99 - $50 MIR = $129.99. This is the Retail version so it includes the free PCI SATA controller unlike the Newegg OEM drive which goes for $137.

 

[xDeLiRiOuSx]

not bad, does anyone know how loud these drives are compare to the Seagate barracudas?

Thanks
David

 

[camlopey]

That's a loaded question. I've been reading up in forums on this drive for a week now, and noise seems to be a topic where no one agrees.
I'm starting to believe that different batches of the same drive can have different noise levels. I had read alot of people saying the the WD special edition drives (8meg cache) were really loud, but I had one that was quiet as a mouse, until about 2 weeks ago when it just became noisy. Go figure,

 

[chungchang]

My Raptor in my CoolerMaster case sounded louder than my WD 120GB 8MB. But is it quieter than my Maxtor 80GB 8MB. BUT.......when I moved that same Raptor into my Kingwin aluminum case, it is quiet as a mouse. The difference I see is that CoolerMaster uses nice thick aluminum versus Kingwin's paper-thin aluminum. In the CoolerMaster, the Raptor fits tightly in the drivebay and the drive noise seems to transmit through the entire chasis. In the Kingwin with super thin aluminum, the drivebay seems to "give" a little when the Raptor is screwed in thus giving it noise dampening effect. At least that's my theory.

 

[rasputinj]

good deal would be worth a Vegas trip to Gamble and buy a hard drive

 

[yodayoda]

Originally posted by: rasputinj
good deal would be worth a Vegas trip to Gamble and buy a hard drive

if i go to vegas, my dough is going to the blackjack table and not fry's.

 

[Fallengod]

Raptor drives are such a ripp off though. Even if that is a decent price for one. Who wants to spend $129 on a 36gb drive you fill up in a week. There are lots of IDE hd deals going on recently. Today I just saw a 200gb for $81 after a rebate and PM. Ill take a 200gb over 36 any day thx. The speed difference is minimal.

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: modempower
Raptor drives are such a ripp off though. Even if that is a decent price for one. Who wants to spend $129 on a 36gb drive you fill up in a week. There are lots of IDE hd deals going on recently. Today I just saw a 200gb for $81 after a rebate and PM. Ill take a 200gb over 36 any day thx. The speed difference is minimal.

It's definitely not minimal. Compare it to any ide drive on storagereview and it mops the floor. It holds its own against some top scsi models as well! 36 gigs is more than enough for the OS and applications. I use ide drives for music and movie storage since they're slower, bigger, and cheaper.

FWIW, my raptor has gotten whiney. The seeks are still quiet, but there's definitely a whine now. It was almost nonexistant before. I also have a coolermaster case, btw.

 

[PLaYaHaTeD]

Originally posted by: chungchang
My Raptor in my CoolerMaster case sounded louder than my WD 120GB 8MB. But is it quieter than my Maxtor 80GB 8MB. BUT.......when I moved that same Raptor into my Kingwin aluminum case, it is quiet as a mouse. The difference I see is that CoolerMaster uses nice thick aluminum versus Kingwin's paper-thin aluminum. In the CoolerMaster, the Raptor fits tightly in the drivebay and the drive noise seems to transmit through the entire chasis. In the Kingwin with super thin aluminum, the drivebay seems to "give" a little when the Raptor is screwed in thus giving it noise dampening effect. At least that's my theory.

Damn, kingwin, coolermaster...raptor, etc. Nice parts!

 

[chungchang]

Originally posted by: PLaYaHaTeD

Originally posted by: chungchang
My Raptor in my CoolerMaster case sounded louder than my WD 120GB 8MB. But is it quieter than my Maxtor 80GB 8MB. BUT.......when I moved that same Raptor into my Kingwin aluminum case, it is quiet as a mouse. The difference I see is that CoolerMaster uses nice thick aluminum versus Kingwin's paper-thin aluminum. In the CoolerMaster, the Raptor fits tightly in the drivebay and the drive noise seems to transmit through the entire chasis. In the Kingwin with super thin aluminum, the drivebay seems to "give" a little when the Raptor is screwed in thus giving it noise dampening effect. At least that's my theory.

Damn, kingwin, coolermaster...raptor, etc. Nice parts!

lol. I got both cases refurbed from NewEgg for about 50% off their original price (including shipping). Kingwin was in brand new condition with no evidence of ever been used. CoolerMaster looked like it was barely used with only a few thumbsrews missing which I easily replaced from the extras in the Kingwin. NewEgg rocks!

Now, 36GB is plenty for my os drive as well. I've never gone past 25GB on my os drive in the last 5 yrs with plenty of crap installed. But, I've heard that PATA drives such as the Maxtor 200GB/8MB can rival the Raptor in some benchmarks. None the less, with avg 5.2ms access time of the Raptor, it is very ideal for an OS drive.

 

[Fallengod]

"It's definitely not minimal. Compare it to any ide drive on storagereview and it mops the floor. It holds its own against some top scsi models as well! 36 gigs is more than enough for the OS and applications. I use ide drives for music and movie storage since they're slower, bigger, and cheaper."

"FWIW, my raptor has gotten whiney. The seeks are still quiet, but there's definitely a whine now. It was almost nonexistant before. I also have a coolermaster case, btw."


It isnt that much faster man, Ive used one before. Its not worth 4X the price of a IDE drive, ill tell you that much. And, I do alot of maya, dvd encoding, and such. Not to mention *cough* downloading. I can fill that up in a day. For dvd authoring, you need 20gb min for 1 dvd. I guess it comes down to opinion and what you do on it. I guess your happy so thats all that matters. I just bought a 200gb 8mb cache for $80.

 

[MK005]

I have one of these drives and very pleased with it. I was mostly concerned with the heat and reliability, but so far it's performed better than expected. Also, very quiet. I ordered mine @ newegg. My motherboard has an onboard SATA interface, so no need for the controller card. Also, I have heard that there is on a 3-year warranty on the OEM, but when I registered it, it shows 5 years.

I don't do much downloading and have a need for a large amount of space. Games load quick and my main reason for purchasing the drive was for speed while using Visual Studio.Net, testing and running applications. I've only had the drive for a couple of weeks, but so far so good.

 

[stevenspeaker]

got 2 for $117 each from dell 2 weeks ago.

 

[stevenspeaker]

with no rebate, tax and shipping by the way

 

[GetInMyFatBelly]

Retail Raptor with SATA card $233.95 at dell.com, not the same deal.