WD Raptor WD360GD SerialATA - $155 shipped

[dew042]

Originally posted by: classy
IN an age of broadband a 36 gig hard drive is kinda small when it costs over $150. Very few folks need that kind of speed, but most folks need much more disk space. Its cost right now out weighs its benefits.

hdd are the major bottleneck in desktop perfomance.... i have been waiting a long time for a small, fast drive to boot off of, and then run a larger drive for my swap file and storage - that benefits perfomance and user needs....

that's my rationale.

dew.

 

[blacklit]

Originally posted by: classy
IN an age of broadband a 36 gig hard drive is kinda small when it costs over $150. Very few folks need that kind of speed, but most folks need much more disk space. Its cost right now out weighs its benefits.

outweighs, yes... relative to other deals (ata, etc). but price is not too bad for a new item. in the world of electronic enthusiasts "folks' needs" are subjective. me... i occasionally game, occasionally surf, occasionally multimedia, and oftenly idle... nonetheless, i'm pretty sure... i NEED that kind of speed* when it's friendlier to my wallet.

 

[Wolfsraider]

Originally posted by: blacklit

Originally posted by: classy
IN an age of broadband a 36 gig hard drive is kinda small when it costs over $150. Very few folks need that kind of speed, but most folks need much more disk space. Its cost right now out weighs its benefits.

outweighs, yes... relative to other deals (ata, etc). but price is not too bad for a new item. in the world of electronic enthusiasts "folks' needs" are subjective. me... i occasionally game, occasionally surf, occasionally multimedia, and oftenly idle... nonetheless, i'm pretty sure... i NEED that kind of speed* when it's friendlier to my wallet.

i still prefer scsi rattling heat and added expense over ata.but the raptor drives are a step in the right direction lol

mike

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: Samus

Originally posted by: DaiShan

Originally posted by: AMDSoldier

Originally posted by: IgoByte Might as well get a SCSI drive for that money.

I'd have to disagree. You'd need a SCSI card first off of course, adding cost. Then the noise issue of SCSI HDD's, which I can't stand for. Top that off with extreme heat from SCSI drives. For one I'm really exicited about this product. Over time of course other manufactures are going to want and compete with this and so this will become the new standard.

You know these are 10k rpm drives right? So all of your issues with SCSI will still apply...

all the issues except that scsi raid controllers are hundreds of dollars and serial ata can be found on motherboards priced under 100, or the controllers are $35. scsi belongs in high level servers where raid 5 and low controller cpu utilization are required. other than that scsi would normally hinder real-world desktop performance because a) boottimes are longer because of aspi manager load time and b) your cpu is idle most of the time anyway so scsi's low cpu utilization wouldn't give you any real performance over sata anyway. besides, if you've all been paying attention, the raptor is actually FASTER, quieter, and cooler running than most 10k rpm scsi drives, and its right in the pricerange of u160 36gb drives too.

I agree. A quick look at Storage Review's review supports your conclusion. If I recall correctly this drive has the high bootup drivemark score of any drive available. The one issue I have with it is that it doesn't consistently outperform the 2000JB in all test parameters. However, I believe that tests can only tell you so much, I'd imagine that this drive feels very fast in actual use. There was a time when we were clamouring for higher speed drives, particularly a 10000rpm ATA drive and I for one was willing to pay quite a bit of a premium for it. The release of the WD SE models really took ATA drive performance to new heights at dirt cheap prices, and we are spoilt from it (which is a good thing). But the asking price for the next step in performance is quite reasonable IMO, and a setup with this as the bootup/OS drive and a 200GB regular or SE drive for data would work well for a lot of people again IMO. In fact the way I justify new drive purchases to myself is to take advantage of the higher areal density of bigger drives and (usually) higher performance due to that increase. Only once have I bought a bigger drive solely because I needed the space.

I'm glad someone posted a deal on this, hopfully this puts the drive on the radar and someone will spot an even hotter deal.

 

[Bookmage]

All I need now is a nice Tru Serial ATA 4 port or 8 port RAID controller for under 100$ and I'd be set...
That would go nicely as boot drives in my file server....

and some pata to sata converters would be nice too...

That being said....
Im gonna wait for hte 500GB SATA drives.......

 

[GnomeCop]

wow prepare to wait

and damn those 4-port hardware serial raid controllers are like 350 bucks, and if you dont have a 64bit pci slot to put it in you arent getting the most out of it.
8 port is even pricier... damn. I'll stick with my onboard one for now I guess

 

[beer]

Originally posted by: classy
IN an age of broadband a 36 gig hard drive is kinda small when it costs over $150. Very few folks need that kind of speed, but most folks need much more disk space. Its cost right now out weighs its benefits.

No.

You put all your MP3s and data on a 160 GB IDE HD for like a hundred bucks.

You install all your applications, your OS(es), and your swap file on the 36 GB ATA drive. 36 GB is plenty of space for applications, which are the things that need the speed. You can put all your pr0n, MP3s, and DIVX rips on an IDE drive with no performance loss.

 

[beer]

Originally posted by: dew042

Originally posted by: classy
IN an age of broadband a 36 gig hard drive is kinda small when it costs over $150. Very few folks need that kind of speed, but most folks need much more disk space. Its cost right now out weighs its benefits.

hdd are the major bottleneck in desktop perfomance.... i have been waiting a long time for a small, fast drive to boot off of, and then run a larger drive for my swap file and storage - that benefits perfomance and user needs....

that's my rationale.

dew.

It would make sense to put your swap file on your fast hard drive, given how often it is accessed. Why would you do otherwise?

 

[GnomeCop]

so does anyone own this drive? all you need is the serial ata cable right? No need for any special power adapter?

 

[huesmann]

And a controller.

 

[gotincon]

Originally posted by: GnomeCop
so does anyone own this drive? all you need is the serial ata cable right? No need for any special power adapter?

Yes, they do have a special power connector, or at least that was my understanding. I just bought 4 of these drives and they will be here today, so I can let you know if it is included or not. (Or if it is a normal connector)


Good find on the price, I bought 4 from Newegg before they were 175$. No biggie, everyone here helped pay for them.

 

[RichieZ]

You people who are complaining about SCSI hard disks have never owned a 10K+ drive have you? The noise is not hte problem its that god awful high pitched sound it makes! And this being a 10K drive suffers from the same thing, quoted from the StorageReview review:

"It nonetheless still emits a very slight squeal reminiscent of third- or fourth-generation 10k RPM SCSI units. Though the sound does not bother me personally, it may irritate those who insist in ultra-quiet operation from their machines"

I used to own an IBM36LZX, one of the quieter 3rd Gen 10K drives. Acutator and seek noise don't bother me, that stupid 10k whine killed me. Have a 120GB Barricuda V now. Still this drive is interesting, when I get a new rig w/ SATA built in I might have to try it out.

 

[Mac]

Not intended as a threadcrap, but I really fail to understand the "excitement" surrounding this drive. Take away the marketing hype and novelty of a 10K SATA drive, you have very little to justify the price or the product itself. You have to ask the question...what problem or market need does this address?

If you are in an enterprise server environment, bring out the SCSI hardware and get on with it. Yeah, SCSI is expensive, but you are dealing with mission critical applications which demand speed and reliability. Forgive the condescending tone, but only the naive and uneducated would consider this drive as a viable option. It is really a joke.

For the desktop market, the current crop of 7200RPM drives, especially those with 8MB caches are more that adequate. I doubt you would notice the difference in actual use between this drive and the better 7200RPM drives, except in your pocket book.

Another point to consider is the value of "real estate" in your computer. Ask yourself, are you willing to give up an open drive bay for 36GB??? I have 40GB drives sitting on the shelf. The smallest capacity I would even condider purchasing today is an 80GB 7200RPM but only if it has 8MB cache and dirt cheap. In truth, 120GB seem to be the ideal balance of capacity, performance and price for this market, especially when they can be found for $80 or less, after rebates.

The only area that I can see that this drive might provide any meaningful benefit would be for video editing on an entry level workstation. Even then, most knowledgeable users would still gravitate to SCSI. Even then, I don't believe it should command a premium of perhaps 10-15% over equivalent 7200RPM drives.

I'll sit this one out.

 

[pspada]

Yes, SATA drives have a new type of power connector.

Yes, there are plenty of PATA to SATA converters available, but why bother? You are not going to get any performance improvement, the only benefit would be less bulky cables.

I did seriously enjoy the ad above the WD SATA drive review, advertising the Seagate Barracuda SATA 80 Gig drive for $140 and the 120 for $175!

 

[labgeek]

I disagree and object to being called naive and uneducated. I am neither. My history and the histories of my systems whose 2+ million lab tests a year process, back that up. This drive has it's place. It wasn't really intended for the average home user. And not every server is enterprise class. There are workgroup and department classes as well. They need smaller storage amounts but still have the need for reliability as well as being qucik. Buffer size is one thing but with multiple requests going on it can only do so much. This drive has a 5.2ms avg access time. Not 7200 ATA drive 8mb buffer or not comes close. And this drive still has the 8MB cache. So you objection is the price? This drive comes with a 5 year warranty. Have you added in the cost of extending the warranty to bring it to the same length?

Many server vendors have been shipping smaller servers with ATA drives to get rid of the cost of a SCSI controller. You don't think that if they are presented with an option to switch to a faster drive while holding costs down (they aren't going to be paying $155 a drive), they won't do it?

SATA drives are coming. Get used to it. Accept it. Embrace it.

So who's naive and uneducated exactly?

 

[axia55]

I just ordered one from Hyper Micro, we'll see how it does with my ABIT NF7-S Rev 2.0

 

[Mac]

SATA drives are coming. Get used to it. Accept it. Embrace it.

Uh, yeah. Uh...whatever. Uh...did you take your medication this morning?

Hey. I'm fine with SATA drives. Not sure what the immediate benefit is but SATA is cool. I even have a mobo which has SATA RAID built-in. But regarding, "Embrace it", well, I like to embrace my wallet even more.

At this price, this still seems like a product/solution in search of a problem.

 

[gotincon]

Just got my 4 drives. The power connector is the standard connector you would see on any other IDE drive. So no special connector on the 36 GB Raptor.

Edit to add:

I wasn't paying attention, but the raptor has both types of power connectors. It states on the drive to use either/or, but plugging in both will damage the drive.

 

[GnomeCop]

the pictures of the drive, especially at newegg show a normal molex power connector on the back.

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: gotincon
Just got my 4 drives. The power connector is the standard connector you would see on any other IDE drive. So no special connector on the 36 GB Raptor. Edit to add: I wasn't paying attention, but the raptor has both types of power connectors. It states on the drive to use either/or, but plugging in both will damage the drive.

Please let us know what you think if you're using it in a desktop. Thanks.

 

[Postcountislife]

Originally posted by: Mac
Not intended as a threadcrap, but I really fail to understand the "excitement" surrounding this drive. Take away the marketing hype and novelty of a 10K SATA drive, you have very little to justify the price or the product itself. You have to ask the question...what problem or market need does this address?

If you are in an enterprise server environment, bring out the SCSI hardware and get on with it. Yeah, SCSI is expensive, but you are dealing with mission critical applications which demand speed and reliability. Forgive the condescending tone, but only the naive and uneducated would consider this drive as a viable option. It is really a joke.

For the desktop market, the current crop of 7200RPM drives, especially those with 8MB caches are more that adequate. I doubt you would notice the difference in actual use between this drive and the better 7200RPM drives, except in your pocket book.

Another point to consider is the value of "real estate" in your computer. Ask yourself, are you willing to give up an open drive bay for 36GB??? I have 40GB drives sitting on the shelf. The smallest capacity I would even condider purchasing today is an 80GB 7200RPM but only if it has 8MB cache and dirt cheap. In truth, 120GB seem to be the ideal balance of capacity, performance and price for this market, especially when they can be found for $80 or less, after rebates.

The only area that I can see that this drive might provide any meaningful benefit would be for video editing on an entry level workstation. Even then, most knowledgeable users would still gravitate to SCSI. Even then, I don't believe it should command a premium of perhaps 10-15% over equivalent 7200RPM drives.

I'll sit this one out.

I completely agree with you regarding people building servers or workstations. But for some home users and prosumers, this drive is great. For example, I've currently got a 40GB 7200RPM 2MB drive and a 20GB 7200RPM 2MB drive. I'm only using about half the space total, and on average I tend to double the amount of data I have every two years. For those of us not who are not currently limited by the capacity of our drives, it doesn't matter if a new drive is 36GB or 250GB, other than bragging rights. The only thing that matters is speed, and this drive is very fast in desktop tests, almost 50% faster than competing IDE drives in some tests. Also, if you take into consideration that you can use this right now in an IDE system, and later get a second one and RAID it with the built-in SATA RAID chipset on your next motherboard, it's really not that pricey. It's also very quiet and cool compared to nearly all 10K drives. True, there are ironically a few 15k drives that are quiet and cool, but they cost almost an order of magnitude more. Certainly if you're drives are almost full or if you know you'll be needing a lot of capacity, the capacity vs. speed issue becomes very valid and this drive has no place.

 

[pspada]

Well I mostly agree, SATA has it's place, and will certainly supplant pata within a few years at most. I'm just not about to pay $150 for a 36 gig drive, pata, sata, scsi, who cares. Unless I have a server application that requires the extra functionality of something more high end, and I'd have to default to SCSI right now because it's a known, tested, and stable performer. Who wants to use a mission critical server as a test bed for a new technology - not me, that's for sure? Besides, the 120 gig Maxtor Ultra I just got for $72 bucks (no rebates!) at Staples will provide more than enough speed for the 4 or 5 months it may take for sata drives to come down to reasonable prices.

But I must say that I love the sata cables. :gift:

 

[deeznuts]

Originally posted by: Elemental007
It would make sense to put your swap file on your fast hard drive, given how often it is accessed. Why would you do otherwise?

cuz when the OS needs to access the swap file, all other activity must cease while it is doing so. by putting the swap or page file on a separate drive (if doing ide, preferably a separate channel) the OS or any programs can still access the main page while also accessing the swap file. it works great. what is even better is 1 GB of ram and swap turned off.

 

[Tung]

Originally posted by: oddjob303

Originally posted by: weepul
lol, i thought this was a 360GB drive. turns out to be 36GB. ;p

//krunk (^_^x)

 

[beer]

Originally posted by: deeznuts

Originally posted by: Elemental007
It would make sense to put your swap file on your fast hard drive, given how often it is accessed. Why would you do otherwise?

cuz when the OS needs to access the swap file, all other activity must cease while it is doing so. by putting the swap or page file on a separate drive (if doing ide, preferably a separate channel) the OS or any programs can still access the main page while also accessing the swap file. it works great. what is even better is 1 GB of ram and swap turned off.

I didn't know that. Awesome.