Originally posted by: nerp
Originally posted by: pcslookout
Originally posted by: nerp
Just installed a WD6401AALS today and boy, it's faaaast. Faster than the 36GB raptor it replaced and gives me soooo much room. I'm psyched! So glad I got this drive. It's practically silent, too, so I can kiss the crazy grinding of my old raptor goodbye. I got it in 2005 and it was a first gen drive, so it was looooud. I have a second raptor in a seperate machine and it's significantly quieter than the older one. But this WD6401AALS beats both. Very satisfied.
Do you think it would beat the 150 GB Raptor ?
Definatley not the 150gb velociraptor. It might give the 150 standard raptor a run for its money. I didn't spend a lot of time looking at benchmarks on storagereview, but what I saw showed this drive very close and I think beating it in some tests. My belief is that the performance difference is so slight that it would take the most grueling long-term disk job imaginable for anyone like me to notice a difference.
The difference over MY the raptor IS noticable, though. That is likely due to the fact that my raptor was made in 05 and has the first gen circuitry. My newer 36gb raptor (build 07) is much more quiet than the older 36 gb one and a bit faster. I never used the newer model as an OS drive, though.
I think the key thing about these black drives is that they're quite a bit cheaper. Being 7200rpm elminates the dreaded vibration oscillation that can occur with mixed drive setups. They also run cool. Big plusses for standout performance.