Hey guys. I'm interested in getting a hard drive aimed towards the
performance end of the consumer market. I'm keen to get a WD hard
drive as I have had good experiences in the past.
To that end, a WD Raptor 10,000rpm 150GB drive for £115 sounds like a
good idea. However, I would like more capacity if possible. Would I
get the same performance out of two 500GB 7,200rpm WD Caviar drives in
a RAID setup for less money?
> Hey guys. I'm interested in getting a hard drive aimed towards the
> performance end of the consumer market. I'm keen to get a WD hard
> drive as I have had good experiences in the past.
>
> To that end, a WD Raptor 10,000rpm 150GB drive for £115 sounds like a
> good idea. However, I would like more capacity if possible. Would I
> get the same performance out of two 500GB 7,200rpm WD Caviar drives in
> a RAID setup for less money?
>
> My motherboard is the Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4.
>
Hi,
"Matt" <mattb95@hotmail.com> wrote...
> Hey guys. I'm interested in getting a hard drive aimed towards the performance
> end of the consumer market. I'm keen to get a WD hard drive as I have had good
> experiences in the past.
> To that end, a WD Raptor 10,000rpm 150GB drive for £115 sounds like a good
> idea. However, I would like more capacity if possible. Would I get the same
> performance out of two 500GB 7,200rpm WD Caviar drives in a RAID setup for
> less money?
I'm a Raptor fan. I have 2 74s in my P35-DS4 machine and a single 150 in my
X48-DS4 machine.
I am NOT a fan of RAID 0 (the only way to get "more performance" with a pair of
HDs). The 74s were once in RAID 0 on an older MoBo, and I had to reload the
system from scratch after a logical RAID error left one of them inaccessible. I
switched to RAID 1 after that. I could notice the degraded performance, but to
me it was worth the peace of mind.
Now the 2 74s are separate -- one with the OS and apps and the other with data.
Since I backup my data and make disk images regularly, I don't see the value in
RAID 1 any more.
If you can afford it, try a VelociRaptor 300 (or 2). They're supposed to be
even faster than the 150s due to their 2.5", high-data-density format.
I think the 300GB Raptor's are a little out of my price range at
nearly £200.
I'm thinking of getting the 150GB Raptor now and getting a slower
750GB Caviar in a few months time for the data I will have built up by
then. The only downside for me is the noise on these Raptor drives. I
found a review earlier on the Raptor 150GB and someone recorded the
noise it made. I've put the link below:
"Matt" <mattb95@hotmail.com> wrote...
> The only downside for me is the noise on these Raptor drives. I found a review
> earlier on the Raptor 150GB and someone recorded the noise it made. I've put
> the link below:
> Would you say this is the level of sound you hear? If so I don't think I
> could stand the noise it makes whilst seeking.
Nope. The noise is overstated, especially since the recording is MUCH higher in
frequency than the actual HD. There is noticeable noise during heavy seek
periods (e.g., while defragging), but not as a matter of course. I would
characterize it as less than half the level heard on the recording (though what
you or I may hear from the mp3 depends a LOT on the speakers and volume level).
You can also minimize it by using rubber mounting pads between the HD and the
rails.
> Nope. *The noise is overstated, especially since the recording is MUCH higher in
> frequency than the actual HD. *There is noticeable noise during heavy seek
> periods (e.g., while defragging), but not as a matter of course. *I would
> characterize it as less than half the level heard on the recording (though what
> you or I may hear from the mp3 depends a LOT on the speakers and volume level).
> You can also minimize it by using rubber mounting pads between the HD and the
> rails.
The problem is I sit quite close to my PC. The seek noise reminds me a
lot of the noise my very first hard drive, a 3.2GB WD drive, would
make whilst seeking. I would find that noise too distracting.
Basically it seems pointless to build a system with 4GB of RAM and a
quad core Q9450, then install a WD Caviar 750GB drive that will run
noticeably slower. Would a RAID setup with a pair of 500GB Caviar's
for example be difficult to setup? Would it be anywhere near the
performance of the WD Raptor?
"Matt" <mattb95@hotmail.com> wrote...
> The problem is I sit quite close to my PC. The seek noise reminds me a lot of
> the noise my very first hard drive, a 3.2GB WD drive, would make whilst
> seeking. I would find that noise too distracting.
My machine is about a foot from my left knee. I seldom notice any noise...
> Basically it seems pointless to build a system with 4GB of RAM and a quad core
> Q9450, then install a WD Caviar 750GB drive that will run noticeably slower.
> Would a RAID setup with a pair of 500GB Caviar's for example be difficult to
> setup? Would it be anywhere near the performance of the WD Raptor?
I have not set up RAID on the DS4, but I suspect it would be easy; the rest of
the manual is straightforward. Also, the pair of Caviars would probably come
close to, or exceed the Raptor in performance. The tradeoff is data
integrity -- any single-point failure means you lose all the data on both HDs.
The good news is that a controller failure (built into the Southbridge) means
you can recover by replacing the MoBo.
Get a copy of Acronis TrueImage, and make regular data backups to an external HD
as well. Clone a copy of your boot partition to a separate [primary] partition
on that HD so you can use it immediately as an emergency backup.
On Jul 16, 10:42*pm, "JR Weiss"
<jrweiss98155rem...@remove.comcast.net> wrote:
> "Matt" <matt...@hotmail.com> wrote...
> > The problem is I sit quite close to my PC. The seek noise reminds me a lot of
> > the noise my very first hard drive, a 3.2GB WD drive, would make whilst
> > seeking. I would find that noise too distracting.
>
> My machine is about a foot from my left knee. *I seldom notice any noise...
>
> > Basically it seems pointless to build a system with 4GB of RAM and a quad core
> > Q9450, then install a WD Caviar 750GB drive that will run noticeably slower.
> > Would a RAID setup with a pair of 500GB Caviar's for example be difficult to
> > setup? Would it be anywhere near the performance of the WD Raptor?
>
> I have not set up RAID on the DS4, but I suspect it would be easy; the rest of
> the manual is straightforward. *Also, the pair of Caviars would probably come
> close to, or exceed the Raptor in performance. *The tradeoff is data
> integrity -- any single-point failure means you lose all the data on both HDs.
> The good news is that a controller failure (built into the Southbridge) means
> you can recover by replacing the MoBo.
>
> Get a copy of Acronis TrueImage, and make regular data backups to an external HD
> as well. *Clone a copy of your boot partition to a separate [primary] partition
> on that HD so you can use it immediately as an emergency backup.
You mentioned a RAID 0 failure earlier. Are these as common as a
typical mechanical failure in a hard drive, or should I be braced for
some downtime?
"Matt" <mattb95@hotmail.com> wrote...
> You mentioned a RAID 0 failure earlier. Are these as common as a typical
> mechanical failure in a hard drive, or should I be braced for some downtime?
From reports I've read, logical failures from the controllers are more likely
than mechanical failures. With RAID 0 it is a particular problem because you
have NO backup! In RAID 1 you can rebuild from the good HD, and in RAID 5 you
can rebuild from the remaining HDs.
The failure I had was a transient one (embedded Promise controller in an older
MoBo), and I was able to recover both HDs by reformatting them (they are the
same Raptor 74s I still run). After running fine for 6 months, I didn't expect
a failure, either,but... I did not trust that controller in RAID 0 any more,
though I had no failures after that after switching to RAID 1.
Bottom line is that your chances of failure are significantly more than double
with RAID 0. The stats are still very small, but the results if you get caught
are bad...
> I am NOT a fan of RAID 0 (the only way to get "more performance"
> with a pair of HDs). The 74s were once in RAID 0 on an older
> MoBo, and I had to reload the system from scratch after a logical
> RAID error left one of them inaccessible. I switched to RAID 1
> after that. I could notice the degraded performance, but to me it
> was worth the peace of mind.
Maybe a good use for a well-developed copy of Windows. I guess both
drives get trashed, so it would require the copy on another
drive/disk/media. And there might be complications copying the known
good developed installation of Windows back into place. Maybe
booting to the third drive and using the Disk Manager from there, a
wild guess, assuming the RAID 0 drives don't have to be the boot
drive. Even if that doesn't work, there probably are other
possibilities. Hmm.
WD Raptor or WD Caviar in RAID setup? 
Linear Mode
