Western Digital Raptor

[aviationwiz]

I got my Raptor yesterday. It is a great drive and start up and shut down times are 1/3 of what they were before. It's a great drive. I got mine from HyperMicro for $155. That is just the bare drive.


If you want the kit, which comes with a controller card, it is $250. On sale this week at Comp USA for only $180 this week.

[imtim83]

aviationwiz how much faster does it feel from your last IDE HD you had like when you are surfing the internet, while maybe burning a cd, installing a program or huge game, and downloading a big file ? Like does it handle more things at once better without a noticeable slow down ? I mean i know all hard drives will slow down with many things going on at once but some don't slow down as much as others maybe.

Is there anything that you can find thats a whole lot faster or earth shattering faster with the WD Raptor vs one of the fastest IDE 7200 rpm HDs ?

[imtim83]

For anyone that asks or says to go to www.storagereview.com, I have been there already millions of times. I am always looking at those benchmarks comparing. I just want to know how much faster a hard drive feels to a person in real life and not just benchmarks. The difference in speed in real life is more important than benchmarks in my opinion.

[lightningbaron]

aviationwiz - I visited CompUSA on Sunday and saw the drive is packaged with a SATA controller by SIIG. How is the quality of products by SIIG? (maybe a general question to anyone else that may have purchased SIIG products).

[aviationwiz]

I don't know. Although if Western Digital selected it to be packaged with the Raptor, it must be good.

I also find that loading times on games is a LOT faster.

[blakerwry]

aviationwiz - I visited CompUSA on Sunday and saw the drive is packaged with a SATA controller by SIIG. How is the quality of products by SIIG? (maybe a general question to anyone else that may have purchased SIIG products).

SIIG usually makes plain vanilla products, that by all acounts just seem to work without flaw.