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10k RPM @ 1.5GB/s or 7.2k RPM @ 3.0GB/s ?

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bitty417

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 2, 2007
86
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So I'm looking to buy a new boot drive for my imminent Mac Pro purchase. I'm seeing many people on the forum opt for the WD Raptor drives. Is this wise? The Raptors only support SATA 1.5GB/s.

Is it better to go with a 10k RPM drive at 1.5GB/s or a 7.2k RPM drive at 3.0GB/s?

Which one is going to perform better for a boot drive?

Another thing I see on the WD spec page for the Raptor is native command queuing. Does OS X take advantage of this?
 
The interface speed is rarely if ever actually utilized and you will see much faster data access with the raptors. I have a pair setup in RAID 0 on my pc and they scream. Merely waiting for the Mac Pro Update and im going to use one for my boot drive as well.

And yes OS X uses NCQ.
 
bitty417 said:
Any 10k RPM drives that have a 3.0GB/s interface?
Click to expand...

The interface is rather pointless, because a 10k RPM drive cannot possibly supply even 1.5Gbit per second. And don't get carried away with the "10k RPM". Check how big the drive is, and remember that the actual speed goes down to less than half the maximum speed for the inner tracks. So a drive that looks faster but has half the capacity may actually slow you down.
 
Interesting ...

I'm sure this is a loaded question, but here goes anyway ---

Which is the fastest Raptor model available?
 
Raptor choices....

bitty417 said:
Interesting ...

I'm sure this is a loaded question, but here goes anyway ---

Which is the fastest Raptor model available?
Click to expand...

Hi,

As long as I know there where three models available, a while ago when I bought mine.
- Raptor 74GB 10K
- Raptor 150GB 10K
- Raptor 150GB Xtreme 10K

The Xtreme version is the model that has a glass window built in for the PC modding groups. I have read some tests and that model is not recomended since the Raptor getting a bit hotter then the 7200RPM models. With the window you sacrifice heatsink space of the frame.

The best model is the 150GB standard model. Thats the one I have in my 1,42 MDD and the difference is outstanding. Best HD I ever had and the reason I could skip the whole G5 series.
:cool:
 
Skip the Raptor. The Bearfeats test of the new Seagate 7200.11 drives that come in 500,750 and 1TB flavors shows they are just as fast as the Raptors. You get crazy speed and lots of space with those.
 
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Karpfish said:
Skip the Raptor. The Bearfeats test of the new Seagate 7200.11 drives that come in 500,750 and 1TB flavors shows they are just as fast as the Raptors. You get crazy speed and lots of space with those.
Click to expand...

have a link?
 
Karpfish said:
Skip the Raptor. The Bearfeats test of the new Seagate 7200.11 drives that come in 500,750 and 1TB flavors shows they are just as fast as the Raptors. You get crazy speed and lots of space with those.
Click to expand...

Where is this test you mention? I did see the latest test of the Seagate 1TB drive, and it is indeed impressive. But I did not see it compared to the Raptor as a boot drive.

Here's a link which indicates the 150 GB Raptor is indeed the fastest single boot drive for the Mac:

http://www.barefeats.com/quad08.html

The test is a bit outdated, but it was compared to the WD 750 GB which is only now eclipsed by the Seagate 1TB, except for small random reads (for which the WD 750 is faster).

I'd love to see the link too.
 
badlydrawnboy said:
Where is this test you mention? I did see the latest test of the Seagate 1TB drive, and it is indeed impressive. But I did not see it compared to the Raptor as a boot drive.

Here's a link which indicates the 150 GB Raptor is indeed the fastest single boot drive for the Mac:

http://www.barefeats.com/quad08.html

The test is a bit outdated, but it was compared to the WD 750 GB which is only now eclipsed by the Seagate 1TB, except for small random reads (for which the WD 750 is faster).

I'd love to see the link too.
Click to expand...

He is talking about the .11 drives not .10
 
The .11 drives are the newest from Seagate, they have 250GB per platter. I too have heard that the Raptors aren't worth it anymore with the new generation of HDs coming out. The higher density of the .11 drives make them just as good if not better than the Raptors
 
tmoney468 said:
The .11 drives are the newest from Seagate, they have 250GB per platter. I too have heard that the Raptors aren't worth it anymore with the new generation of HDs coming out. The higher density of the .11 drives make them just as good if not better than the Raptors
Click to expand...

Are the Seagate .11 drives selling now, and better yet, is there a chance that they'll be used in the new Mac Pros?

Is WD planning to upgrade the 10k Raptors, or is this pretty much the end of the line for them?
 
I run 1 10K 150G Raptors as my system disk and it is amazing. The desktop loads before I can even look back up from hitting the power button. I guess it is dependent on how readily you need your data.
 
15K SAS drives ?

In the RAID Utility users guide it states

"If SMART Status is Listed as Unsupported Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART) status information is available only for SATA drives. If you are using SAS drives, SMART is listed as unsupported in the drive information in RAID Utility."

Has anyone tried SAS drives with the RAID HW card?
If this works then you can go with 15K rpm SAS drives.
 
Sooooo what's the consensus here?

10k RPM drives still faster than the new 7.2k RPM drives mentioned above?
 
bitty417 said:
Sooooo what's the consensus here?

10k RPM drives still faster than the new 7.2k RPM drives mentioned above?
Click to expand...

I would say yes, but seemingly not by too much. It depends what you're using it for. The transfer rates of the big new drives will actually be faster than the Raptor. But I think the random access is still faster with the Raptor, which is probably more significant when using it as a boot or scratch drive.

I know this: I have an older Raptor (74 GB) which is 30% slower than the new ones (150 GB). I also have a WD 750 SE2, which is rated as one of the fastest new drives. I tested it an the 74 GB Raptor as boot drives, and the Ratpor is noticeably faster.

Personally, because of the way my drives are configured, I don't need a huge boot drive. I'll use the 150 GB Raptor as the boot, a 750 GB SE2 for my user directory and files, another 750 GB SE2 for Time Machine backup, and my 74 GB Raptor as a Photoshop scratch disk.

With the new MP and 10 GB of RAM this should scream! Only thing that would be faster is a RAID... I considered using two 150 GB Raptors in RAID 0 as both boot and scratch disk, but I think I'll stick with the single drive for now.
 
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