Best fast hard drive that isn't an SSD?

[maghemi]

I'm getting myself a new Mac Pro shortly and will be looking into faster hard drives.

I had an SSD in my last Mac Pro, and while it was fast (Gskill Falcon 128gb) it was just too small.

And to be honest I didn't find it *that* much faster is common use than the 150gb velociraptor.

Until the larger SSD's come down in price I'm going to go with something else. What would be my best choice. Is there anything better than the 300gb Velociraptor. I've read somewhere that there might be some 2tb drives that are nearly as fast. Is that true? I can't seem to find anything to really support that argument at the moment, other than hearsay and innuendo.

 

[alphaod]

Until the larger SSD's come down in price I'm going to go with something else. What would be my best choice. Is there anything better than the 300gb Velociraptor. I've read somewhere that there might be some 2tb drives that are nearly as fast. Is that true? I can't seem to find anything to really support that argument at the moment, other than hearsay and innuendo.

The WD Black and Seagate XT 2TB drives are as fast in sequential access, but otherwise still slower in terms of random access compared to the VelociRaptor. I believe Seagate Cheetahs are faster, but have also heard they are very noisy (I have not used them myself, though want to buy them); that's not to mention you would need a SAS RAID controller for that.

What's your budget?

 

[maghemi]

I really don't want to spend more than AUD$400

Random access is the big one when talking about how the operating system 'feels' right?

As much as I'd like to SAS thats definitely out of the question due to price. Realistically anyway I'd just go with a larger SSD.

But of course since I posted the original post this morning I've had something of a cash windfall and find myself with a bit more money than I was expecting. So I might just lump up the extra for a 200+gb SSD. Or just stick with a 300gb Velociraptor.

I'm not convinced these new 2tb drives are going to make the machine 'feel' faster. And lets be honest it's all about how it 'feels' using the computer.