Raptor failed, what drive to get?

[kalex]

Hey everybody,

So my Western digital raptor drive bit the dust last night. Thank you Time machine, all my data was restored to my external firewire drive without any loss. Now my question is, which drive to get? I remember reading somewhere that Western Digital released drives which are very close to Raptor performance but don't cost as much. anybody have a link to one of those articles?

Any recommendations?

I use my mac pro for mostly picture processing (lightroom, CS3), few games in Bootcamp. so faster than average drive would really help, but I can't bring myself to get new raptor drive.


thanks

alex

 

[yeroen]

The Western Digital 640GB Caviar is what you want. It's among the fastest 7200RPM drives.

 

[kalex]

Thanks for reply. is the 320GB version of the drive same in terms of speed?
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS

I don't need 640GB as my main boot drive, since i have 500GB as my data drive and price is also a lot less.

thanks

Alex

 

[matt321]

Yep. The 320gb version only has a single platter making it very fast. The 640gb version just adds another platter.

 

[sickmacdoc]

The WD 640 drive mentioned above is indeed a nice drive, especially for $110 (at newegg.com anyways). Here's a good in-depth review of it including a lot of speed tests against about 20 other drives: http://techreport.com/articles.x/14380

If you would enjoy a little more capacity for $175, the Samsung F1 1Tb (which shows up beating or being second to the WD 640 in most of the tests mentioned above) is great. I am using two of them in my Mac Pro and have been very happy. A review of the Samsung from the same source can be seen at: http://techreport.com/articles.x/14200

Of course there is the new Velociraptor from Western Digital which like the Raptor is a 10,000 rpm drive (won't fit Mac Pro drive sleds though).

 

[sickmacdoc]

Thanks for reply. is the 320GB version of the drive same in terms of speed?
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS

I don't need 640GB as my main boot drive, since i have 500GB as my data drive and price is also a lot less.

thanks

Alex

Whoops- you posted while I was typing, so I see now you want to be on the smaller side, not the larger!

 

[kalex]

Thanks everybody for the info.

looks like 320GB would be good replacement. thanks for the info about the Velociraptor not fitting the MacPro sled. i was thinking about it, but now 320GB it is

thanks

Alex

 

[OMFG HAXX!]

Thanks everybody for the info.

looks like 320GB would be good replacement. thanks for the info about the Velociraptor not fitting the MacPro sled. i was thinking about it, but now 320GB it is

thanks

Alex

In case you hadn't noticed, the VelociRaptor is also insanely expensive

 

[aibo]

The WD320AAKS has far slower seek times than the WD6400AAKS -- most suspect it's handicapped through the firmware intentionally to keep its position as an entry level drive. Otherwise, it would be a $70 drive outperforming the WD750AAKS and the rest of the lineup.