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What have you guys heard about this drive? Anything better for a still reasonable amount of money in a 36GB version?

Reasonable: $250-300

Also,

If the Hard Drive isn't availible in a local store in Minneapolis, MN, USA, I don't want to hear about it.

This is deffinetly the drive I'm getting, I just want to hear others opinions.

aviationwiz wrote:What have you guys heard about this drive? Anything better for a still reasonable amount of money in a 36GB version?

Reasonable: $250-300

Also,

If the Hard Drive isn't availible in a local store in Minneapolis, MN, USA, I don't want to hear about it.

This is deffinetly the drive I'm getting, I just want to hear others opinions.

Western Digital Raptor SATA 36GB... holds its own against 15K and 10K SCSI drives... $170, 5 year warranty, 1.2MM MTBF. Nice thing is you don't have to go out and sink $300 into a decent controller.

If your motherboard has a SI 3112 controller built in you're set. Otherwise, an additional $50 for a SATA card and you're ready to roll.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.html?i=1799

http://www.storagereview.com ... review at top of page.

They've just started hitting the market and can probably be found at a local computer store in a couple weeks (not BB or CompUSA).

Compared to SCSI, all the SATA drives suck. The Raptor isn't even on store shelves anyways. Money really isn't a huge object to me, I just want the best.

I assume this is for desktop use?

It's fairly obvious you haven't read the reviews because if you did, you would know what your statement is patently false.

The Maxtor 10K III TRAILS the Raptor in the majority of the desktop benchmarks, in addition, the Raptor is 8 dba quieter and 9 C cooler, the 10K IV is slightly ahead of the Raptor but it is 10C hotter and 6 dba louder. Head over to Storagereview, hit the database button and take a look.

If you're familiar with dba ratings, you know how big of a difference that is. Let's also not forget the increase in case temps.

Eugene, the owner of storagereview has been using the Raptor for a few weeks now and has stated that the Raptor is as snappy as a 15K drive. Comment is somewhere in the forums.

In the server benchmarks, the Maxtor takes the lead. However, if you aren't serving, it means absolutely nothing and should not factor into your purchase decision.

If you want the best and money is no object, get a 15K Maxtor or a 15K.3 Seagate.

Several merchants have received and sold their initial shipments of Raptors with more to come... I think that's a clear indication it is in the channel. Given the fact that SCSI drives aren't available at most large chain stores, I'm sure you will be able to track a drive down at the same or a similar type of merchant wherever you are in MN.

FYI a 10KIII is going for $220 @ CompUSA.

tazdevl wrote:The Maxtor 10K III TRAILS the Raptor in the majority of the desktop benchmarks, in addition, the Raptor is 8 dba quieter and 9 C cooler, the 10K IV is slightly ahead of the Raptor but it is 10C hotter and 6 dba louder.

1. With a Thermaltake Smart Case Fan 2 blowing right over my hard drive, I don't think I am going to have any cooling problems. And considering I have two of those fans in my case, which are 48 dba. I don't think I am going to hear it anyway.

2. I hate Western Digital.

3. I am stubborn when it comes to HDD's, I'll only go with Maxtor. I have had way to many problems with WD. Especially with thier tech support. I'd rather not take the chance.

4. The 15K's are to expensive for me. I am planning on getting this next weekend.

Cooling... they're easy to cool, the issue is their contribution to case temps and the fact that most folks have inadequate cooling. Those drives run as hot as a OC'd CPU, that's a fair amount of heat when you get down do it.

Might want to dial that fan up though or put the thermistor on the drive body. Fan speed (assuming temp, not rheostat driven) will be determined by the temps of the incoming air, so it'll probably run at low speed most of the time unless you give it a reason to spin up.

I just wanted to be sure that you were getting the best bang for your $ and considered all your options.

Most folks are moving towards quiet computing by using Papsts and H2O cooling, good to know someone is bucking the trend.

Timing is everything, and as you mentioned, if you need it soon, you need it soon.

You feel the same way about WD that I feel about IBM. I can appreciate that.

Get the Maxtor Atlas 10K IV "Cobra" (not the Atlas IV "Katana")

From my retailer they're cheaper than the 10k III and are faster in just about every respect.

Any reason you're avoiding the fastest 10k drive out? (The cheetah 10.6)? It's comparative in price to the 10k IV and 10k III... probably performs very similarly to the 10k IV(but I'd expect it bests it just by a slim margin)

I'm not going SCSI. Mainly because a good card is like $300. The one I found for $80 is a POS. I am probably going to wait for Maxtor SATA drives to hit store shelves over here. I'm not going to go "Raptor" because it is WD and I do not trust them. It may come with a good warrenty. The problem is, if I already installed the drive and I have a problem. They won't help me.

aviationwiz wrote:I'm not going SCSI. Mainly because a good card is like $300. The one I found for $80 is a POS. I am probably going to wait for Maxtor SATA drives to hit store shelves over here. I'm not going to go "Raptor" because it is WD and I do not trust them. It may come with a good warrenty. The problem is, if I already installed the drive and I have a problem. They won't help me.

You can get an excellent SCSI controller for under $100. What you need is a single channel U160 controller. LSI makes controllers equivalent to Adaptec in the u160 and u320 market, but cost much less.


www.Hypermicro.com sells a single channel LSI u160 card for $89.00 w/ SCSI cable, terminator, and 3 year warranty

Ouch,

36GB Raptor at $200. Only First Generation SATA. Sounds like a rip off to me. I thought it would come in 80 and 120 like most sata hdd's today.