SPCR

Well, I've been thinking of ways to optimize my system, or rather, which components are bottlenecking me.

Anyway, do I get any noticeable benefits from using a Raptor HDD, especially in gaming?

would a 10k rpm drive give me more fps than a 7200? and are there any tests that bench exactly this effect?

I seriously doubt you'll get even a slight fps boost going from 7200 to 10k rpm, the thing I noticed most was loading times decreasing and things running that little bit more smooth. In gaming it generakky hasn't provided a boost, I noticed it more when using photoshop or premiere. A mild overclock's propabaly the best way to go for a bit of a boost

I love my Raptor 74GB, but like the_smell says the benefits while ingame is negligible. Loading times may be a little bit shorter perhaps.

What I love about my Raptor is the fast seeks, makes everything load a little bit faster. And perhaps the biggest benefit is having a separate HDD just for OS, apps and games. I'm always downloading something or copying something and if I only had one HDD used for OS, apps, games, downloads and storage I would have to wait for ages if I for example felt like starting Open Office while copying large amounts of data att the same time.

So a HDD dedicated to OS, apps and games is the main thing imho but why not make that HDD a Raptor? It's fast, pretty silent and not that hot thanks to the built in heatsinks.

Agreed, the main benefit of a raptor is improved boot time and program launch time, especially if you have a fast antivirus checker (e.g., NOD32, not McAfee). I have a raptor 150 in a smartdrive 2002, and my old ears can't hear it anymore. Before installing it in the smartdrive, the seek chatter was louder than I wanted.

I agree with all above. You won't see any ingame performance perks to FPS but quicker loads. You MIGHT get smoother "zoning" in MMORPGs if you play them.

Do as suggested. Use the Raptor for your OS and games and then another HD for programs and downloads.

Not a gamer, but I think I prefer my 74GB to the "bigger" storage drives - Seagate 200 and 400. By doing a finger test while mentally optimizing my noisy fiasco, I'd almost believe the Raptor was dead, compared to the other two, if it wasn't holding my OS. Cool to touch and no vibration. The drives hang in the rubber bungies of a P-150.

The only thing I notice is a "thunk-or-crack" noise when it kicks into gear.

Bruce

There is some extra cost per GB,extra noise (relative to a Samsung or Seagate) and a 10k drive probably will wear out sooner. where it would be useful is storing big audio or video files that get transferred,processed etc.

I'd tend to go as quiet as possible for OS and Apps-as that's always running. If Video was a main thing I might stash that on an SATA external unit that can be turned off when not used (thus silent)

An SATA 2 7200 rpm drive is still pretty quick. I'm not sure gaming is that reliant on the HDD.

klankymen wrote:would a 10k rpm drive give me more fps than a 7200? and are there any tests that bench exactly this effect?

A faster HDD will not give you a single FPS extra, not even 0.01 extra FPSs.

It will just load your games/maps faster, say 0-10 seconds faster, depending on the game/map. That's of course if you have enough memory, but if you don't, get more memory instead of a raptor, you will see it helps a lot more. A somewhat safe minimum for today is 1Gb RAM, with 2Gb being just fine(it really depends upon what you play)