Raptor 74 GB or Modern HDD
Before installing Windows 7, I raised a small question regarding my hard disk. Whether my Western Digital Raptor 74 GB 10000 RPM 16 MB is better compared to a modern SATA II? I speak of course not a Velociraptor but a hard drive recently released from 500 GB to 1TB. The HDD is clear as is often the bottleneck of my config and I would like to minimize that impact.
Re: Raptor 74 GB or Modern HDD
Your disc is still very good and does not require that you change it. But, of course, if you had to BUY one today, even used, the answer is NO. In terms of speed, it is crashing (70 MB/sec max over 110 MB/sec) with a nice Caviar Blue 640 GB, but its access time is better than conventional discs (thus excluding Velociraptor).
If you really want change, take a SSD for the system, that is an evolution.
Re: Raptor 74 GB or Modern HDD
Level access time, it gives you that (the 13 ms classical recording are still valid today, the latest Samsung F3 does the same example):
(see the attachment: upper bar is for writing and the lower bar is for reading)
Taking into account the average rate in reading, comparing new HDD that makes you a disk for a very responsive system used in conventional manner. Do not ask for large operations with large files but its not that thing. Finally I guess you already know, that.
Re: Raptor 74 GB or Modern HDD
I thank you for all the details! It confirms my impression! It serves on system disk, it is supported by a barracuda 320GB and a samsung F1 1TB storage.
Re: Raptor 74 GB or Modern HDD
The new Caviar's are faster than the old raptors. The RPM of your drive is faster, and thus giving you a faster read/write ratio. This is the reason why you can stick with your current hard drive rather than thinking of to switch it with something new.