Topic: Raptor drives worth it?

[Pugnate]

I just lost my 200 GB HD. Sucks big time. Anyway I was looking around and saw 10,000 and 15000 rpm raptor drives. Are they worth it?

[Quemaqua]

I've heard a variety of things on them.  They don't seem to be unqualified successes, but I don't feel the need for that kind of performance, so... *Shrug*.  I've been using Seagate drives and they've served me relatively well except for the 300GB one that died on me.  Their warranties are awesome but they make you jump through some fucking hoops, let me tell you.

[iPPi]

They're good from what I've heard, but they're also a lot louder.

[Pugnate]

I just realized mine is still under warranty, but the issue is I lost my reciept. I hope I can find it. But no matter what happens, I am just going to stick with the 7,200 variety.

Mine was a Seagate Barracuda 200 GB.

[Quemaqua]

If you have a Seagate you don't need a receipt.  You aren't going to be dealing with the retailer but with the manufacturer. Go to Seagate's site and enter in the serial number and it'll check all the warranty info. for that specific drive.  It's a fairly nice system other than their over-strict packaging rules (and the fact that you have to pay the shipping and still only get a factory-reissued drive back instead of a new one).  Still, overall it's pretty nice.  A lot of places don't have warranties even that good.

[WindAndConfusion]

The high drive speed reduces the seek time, since it doesn't takes as long for the disk to rotate into the correct position to begin read/writing. However, the effect is pretty small, since the "rotational latency" of the platter is only about a third of the seek time for the drive heads.

A higher speed also increases the data transfer rate, since the head is physically moving over more of the disk in less time, but you get the same benefit from increased data density without the disproportionate increase in noise, heat, and failure rates.

If you're still thinking about it, I suggest you instead get three non-Raptor drives and run them in RAID 5. The cost is similar, but you'd get better speed, reliability and capacity.