Raptor test results

[Think]

ATTO

[Think]

HD TACH

[Think]

I've download Winbench99 but I'm not sure which tests to perform. Maybe you can helping with that.

Thanks.

Marco:)

[Player0]

DiskTransfer rates. IOMeter is a good test as well.

Raptor drives are great, Im on one right now.

[mdzcpa]

Yes...these Raptors are something else. I wasn't sure they'd be all that great for high end desktop use, but that seems to be exactly what they are great at.

I have a pair RAID 0 also:

http://www.liquidninjas.com/mdzcpa/forumpics/raptors/atto1.jpg


These are smokin' fast.

[Think]

Nice results mdzcpa!. Are you using an external SATA controller? Trying to figure out why the difference in performance.

Well I can't seem to run Winbench 99 ' DiskTransfer rates' successfully.

I keep on getting an error as noted here:

[Think]

That's not too clear, it says"

An error occurred in GetOverlappedResult: Data error (cycle redundancy check0. For eTesting Labs use: The error 0x0 occurred in the TRSRun COM interface."

[Ruantic]

One of these days I really have to try a pair of those raptors...
just have to quit worrying about the rest of the box long enough to save the cash for them...

[mdzcpa]

I tell ya, if your rig is already fairly up to date, then having super fast drive storage is the most important thing for seat of the pants performance than any other upgrade your can make.

I sold my Seagate SATA drives to have enough cash for these Raptors. I swapped outthe 2 x Seagate SATA Baracuda 80g drives in RAID 0, for these 2 x Raptor 36G in RAID 0. And, yes, right off the bat there was a hefty seat of the pants performance improvement. I fresh installed Win XP Pro on the Gaming Rig and it took 12 minutes....yep 12 minutes:)

The only significant downside to these raptors is the capacity...36G is indeed small. But, they are absolutely perfect for my Gaming Rig. I have plenty of other storage elsewhere in the LAN.

Simply amazing drives. Definitely worth saving up for.

[notoriousformula]

Originally posted by mdzcpa
I fresh installed Win XP Pro on the Gaming Rig and it took 12 minutes....yep 12 minutes:)


you kiddin :eek: 12 mins :shocked: ..takes me approx 40-50 mins to install windows XP...

notor

[Ruantic]

I'll have to work on doing that, My case, and my 80 gig Maxtor ata have been attached to 8 board/processor upgrades, lol, I guess it may be about time :P

[mdzcpa]

Originally posted by notoriousformula
you kiddin :eek: 12 mins :shocked: ..takes me approx 40-50 mins to install windows XP...

notor

no kiddin. Now, this time does not include the RAID array set up and the NTFS format of the partition, nor does it include SP1. But...that's still amazingly quick.

[Ruantic]

12 minutes Certainly would be nice, thats pretty amazing....

[Farabomb]

Hmm, looks like the 15g maxtors I have are gonna get the boot from my main box. :)

[notoriousformula]

Originally posted by mdzcpa
no kiddin. Now, this time does not include the RAID array set up and the NTFS format of the partition, nor does it include SP1. But...that's still amazingly quick.

nah..i wasn't talking about the raid or ntfs..but still..these drives are really cool..damn....i can't believe it.. 12 mins..woow! :eek:

[naxos]

Can you install just one SATA drive? if you dont put it on a RAID? or do SATA's always belong in pairs on a raid? (im thinking i could buy one of these super high performance drives as my boot drive...system filse...games and then store my other bigger files on a slower, larger capacity drive, probably an Ultra ATA drive, like the WD Caviar Special Edition. How does that setup sound? would i still reap the benefits of having a blazing primary hard drive? even if its not in a raid setup?

Thanks.


-Nax

[Ruantic]

Don't own any yet, so not sure how fast a single is, I imagine not bad.. Running a single Sata drive in a non-Raid setup would work fine.

[naxos]

But putting them in a RAID 0 would make them work faster with data stripping right? and it would still be a much faster boot drive than a 7200RPM Ultra ATA right?

Thanks

-Nax

[Drake]

A Raptor for boot and a secondary storage drive is a fine setup. You can check out some more Raptor benchies here (http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200303/20030320WD360GD_1.html).

[mdzcpa]

Originally posted by naxos
But putting them in a RAID 0 would make them work faster with data stripping right? and it would still be a much faster boot drive than a 7200RPM Ultra ATA right?


Yes and Yes. A RAID 0 array is usually much faster than a single drive. But for average desktop use, RAID 0 isn't a must have. Depending on your applications, some users barely notice the difference. But, for others, it makes a huge difference.

For example, on my MultiMedia Rig, I run a pair of Maxtor 40g ATA 133 drives in RAID 0 as a video editing drive. It's waaaaay faster than a single drive for doing that kind of work. It makes thing noticeably faster by a large margin.

On the Gamer with a pair of Raptors in RAID 0, the OS boot time is very quick (faster than a single drive for sure). But where it really shines is in the map loads on FPS shooter games. It totally smokes a single drive. For web browsing and email, the drives make no difference at all. Again, only read/write intensive apps enjoy the benefit of fast drives.

If it's not in the budget for two drives, getting one drive works good. A single Raptor is still very fast. But with only 36G of space, it would be best to use it only as a primary OS and application disk, and have a second larger disk for storage (MP3s, MPEGs, etc).

[naxos]

Hey mdz, how how do the 2 drives sound? (high pitch and loud?) or are they fairly quiet compared to other SATA's? (im sure i wont notice once i get the Vantec Tornado in my new rig....hah...but once i switch over to liquid...

Thanks

-Nax


also, i have never set up a RAID (know about it and what it does, but never had the opportunity to use one) are they tricky to install? or configure?

[mdzcpa]

There is a slight high pitched whine when they first boot up. The sound fades as the drives warm up. Takes about a minute. Even so, the whine is slight and likely couldn't be heard with cases that have a decent amount of cooling fans or a non OEM CPU HSF. A few radiator fans would also be louder.

That said, as SATA drives go, they are a tad noisier than some of the others (such as my very quiet Seagate Barracuda V drive). But, again, the difference is minimal.

Setting up a RAID array is easy. All you do is enter the RAID BIOS during post and create the RAID 0 stripe. Although there is much discussion on what size RAID stripe to use around the net, I suggest just going with the default 128k stripe as it best suits typical desktop use (other stripe sizes can be faster for certain types of apps and benchmarks, but you lose in other day to day areas).

Once the stripe is set up, you just install your OS etc. You'll need the RAID driver on the floppy disk (provided with the mobo, or RAID card) and press F6 at the begining of the OS installation. Follow the on screen steps.

It really is easy.

[naxos]

Thanks so much, Im super tempted to get a pair and set them up in raid0. i think its gonna come down to how much money i have when i start ordering parts. They look GREAT! Thanks again!


-Naxos

[WesM63]

These drives are great, I just installed one in a canterwood system we built for a customer and just sold another canterwood gaming system with one in it. I've tried to get them to buy too, but they always say, i don't need raid. I try to explain but they don't budge.

[mdzcpa]

Well...to be honest, no one really needs RAID. 80% of the time you cannot tell the difference anyway. That's why you always hear RAID is not needed. For average users its true that it may not be worth the cost (it depends on thier apps really).

Another thing about the Raptor is it's capacity. Due the small capacity it really serves much as a better OS and App drive, while leaving the chores of big storage up to a large second disk. The best way to go is to run a pair in RAID 0 with a large seperate storage disk. But all this can be pretty expensive.

That said, to many enthusiasts the added performance during the extra 20% of the time really rounds out the system. In addition I really like the 5yr warranty...it flies in the face of the rest of the IDE HD market and short warranty periods.

[WesM63]

Hey mike,
I completly agree, but if your gonna spend upwords of $2000 on a system, heck why not.

[mdzcpa]

My feelings exactly Wes. If you want the best, get the best:)

[Synthohol]

Could someone put ATTO on the ftp site or point a link? i want to try JFTFOI

[sptw]

ATTO (http://www.attotech.com/software/app1.html)

[soccrstar]

u people got money :-/
one cost 160 bucks
i'd hafta work one week like 30 some odd hours jus to get dat much

[Think]

lol, true. $ per mb it's rather expensive:)

Not sure if it was truely worth the expense but what can I say, it's a hobby:)

[mdzcpa]

You can actually pick one of these up for about $130 now. Still not a bargain by any means though. They're definitely not meant for cheap storage.