«

Hi,

I'm looking at putting together my first completely all-new computer
for myself in 8 years and am looking at where to start. The 74gig WD
10,000rpm sata raptor drives look like a damn fine place I think.

One thing I am interested in is the noise of these drives. I imagine
someone is going to read this and say don't buy one if you want a
quiet computer. That isn't how I do things.

I gather these run quite hot, so I wanted to know if anyone has had
any experience with quieting and/or cooling one of these drives.
Actually any experience with these drives at all would be interesting.

Zalman has two hard drive coolers on their site, but they're both
'open' heatpipe coolers and are more dampeners than an enclosure. Any
other HD quieting solutions that will suit a raptor, or will dampening
them sort out most of the noise?

The only other decisions I have made are to use an aluminium case with
a 120mm fan and as big a LCD as I can afford. Probably a
hyper-threading big-cache P4. I've been AMD for the last 6 years and
reckon it's time to mix it up a bit, although the AMD 64's look
interesting.

Use will be games mostly, plus internet.

Mr Bond wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm looking at putting together my first completely all-new computer
> for myself in 8 years and am looking at where to start. The 74gig WD
> 10,000rpm sata raptor drives look like a damn fine place I think.
>
> One thing I am interested in is the noise of these drives. I imagine
> someone is going to read this and say don't buy one if you want a
> quiet computer. That isn't how I do things.
>
> I gather these run quite hot, so I wanted to know if anyone has had
> any experience with quieting and/or cooling one of these drives.
> Actually any experience with these drives at all would be interesting.
>
> Zalman has two hard drive coolers on their site, but they're both
> 'open' heatpipe coolers and are more dampeners than an enclosure. Any
> other HD quieting solutions that will suit a raptor, or will dampening
> them sort out most of the noise?
>
> The only other decisions I have made are to use an aluminium case with
> a 120mm fan and as big a LCD as I can afford. Probably a
> hyper-threading big-cache P4. I've been AMD for the last 6 years and
> reckon it's time to mix it up a bit, although the AMD 64's look
> interesting.
>
> Use will be games mostly, plus internet.

These would appear to be scsi drives with a sata interface. You will be
paying a huge premium for these, have to put up with noise and heat when
there maybe better solutions for less money or almost as good solutions
for a lot less money.

If your intent on wasting your $ without matching the hardware to a
specific need, why ask in here. Stating you want these drives without
why makes no sense, if you want bragging rights do it down the local
pub, I for one am not interested.

regards

Thing

Mr Bond wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm looking at putting together my first completely all-new computer
> for myself in 8 years and am looking at where to start. The 74gig WD
> 10,000rpm sata raptor drives look like a damn fine place I think.
>
> One thing I am interested in is the noise of these drives. I imagine
> someone is going to read this and say don't buy one if you want a
> quiet computer. That isn't how I do things.
>
> I gather these run quite hot, so I wanted to know if anyone has had
> any experience with quieting and/or cooling one of these drives.
> Actually any experience with these drives at all would be interesting.
>
> Zalman has two hard drive coolers on their site, but they're both
> 'open' heatpipe coolers and are more dampeners than an enclosure. Any
> other HD quieting solutions that will suit a raptor, or will dampening
> them sort out most of the noise?
>
> The only other decisions I have made are to use an aluminium case with
> a 120mm fan and as big a LCD as I can afford. Probably a
> hyper-threading big-cache P4. I've been AMD for the last 6 years and
> reckon it's time to mix it up a bit, although the AMD 64's look
> interesting.
>
> Use will be games mostly, plus internet.

Why do you need such a high end drive? Unless you are going to be
running a file server I cannot really see the need and usually space is
the concern for most people so you are probably better of spending the
same money and getting two nice 200 gig drives or 250 gig drives and
putting them in a nice Raid array .

If you are mostly going to be using the system for gaming, then you
might notice that AMD's 64bit processors are the kings in this area, so
again you could probably save yourself money and get an AMD 64 and it
will do the job better if gaming is your main area.

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 12:15:30 +1300, Z <> wrote:

>Mr Bond wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm looking at putting together my first completely all-new computer
>> for myself in 8 years and am looking at where to start. The 74gig WD
>> 10,000rpm sata raptor drives look like a damn fine place I think.
>>
>> One thing I am interested in is the noise of these drives. I imagine
>> someone is going to read this and say don't buy one if you want a
>> quiet computer. That isn't how I do things.
>>
>> I gather these run quite hot, so I wanted to know if anyone has had
>> any experience with quieting and/or cooling one of these drives.
>> Actually any experience with these drives at all would be interesting.
>>
>> Zalman has two hard drive coolers on their site, but they're both
>> 'open' heatpipe coolers and are more dampeners than an enclosure. Any
>> other HD quieting solutions that will suit a raptor, or will dampening
>> them sort out most of the noise?
>>
>> The only other decisions I have made are to use an aluminium case with
>> a 120mm fan and as big a LCD as I can afford. Probably a
>> hyper-threading big-cache P4. I've been AMD for the last 6 years and
>> reckon it's time to mix it up a bit, although the AMD 64's look
>> interesting.
>>
>> Use will be games mostly, plus internet.
>
>Why do you need such a high end drive? Unless you are going to be
>running a file server I cannot really see the need and usually space is
>the concern for most people so you are probably better of spending the
>same money and getting two nice 200 gig drives or 250 gig drives and
>putting them in a nice Raid array .
>
>If you are mostly going to be using the system for gaming, then you
>might notice that AMD's 64bit processors are the kings in this area, so
>again you could probably save yourself money and get an AMD 64 and it
>will do the job better if gaming is your main area.

I just notice the big difference at work between my desktop and our
server, which are basically idential p4 systems except the server has
a 10,000rpm scsi drive. Load times/installing stuff seem to be heaps
quicker.

Pricespy has the 74gig at $329 vs around $100 for an 80gig 7200. So
yes it is an expensive option when compared against other hard drives,
but in the context of a $2500-$3000 system it's not so bad.

I've had a 60gig seagate for around 2 years. I've had it full once,
but more usually have it around 60%. Everything above that is usually
bloat anyway.

Is there any speed increases when you put drives into a raid setup?

Mr Bond wrote:
> I'm looking at putting together my first completely all-new computer
> for myself in 8 years and am looking at where to start. The 74gig WD
> 10,000rpm sata raptor drives look like a damn fine place I think.
>
> Use will be games mostly, plus internet.


for those apps it won't make much of a difference - but i use a 36GB
raptor as the boot disk on a 3D workstation, and they are AWESOME
drives. load times of files/applications seem twice as fast on a raptor.
according to storagereview.com the 74GB raptors are supposed to be
quieter than the older 36GB versions like mine.

for my raptor i use the original Zalman heatpipe cooler (they have a 2nd
version out now), and its a good solution. the drives don't get that
hot, and make very little bearing noise, not enough to notice over the
average PC with 2 or 3 fans. the main noise concern with raptors for
some people might be the seek noise, but the huge dampers on the Zalman
heatpipe almost eliminate that. i have a Maxtor SATA fluid bearing
7,200rpm drive and it now seeks louder than the raptor/zalman combination.

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 13:06:18 +1300, Paul Gunson <>
wrote:

>Mr Bond wrote:
>> I'm looking at putting together my first completely all-new computer
>> for myself in 8 years and am looking at where to start. The 74gig WD
>> 10,000rpm sata raptor drives look like a damn fine place I think.
>>
> > Use will be games mostly, plus internet.
>
>
>for those apps it won't make much of a difference - but i use a 36GB
>raptor as the boot disk on a 3D workstation, and they are AWESOME
>drives. load times of files/applications seem twice as fast on a raptor.
>according to storagereview.com the 74GB raptors are supposed to be
>quieter than the older 36GB versions like mine.
>
>for my raptor i use the original Zalman heatpipe cooler (they have a 2nd
>version out now), and its a good solution. the drives don't get that
>hot, and make very little bearing noise, not enough to notice over the
>average PC with 2 or 3 fans. the main noise concern with raptors for
>some people might be the seek noise, but the huge dampers on the Zalman
>heatpipe almost eliminate that. i have a Maxtor SATA fluid bearing
>7,200rpm drive and it now seeks louder than the raptor/zalman combination.
>

Nice. Thanks for that.

I didn't imagine the internet would be any faster, but I've noticed
games loading times are getting quite bad on my current machine. My
thinking is that the load times will speed up if the drive they are
loading from speeds up.

In article <> in nz.comp on
Mon, 22 Nov 2004 12:51:06 +1300, Mr Bond <> says...
> On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 12:15:30 +1300, Z <> wrote:
>
> >Mr Bond wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I'm looking at putting together my first completely all-new computer
> >> for myself in 8 years and am looking at where to start. The 74gig WD
> >> 10,000rpm sata raptor drives look like a damn fine place I think.
> >>
> >> One thing I am interested in is the noise of these drives. I imagine
> >> someone is going to read this and say don't buy one if you want a
> >> quiet computer. That isn't how I do things.
> >>
> >> I gather these run quite hot, so I wanted to know if anyone has had
> >> any experience with quieting and/or cooling one of these drives.
> >> Actually any experience with these drives at all would be interesting.
> >>
> >> Zalman has two hard drive coolers on their site, but they're both
> >> 'open' heatpipe coolers and are more dampeners than an enclosure. Any
> >> other HD quieting solutions that will suit a raptor, or will dampening
> >> them sort out most of the noise?
> >>
> >> The only other decisions I have made are to use an aluminium case with
> >> a 120mm fan and as big a LCD as I can afford. Probably a
> >> hyper-threading big-cache P4. I've been AMD for the last 6 years and
> >> reckon it's time to mix it up a bit, although the AMD 64's look
> >> interesting.
> >>
> >> Use will be games mostly, plus internet.
> >
> >Why do you need such a high end drive? Unless you are going to be
> >running a file server I cannot really see the need and usually space is
> >the concern for most people so you are probably better of spending the
> >same money and getting two nice 200 gig drives or 250 gig drives and
> >putting them in a nice Raid array .
> >
> >If you are mostly going to be using the system for gaming, then you
> >might notice that AMD's 64bit processors are the kings in this area, so
> >again you could probably save yourself money and get an AMD 64 and it
> >will do the job better if gaming is your main area.
>
> I just notice the big difference at work between my desktop and our
> server, which are basically idential p4 systems except the server has
> a 10,000rpm scsi drive. Load times/installing stuff seem to be heaps
> quicker.
>
> Pricespy has the 74gig at $329 vs around $100 for an 80gig 7200. So
> yes it is an expensive option when compared against other hard drives,
> but in the context of a $2500-$3000 system it's not so bad.

Whatever you pay for it, in 1 year it will have depreciated by 66%. LOL

"Mr Bond" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 12:15:30 +1300, Z <> wrote:
>
>>Mr Bond wrote:
..
>
> I just notice the big difference at work between my desktop and our
> server, which are basically idential p4 systems except the server has
> a 10,000rpm scsi drive. Load times/installing stuff seem to be heaps
> quicker.

I don't think there's any question that a Raptor will be both measurably and
noticeably faster.
Among non-scsi drives, it's been in a category of its own for some time. The
only potential rival I've heard of is the new Seagates like the ST3160827AS
that support NCQ (with an NCQ-compatable motherboard, that is) -- you could
check StorageReview.Com to see if they have a comparative benchmark.

>
> Pricespy has the 74gig at $329 vs around $100 for an 80gig 7200. So
> yes it is an expensive option when compared against other hard drives,
> but in the context of a $2500-$3000 system it's not so bad.

The new Seagates I mentioned will be cheaper than the Raptors.

>
> I've had a 60gig seagate for around 2 years. I've had it full once,
> but more usually have it around 60%. Everything above that is usually
> bloat anyway.
>
> Is there any speed increases when you put drives into a raid setup?

RAID 0, yes, though results vary depending on how your machine is used.

Heat won't be an issue so long as you have a case that doesn't cram your
drives together. Also, your case selection can make a big difference in
terms of noise. Look for ones that feature things like rubber grommetting
around the drive trays.