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Hardware Western Digital VelociRaptor 600GB Review

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Claave, 23 Aug 2010.

  1. Claave

    Claave You Rebel scum

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  2. bulldogjeff

    bulldogjeff The modding head is firmly back on.

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    It seems, as good as it is, it's landed in the middle of nowhere, in terms of performance/price ratio, which makes it a bit of an odd ball. I think for people needing to access large files it'll be a winner, where a SSD wont be large enough.
     
  3. Cyberpower-UK

    Cyberpower-UK Professional Overclocker

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    It sits on a delicate niche where both capacity and performance are required and you can't justifythe cost of SSDs.
     
  4. Kovoet

    Kovoet What's a Dremel?

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    Think I might get one because of the size capacity of it.
     
  5. Omnituens

    Omnituens What's a Dremel?

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    Thinking of getting one to replace my 300GB one, and putting that into a smaller LAN rig (hauling my 840 classic around is breaking my spine more than a Heavy after a sandvich)
     
  6. [PUNK] crompers

    [PUNK] crompers Dremedial

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    get a 128/256GB SSD and keep the old 300GB?

    i could see the point, if it was cheaper and it would have to be a lot cheaper lets face it. at that price point they're putting a lot of people out of the market.
     
  7. qupada

    qupada What's a Dremel?

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    After recent experiences I wouldn't touch these with a barge pole. I really, really hope they've done something about the reliability because over a 5 month run I was forced to RMA fourteen of the 300GB model (record installation to failure time 4 days 7 hours). This made for some pretty scary data safety moments, even in a RAID-6 array. "Enterprise storage" in such big letters on the label feels like some kind of cruel joke.
    Did I just get a bad batch? Anyones guess, but have not had a single blip from the array in 6 months after switching to 1000GB Seagate ES.2 disks (at 15% of the per gigabyte price).

    The 300GB model also only had 2 platters, cramming another one in there has not I imagine done wonders for thermal output. The design of the heatsink on these and the 300GB 'GLFS' model doesn't seem to have the heatsink fins optimally directed for the direction of airflow in most cases either.

    Bring on the 600GB Intel SSDs the recently leaked roadmap is promising. Just don't eat anything when picking up the price list, I imagine choking is likely to occur :)
     
  8. Omnituens

    Omnituens What's a Dremel?

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    Can't do that - my steam directory + games are pushing the limits of my 300GB velociraptor, which is the main reason for the possible upgrade.
     
    Last edited: 23 Aug 2010
  9. stonedsurd

    stonedsurd Is a cackling Yuletide Belgian

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    Jurassic Park :thumb:

    In the graphs, shouldn't it be "incompressible" instead of "uncompressable"?

    Shame that the new VRs just aren't competitive anymore. 5x the price per GB is too much for the few percentage points of performance.
     
  10. Valver

    Valver I’m an AquaTuning product tester

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    You can use Junction points to split your Steam games across multiple disks if you like (google them, theyre like shortcuts, only for directories) Keep the commonly used new games on th SSD and have the older stuff on a second hard disk. Use: http://www.rekenwonder.com/linkmagic.htm
     
  11. Omnituens

    Omnituens What's a Dremel?

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    I am quite aware of junction points. I rather have everything on one drive for ease of backing up.

    Boot Drive
    Games Drive
    Mass Storage 1, 2, 3 etc
     
  12. BlackMage23

    BlackMage23 RPG Loving Freak

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    They Really need to be half the price to have any real chance of success.
    £200 is in the realms of cheap SSD's which may not have much space but will give better performance.
     
  13. CharlO

    CharlO What's a Dremel?

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    Why they didn't include the window? It was awesome tought pointless :p
     
  14. [USRF]Obiwan

    [USRF]Obiwan What's a Dremel?

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    Hmmmmm 210 for 2x2TB or 600GB....

    Not a hard decision!
     
  15. LightningPete

    LightningPete Diagnosis: ARMAII-Holic

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    Think WD are living in a time freeze, or some sort of wormhole, where time cant be kept any further than 2003. Its 2010, and were hitting the road running now, especially in financially difficult times. This satisfies nothing that the general consumer or business enterprise markets want. So this is really a flop with an upgrade to what the hell are you doing here slapped on its side.
     
  16. sheninat0r

    sheninat0r What's a Dremel?

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    I thought the windowed Raptor X models ran slower and louder than their non-windowed brothers? Eh, maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but the difference couldn't have been big. I agree that re-adding the window would have made this drive more attractive to eye candy enthusiasts, to whom the plain black rectangles of SSDs must look like poo.
     
  17. SuicideNeil

    SuicideNeil What's a Dremel?

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    Interesting observation about the F3s though- so many people sing their praises yet the Caviar Blacks seem to perform better in most instances. Anyone wanna suggest the best brand of ordinary HDDs?

    Cant imagine Im the only person that has noticed with each month's buyers guide that '500GB HDD' is suggested, with no recommendation as to which brands exactly... :/
     
  18. sear

    sear What's a Dremel?

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    This is quite surprising. I own a WD Caviar Black 2 TB and at the time of its release it was actually faster than the Raptors of the time. It's still a ludicrously fast hard disk, it boots Windows 7 in something like 30 seconds. I'm kind of amazed a mechanical drive is capable of going so quickly.
     
  19. Bloody_Pete

    Bloody_Pete Technophile

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    Because the F3 is £45 now, so just get 4 and put them in RAID0...
     
  20. kingjohn

    kingjohn mod this sucker

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    whats more important a gpu that is able to play the games at reasonable res and high setting or a hard drive that is seconds faster than the others . its goood that western is pushing tech hardware to the point of its ability but at those £s it isnt for me .
     
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