fast drives (SATA) advice

I'm looking in to a little self Christmas present, and I'm thinking fast drives. SATA definitely (more on this later).
10,000 RPM Raptor? Is 36 gig enough if I plan to run Windows, maybe dual boot that with Linux in the future? Well, I know it is enough for that, but how many of my apps will I want to run on that drive? Photoshop, definitely, my video editors, yup...what about games?? Is the Raptor a good choice?

Will SATA 300 work with my SATA 150 enabled mobo and be available to the public reasonably within the next two months?

Please forgive my lack of knowledge in this area!!! I don't mean to ask the obvious.

Thanks a lot guys,
theflinger

 

Get a 74gig Raptor. They are louder than your standard 7200rpm, but nothing a good insulated case cant fix. Speed increase is well worth it though. SATA is backward compatible - the raptors also have TCQ which is compatible with SATA II spec (as long as you reinstall your OS in ACHI mode).

 

but SATA 300 wont go at 300 speeds through a 150 cable / interface, correct?

And noise isn't an issue, in this PC

Thanks man!


EDIT:
oooooh TCQ looks tasteh!!
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=22-144-160&DEPA=0
On sale for 153!!! damn!!!

 

Another vote for a 74GB Raptor. I literally got one the other day and i love it! I'm thinking of buying another actually...

 

thanks!! Look at that price, that's so much cheaper than I thought!!! 36 gig isn't even on the map anymore

Any reason I shouldn't go for that? (OEM shouldn't matter unless there is some weird thing where OEM is bad with hard drives (I have a few other OEM parts that work just great), maybe the warranty is an issue?)

(I just bought it.)
My mobo doesn't say if it supports TCQ, how can I figure this out? A tool maybe?

 

Here is a 74 Gig Raptor with a $25 Rebate

Newegg


oooops! Didn't see your previous link

 

thanks I posted that a while up

and it's ordered

 

I bought two of 'em. So, they cost more a piece. But, I can run them together in RAID when my nForce 4 board ships. I'll be adding two Maxtor Maxline III drives to take advantage of the NCQ. That means the best thing to do is put the OS on the Maxtor drives to take advantage of random reads.

 

For some reason I doubt a SATA300 drive would go to 300MBps even with a 300 cable/interface

 

I paid $115 for my 36GB Raptor, I wish I could have pidy that extra $37 for a 74GB Raptor.

I use my Raptor exclusively for games. I'm able to load games much faster. I use a 120GB for windows and my programs, and then an 80GB for movies, mp3s, etc (which will be upgraded soon )

 

The cables are the same?!

 

Interesting that you don't use windows (on the Raptor). Would you suggest that I do since I Have a 74 gigger?

 

I'd install windows/apps/some games onto a 74gig raptor

 

Thanks, that was what I was thiking too. Only install the games that need the performance.

There are no issues with installing games on the drive that doesn't have windows, right? If it needs to install to a system folder it will ask for my windows drive or detect I assume...

 

It shouldn't be a problem, I've done it many times with no issues