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Fast desktop alternative to the WD Raptor

It's been a long time since I bought a hard drive so I've been doing a little shopping. My primary concern is cost and performance (size really is not) I've been looking at the ultra fast WD raptor drives but at 160 for a 150 GB drive, I can't help wondering if I can't get a larger, cheaper drive that performs nearly as well. I was hoping I'd find an expert that had already had a similar shopping trip and could save me the time at looking at a whole bunch of reviews.

SOLUTION

Sniper98G

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ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

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hmmmm... should have 'refreshed' first. ; )

MSRamrod

The 10K RPM raptors are amazing, but depending on what you are using it for, are usually not necessary. They produce more heat and use more power than other 7,200 RMP drives. If preformance is truly your concern then check out the speeds you can get from the newer SSD drives. The preformance is sick on these little guys, of course so is the price. The only thing they do lack is drive space. Compared to the currintly available 1.5 TB 7200 RMP drives with 32 MB of cache, most people go with the one that takes years to fill.

SOLUTION

Gary Case

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b_levitt

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The WD black is what I'm going with and the link for tom's help me confirm. SSDs are awesome but just too expensive right now.

Thank you much. : )

>> late breaking news
I just got one of my mags in, and the Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 is out now, and should be under $150.00 USD
That is a 1TB drive with only 2 platters (higher areal density) instead of 3 or 4 platters.