I been using standard drives on a Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe (Maxtor 7200 DMs)3200 athlon XP.6600GT nvidia AGP on my home comp which is just for general use, perhaps a bit dvd ripping, occasional gaming etc but nothing special as its just a work horse.
Recently needed a new tower so on the rebuild I had the chance of a cheap 36G raptor on ebay which I got to use as a system drive and bought a 250 gig maxtor sata DM(diamondmax) to store files on.
I also had the chance of 3gig of corsair XMS ddr400 which I also got.(previously had 2.5gig of hynix 3200 ram).
Did a clean install with all the usual anti virus software etc loaded and immediately noticed a MASSIVE improvement of speed in general of the whole system(did have to change the ram memory timimgs as these are nearly always detected wrong on this board).
I really am impressed with the whole "Aptitude" of the whole computer which I wanted to build and upgrade to use the parts I already got as opposed to upgrading to a 64 bit system. Lets say curiosity played a big part in this too as I heard about raptor and Corsair performance and wanted to try them on this board and processor-both of which I consider to be the best in the range( graphics card also considered to be decent).
As stated above the 36gig raptor is a little small and I was considering getting another one of the same to make a raptor raid array BUT I noticed you have not tested the 36 or 74gig raptors in a raid config either against each other or against any of the above drives/arrays and my question is
1 - would using a raid array of 36gig raptors significently out perform a standard 36 gig raptor
2 - would using a raid array of the 74gig raptors significently out perform the 36gig raid array
3 - have any improvements been made to the raptors in the 150gig size and if so how would a raid array of these stand up against the two lower ones

Silicon Image 3112 SATA Controller has TCQ support...

http://www.pcextreme.net/si3112.php

PATA has supported tagged command queueing for a while -- at least, IBM and Hitachi Deskstars since the 22GXP have supported it. If there's a PATA version of the WD740GD, perhaps it might be worthwhile to test that out.

First up, great review.

Only area of interest not covered, how much does the speed of a hd affect gaming. Wud b nice if u did a couple of gaming benchmarks (or as tleast one) as id b interested to see the results, if indeed there is any difference at all in FPS other than maybe loading times

http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2004q1/raptor-wd740gd/index.x?pg=12

The percent readings on the vertical scale should be 0.x or 1.x, not 0 or 1 ;-)

Those are nice benchmark readings.. although O_o @ #15

do you think these things run cool enough to stick in a Shuttle SFF cube?

maybe you should mention the controllers effect on the boot startup times?

If you had that SCSI controller in there with a SCSI drive attached (but not the boot drive), it surely would slow the S/PATA drives time down quite a bit due to the scanning of the SCSI bus.

Good review

I saw that Computer Repair Shop gave you the WD360GD for this review. Who supplied the WD740GD? Perhaps I missed it.

Now we just need to see two of them in RAID-0 get into a bandwidth bottleneck on the PCI bus...better yet, put two in RAID-0 on a southbridge SATA solution, like VIA's or Intel's.

50+ seconds boot time ? I run a pair of 36GB craptors in RAID 0 off an SIIG 3112 and I am at desktop in less than 20 seconds with AV software and other utilites running. Maybe they should run Spybot S&D on that box before testing ?

The other thing is that I have complained high and low about the performance of my craptors. I don't feel so bad now, because my benchmarks smoke the ones they got, including the PATA RAID. I didn't notice any mention of stripe size used for those tests.

As far as noise, I compare the craptors to my 85 Nissan Sentra @ curb idle. It's an automatic 3 speed though, so the craptors are quieter when compared to the Sentra @ 4Krpm / 70MPH. I think one of the CV joints is drying out though, so a replacement may put them on par with the craptors.

thanks for review
I have pair of raid 0 36 raptors op xp and am still impressed after 4+ /12 with the boot times and access compared to single 10k ibm scsi as boot disk. Pair of raid 0 120 gig wd as data / video dump are very useful.. Asus p4c800dlx mb with o/c 2.4 to 3.077 at normal voltage and intel fan seems to be ideal combo for my workstatn at reasonable cost even in australia.5 yr warranty is bonus as everthing else apart from good scsi has 12/12 warranty.

Good read Diss...hope the competition comes up with something...a lower price would be welcomed :)

#5,

I've got the same question #6 does. You complain, yet praise their performance. And frankly, hard drive performance numbers (from benchmarks) are tricky to interpret anyway.

I've worked with dual Raptor 360s a dozen times or more in various platforms (on ICH5, Si 3112 / 3114, and HPT 376 for starters) and always been very pleased with their performance.

I like the 740--but I wouldn't buy one. Of course in order for them to make sense in my current rig, I'd need to buy two, to replace my WD800JB's (in RAID 0). Frankly, I don't think its worth $500 to make that upgrade.

I have 3 of the 36GB Raptors myself, as Boot/OS drives.
Awsome drives, and they perform great, not loud to me at all.

I do not know if my work stations need the slight improvement that these 74GB drives offer, but If I was buying drives right now, i'd probably save up for these.

Also, it is hard for me to stomach 3 year warranty's, more or less one year ones.

I'd gladly pay more for the 5 year warrantys that WD offers.

Thanks for that, WD and keep it up.

EDIT:
Thanks for another great review, Geoff.
Nice to see that sound and heat were also taken into consideration.

I'm running off of a WD740GD right now. Fast and cool and quiet.