10000 rpm HDD - is the extra speed worth the extra noise?

petal · Post by **petal** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 3:33 am

I'm about to upgrade my HDD-capacity, and I was thinking about upgrading my system with a Western Digital Raptor 10000 rpm HDD.

Does anyone of you have any experience with these HDD, and is there a noticable boost in overall system speed?
This isn't a tracking issue since I've never met that limit with my needs on a 7200 rpm, but overall system speed-boosts are allways welcome.

So are 10000 rpm hdd's recommendable or are the added noise (scream ?) not worth it?

Cheers!
Thomas

petal · Post by **petal** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 10:23 am

I guess what I'm looking for is someone who can tell me: "They don't scream at all"

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 11:49 am

maybe you can mount 2 of them in a way that their noise phase extinguishes...

but seriously - probably the fans to keep them cool are even more noisy (never heard one 'live' tho)

to extend the question, I'd be interested in the difference (any at all ?) between SATA and SCSI versions - real world, not spec sheets

cheers, Tom

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 3:00 pm

I have an extremely noisy box with a Vantec Tornado,( 4 x ) Raptors in a SATA RAID Cage.
WD360G # 1 O.S. + Apps.
WD360G # 2 Gigapulse Convulutions
( 2 x ) WD740Gs in RAID 1 with GS3 Orch. samples

3Ware SATA RAID Cage 4 HDDs in a 3 x 5 1/4" space. When I disconnect the Vantec CPU fan, the box is quite quiet considering its' powerful stack. But this is for GS3, not Scope. Giga gets 40 more voices on Giga II 160 with Raptors, but GS3 has been reworked so that Raptors probably wouldn't matter. These little buggars are quite depenable from what I've read on the users forums on the internet. Storage review forums show no negativity, they are actually bored now that nothing exciting has happened since the Raptors release.

wayne · Post by **wayne** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 5:51 pm

Just replaced my SCSI twin 10k box - it is reminiscent of two tiny Mig21s taxiing to take off.

petal · Post by **petal** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 2:31 am

ok, I'm beginning to think that it is not worth the extra speed in my situation.

thanks all for your input on this matter!

Cheers!
Thomas

jea · Post by **jea** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 1:20 am

Hi Petal,

I would prefer *not* to soundproof the computer.....

I would instead move the computer away, perhaps 5 meters away, which is the magic limit on FireWire, USB, and some datacables.

If you stream samples from disk, or have lots of tracks, you will benefit from 10k rpm disks.

petal · Post by **petal** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:25 am

Thanks all for your input - I don't think that 10000 rpm hdd's is for me yet. I don't really need it, and especially not if I'm going to get ekstra noise and heat in my pc.

I think I'll go for volume instead.

Cheers all!
Thomas

infiniti · Post by **infiniti** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 1:27 pm

I have a 10,000 RPM HD and a 15,000 RPM SCSI HD in the same case and I don't mind the noise at all.

My CPU fan makes more noise.

As for heat, I have an HD cooler on the SCSI drive and a couple of silent fans in the case that direct air flow across the other HD.

infiniti · Post by **infiniti** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:33 pm

On 2006-01-12 14:01, stardust wrote:
On 2005-10-13 04:33, petal wrote:
So are 10000 rpm hdd's recommendable or are the added noise (scream ?) not worth it?
no they are not worth it.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: stardust on 2006-01-12 14:02 ]</font>

Care to elaborate?

maakbow · Post by **maakbow** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:09 am

I guess what I'm looking for is someone who can tell me: "They don't scream at all"

they dont scream at all...I have 2 raptors in raid 0 config....blazing..you cant measure these things on paper and numbrs...experience is the only reliable teacher.
I have two other drives in my computer and fan noise is still louder than them all..AND I have the quietest Zalman cooler I could find at the slowest speed.

The hardrives and [all other hardware for that matter] is suspended by rubber.

My computer case is made of 18mm MDF though

Maak

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: maakbow on 2006-02-06 04:16 ]</font>

DaveH · Post by **DaveH** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:42 am

I have three systems here running raptor drives in raid mode.
They have been in use for over 12 hours a day since the raptors
came out. (Almost two years now if I remember correctly).

Is it worth it? Depends on what you are going to use them for.
I run circuit simulations (spice) combined with an assembly language
debugger all on one of the systems. (This is simulating both analog and
digital designs). In the order of up to 500,000 gates. This is also simulating
the test equipment. Oscilloscope, logic analyzer, etc. Could not do this
without the raptors.

One of the others systems turned into the “office” computer doing emails,
running excel and a bunch of business stuff. I would say the raptors are
not showing their stuff in that system. (Waste of money).

The HD’s themselves don’t make the noise. Cheap fans do.
The one system that’s used in the studio has quite “more expensive” fans.

The office and “simulator” systems have noisy, cheaper fans.
(Noisy is relative, for me this means I could not use them in a recording
studio).

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 11:33 am

It makes me feel good to hear my investment in 4 raptors was solid. I use to think that HDD cache size was important, but have found out that rpm's are what make audio apps like GS3 happy. 15k rpm probably wouldn't show that much more improvement in GS3, but the difference 7200 rpm to 10k rpm is noticable, and the sound of the fans is louder.

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:08 pm

This Just In,
All Scope/GS3 users be aware of the 3rd generation Raptors. I have a stable system, but have many spare parts that I will use in the future due to uncertainty about PCI-e, and CWA's sucess w/ ASBs. I fear change in live performances where a stable rig need not be tweaked. However, by summertime I will be adding VDAT, STS-5000, to some of my gigs, so an upgrade to more Gigabytes is inevitable. What better than a 16MB cache, 4.6ms,150GB, 10k rpm Raptor!! I have 2 of the 360G, 2 of the 740G, and well I guess I'll be getting 2 of the 1500G Raptors this May. Can't wait. My 360Gs are great O.S. +apps drives, the 740gs were good for GS3 till I starting buying the Symphonic sounds and such. These 740's will be VDAT drives, and the 1500's will be just big enough for the GS3 libraries.

Addictingly Yours,