yeah I'm not sure who is buying velociraptors these days..like you said yourself in the conclusion section, for that price you could buy a decent SSD for the OS and a nice quiet storage drive. I just don't see the appeal to the 10K RPM drives anymore..

The caviar black makes a little more sense, but I would still rather spend a little extra to buy a small-ish SSD and big caviar green.

When these sata 6 gbps drives are tested, do you use a sata 6 gbps controller? Would you expect to see better performance out of them for the same amount of noise that way? Would there be any change in acoustics by using the 6gbps controller? The seagate XT from last week was tested with what looked like a 3gbps link as well.

no -- to all your queries. 6Gb/s translates to 600MB/s transfer rate, which no HDD can even get close to. Ditto 3 Gb/s. Very hgh end SSDs might push against 3 Gb/s but definitely not 6.

The Velociraptor is a specialist drive, similar to what Raptor was. Instead of a system hard disk, it's a very fast data drive that comes much cheaper than SSDs of similar size. Some people are obviously buying them, otherwise WD would not continue to put out new versions.

Great review! Seemed like you'd never review anything but complete systems for a while but two great HDD reviews in a row makes me a very happy man .

WD Black continues to be a worthy 7200 drive although I think the increase in noise compared to a standard 7200 RPM drive is too much. Suspending it would make it a lot quieter but I fear it would be the most audible component by far.
The velociraptor is somewhat of a mystery to me, sure it offers a lot more storage for the money compared to a SSD but the cost is still to high. I'd save up for a SSD anytime.

Looks like the Samsung Spinpoint F3 is best choice for 1TB drive no idea about 2TB but I'm glad I never bought one the WD Black 1TB noise maker. There loud and viberate alot I'm surpised there so popular with these major flaws.

It's easy to forget, but a lot of users don't care about acoustics. All they see is a big fast drive with a lengthy warranty.

600 GB of SSD space currently means another x5 price hike compared to the Velociraptor (x10 if you have room for just one drive). This moves it from fast+expensive data drive to a drive costing more than the rest of a high-end PC. I'm sure hybrid drives will get better performance and SSDs will get cheaper in time, but at the moment, this is a good data storage device for a high-end rig.

Yeah but when you say data storage, you can really only be talking about use as a scratch disk for high def audio/video editing, right? For movies, music, and raw picture storage, a 5400 RPM drive will load them all with negligible latency and at a fraction of the cost of a velociraptor...and let us not forget about quietness.

so I guess that leaves a very small niche for the people who need performance for a scratch disk, but can't really afford a big enough SSD..and to me this seems like a very small niche indeed. then again, liek modo said, some people are buying them or they wouldn't be made.

nice review.

Yes, I meant large data sets requiring fast access. Workstations and DIY servers could be enough of a market. Or is it Google?

SSD's are still too new too nuts in price to be considered.

I wish SPCR would drop the mention constantly as they are a complete ripoff. YEah sure a 60gb is cheap, but buying 2 hd's isnt cheap.

too bad the 600gb raptor didnt hit 1TB. then it would fly off the shelves. most people dont need much more than that, and if they do, they might have a nas or a remote second linux box.

An 80 GB Intel SSD (OS, games, work data) plus a 500 GB 2.5" hard disk (movies, music) will set you back about as much as a 600 GB Velociraptor while providing much better performance and generating less noise. Is this the "rip off" you are talking about?

2TB hard disk drives are popping up at under $100. A small fast SSD + large slow HDD combo is an easy choice for speed, storage and low noise.

SSD is a huge performance boost, immediately noticeable. Well worth the price.

I have converted a few systems at work to SSD (mostly 40GB Intel drives), and a lot of computer-related frustration has been eliminated.

60gb is so miniscule, I dont have that even on 8 year old crap laptops. I dont think most people do much with their pc's if 60gb covers their loaded programs and apps.

[quote="~El~Jefe~"]60gb is so miniscule, I dont have that even on 8 year old crap laptops. I dont think most people do much with their pc's if 60gb covers their loaded programs and apps.[/quote]

Although I wouldn't buy an SSD less than 80gb, I think you're overestimating exactly how much space you need for an OS and crucial apps. I know so many people that solely have a computer for checking facebook and email every 10 minutes. This means all they need is windows + web browser. EVERYTHING ELSE can get stored (and installed) on an HDD. So you're right, most people don't do much with their PC's.

As for me, I would have only a handful more applications than just chome...60 would probably be plenty for me. Anything that you dont load on a daily basis, at startup, or don't care how fast it loads gets dumped onto a HDD.

EDIT: why are quotes broken??

[quote="Modo"][quote="~El~Jefe~"]
I wish SPCR would drop the mention constantly as they are a complete ripoff. YEah sure a 60gb is cheap, but buying 2 hd's isnt cheap.[/quote]
An 80 GB Intel SSD (OS, games, work data) plus a 500 GB 2.5" hard disk (movies, music) will set you back about as much as a 600 GB Velociraptor while providing much better performance and generating less noise. Is this the "rip off" you are talking about?[/quote]
Yeah VelociRaptor has definitely lost a lot of its appeal now that SSD prices are dropping. As mentioned, you can get an SSD + HDD for about the same price, and get much better performance and much more storage than a 600GB VR would offer. 600GB VR is about $280. 120GB SF-1200 based SSDs can be found for about $200 and then you can get a 2TB 5400RPM drive for about $100. Assuming you can fit OS/apps/games on the 120GB disk (should be plenty of space for most people), the decision seems like a no-brainer to me.