Caption : My case with the Raptor's Raided on the Bottom. SATA Cables are damn sweet. That's a 1200jb on top.
Hey guys, after using the drives for 2 weeks here's what I have to say about them
Pros -
Amazingly fast. Paired with the 3.06 and the Abit IC7 the Raptors load windows and games extremly quickly. I'm not going to make it out like these drives are super drives, but I can tell you this...they move data like the mississippi moves water.
Quiet. (There's a strange exception to this, read under cons) The drives are extremely quiet considering they run at 10,000 RPM. Definately quieter then some drives I've had the unpriveledge of using...ahem deathstar ahem.
Cool. The drives have been pretty cool for me. They are slightly warm to the touch after extensive use, but not as bad as my maxtor drives.
Serial ATA. The cables rule, the look is great, and the interface is fast. Talk about damn skippy.
Power. The raptors unlikes Seagates ATA drives also uses 4 pin molex connectors. The Seagates require you to buy a convertor, talk about jerks.
Cons -
Cost. 2 drives cost $180 a piece. $360 for....
Space. 75 gigs of space? at 37.4 gig's a piece, the raptor drives are small compared to the price. Unless you are a serious gamer, developer, or encoder...a normal Special edition or possibly a Maxtor DiamondMax 9 SATA drive with 160gb storage space is better for you. You will get the fastest performance available to the market with 2 or more Raptors in a raid, but you have to consider what size : performance : cost ratio suits you best.
High pitch whine : If you try to listen, the drives give a high pitch whine. It's not that bad for me unless I really listen, but it sounds similiar to the noise of a tv being on with the electron gun charged up but no other sounds to blanket it. Definately bearable, but still a nuisance.
Well guys, that's it. If you want me to run any benchmarks tell me which one you would like and link me.