Is this hard drive worth it?

[5CheeseLasagna]

It's a Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB for $169.99, free shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136296

I'm looking to decrease the loading times for games like Quake 4 and especially Unreal II. I'm also looking to dramatically increase my system's overall performance (including Windows startup). My current (and only) system is in my signature.

How much of a difference do you think I'll notice?

This is the hard drive (x2) that I have right now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148262

[R3ap3R]

Meh; I would wait until Feb and get a SSD after the prices drop

[5CheeseLasagna]

Do we know how much a 120GB, or even 128GB would cost by then?

[ferrari]

Bloody expensive for 150GB buddy.

Why not just this? It has less speed but same cache and it's cheaper.
HITACHI DESKSTAR P7K500 500GB SATA-II 3.5IN 7200RPM 16MB

Norwegian price without tax is 65 bucks... Or something like that, will give you a lot more space.

[5CheeseLasagna]

Ferrari: I'm looking to decrease the loading times for games like Quake 4 and especially Unreal II. I'm also looking to dramatically increase my system's overall performance (including Windows startup). My current (and only) system is in my signature. My current HDD's are 7200 RPM HDD's. And I know quite well that $169.99 is very expensive for 150GB. I know I can get a 250GB for $54.99 from Newegg. My HDD's were $69.99. But I'm not concerned about the capacity. I'm concerned about the performance. Is this VelociRaptor worth it? Is it going to be that much of a difference to spend $170 to get a boost in performance? Or will it be just a tiny difference and I'll be let down? I mean, what would I notice going from a 7200 RPM drive to a 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor?

For the record, I have 16.8GB on C, and 22.5GB on D. Yeah, 39.3GB between two 250GB HDD's. I use C for installations, and D for storage such as My Documents and the Desktop. But I'm not looking at a smaller HDD because of the future. I just don't want to have to buy another some day too soon just because I didn't plan ahead.

But from the way it sounds, I'm more than likely just going to wait until the prices drop on the SSD's and see what I can get. But I think it's likely that by then, the VelociRaptor will be at an even better price which will make it even easier to buy. However, I don't truly know whether or not I can hold out until then.

The whole reason for my wanting decreased loading time has come about from having the 9800 GTX+. According to EVGA, I am right: it automatically takes advantage of HybridPower whether or not a motherboard supports it. But, since my mobo doesn't support it, I cannot control it at all. Here's how it works: when there's not enough demand, it underclocks itself to 300/600/100 (but for some reason, it's unable to underclock the memory). When the demand increases just enough, it jumps to 738/1836/1100 (or to the overclock I have set, whichever the case). This has caused problems. While loading a Quake 4 saved game, it underclocks because of the idle time. So, when the level loads, it clocks back up, but it takes about 2 seconds to respond to the increased demand.. This 2 seconds can mean I may have a BSOD, a crash, the game locks up, artifacts with a locked up game, or whatever. Or, it can just mean the first couple of seconds are at like 3 FPS. For some reason, I haven't had any problems lately. It has just become a plain old nuisance. But I always sit during loading time wondering what's going to happen.

This is not something I am able to fix. I've tried using Rivatuner, but that doesn't do me any good. I've tried ATI Tool, but I don't like that I can't adjust the shader clock. I've tried EVGA's Precision, but that's just a lite version of Rivatuner with a new GUI. I've tried NVIDIA's System Tools, but I get a BSOD when I try to access them. The BSOD says that NVIDIA's driver is the cause.

Anyway, the "fix" is to just decrease game's loading times, and then it wouldn't have a chance to underclock. Although, I think Unreal II is a lost cause. Those loading times are so long that by the time I get into, or back in the game, I have already forgotten what I am waiting for.

[ferrari]

I just don't think the performance gain will be worth it. After all that's a cheaper drive and almost 5 times as big. How much loading time do you think you'd save with the one over the other?

[eternaljammer]

Originally Posted by ferrari

I just don't think the performance gain will be worth it. After all that's a cheaper drive and almost 5 times as big. How much loading time do you think you'd save with the one over the other?

It would be a very marginal gain. Not worth the xtra cash.

[Kyle]

Well SSD's are getting cheaper
Maybe you could make your current drive a storage drive and put your OS and games on the SSD

[5CheeseLasagna]

Right on, Kyle. I'm thinking that's what I wanna do at first: make the first SSD I buy the location of where I install everything, and then continue to use my current 2nd Barracuda for storage like My Documents, Desktop, etc. until I can afford a 2nd SSD to replace it just because that would be awesome. lol

That way, the gain in performance wouldn't be just "marginal", right? hehehe And if I get smart enough, I'd RAID 0 like 3-4 of them!!! woo-hoo!