Takaharu

If money was no object, would you choose a 250GB SSD or a 300GB Velociraptor and why?
This is taking into consideration that the hard drive would be the primary drive with the OS and installed applications, when files are stored on other drives; say, for argument's sake, twin 1TB drives.

I've seen a few articles about SSD vs VR but they're usually based on 32GB or 64GB SSD and similarly small VR drives.

__________________

BlueMak

I don't trust the technology behind SSDs so I would go for the dinosaur.
300GB is not enough btw, at least if you are a gamer.

__________________
The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

simonw

SSD for me, mainly because they are faster, less heat, silent, and no mechanical moving parts.

Tipstaff

IF I was using Windows 7, Mac OS X, or Linux, I would have an SSD for my main drive, but have a "traditional" mechanical drive for everything else. Hell, I'd have a fast SSD, and a Velociraptor.

IF I wasn't using the above OS's, mechanical all the way. There's just too much babysitting to do with SSDs on other OS's (special pre-formating to do on XP, plus TRIM operations that need to keep being run to maintain drive speed). Speaking of TRIM, if it f's up while doing it's job you can kiss your data goodbye.

If money were no object I wouldn't be going with a Velociraptor though, instead looking to SAS to get access to the 15K drives. For now SAS and SATA transfer speeds are roughly the same, but SAS's bandwidth is going to double soon, so that'd be another plus in SAS's favor.

__________________

SeraphicSorcerer

I don't know 2 V-raps in raid 0 can be pretty formiddable, and the price point is better for the space provided. However, Within 2-3 years you'll be seeing SSDs as main solutions.

__________________

MitchRapp

300gb is more than enough for an OS drive... well anyways you can also take a look at the WD Black Edition drives. They are quiet, fast and much much cheaper. I just got the 640gb and made it my OS drive but I would have taken a single-platter 320gb if they made one.

It runs faster then my previous OS drive (Raptor 160gb)

CitySlicker

SSD for sure but technology is still too fragile - short life span for that kind of money!

If you want reliable/lasting technology stick to those platter screamers..

Takaharu

I could never justify myself to pay over £300 for a hard drive, considering I could upgrade to a Core i7 (with motherboard and 6GB DDR3) for about £500 or buy a quad-core PC, motherboard, 2GB DDR3, hard drive, DVD-RW, case, PSU and 4870 for about £400. After looking at the SSD I thought of a VR and wondered which one is preferred (rather than judging by reviews) if they had the choice.

I had a look at the WD Black and found out it was closely rivalled by the Hitachi DeskStar 7K1000.B, which has about the same performance, except for the read throughput. I've also found it's cheaper (£60 for WD at 750GB, £58 for H at 1TB). If I'm going to with a new HDD though, I think I'd choose the WD as I've had good experience with them.

__________________

MitchRapp

yeah WD is great ... and it's a 5-year warranty instead of 3 on most drives

procupine14

Pretty much the general rule for main drives that actually see action all the time I always choose WD or seagate. Usually I run Western Digital for all of my main drives unless I get a really good deal on seagate.

as far as the SSD versus VR debate I would say under 7 I would be using an SSD and under any other OS probably a VR just for the sake of what has already been said by others as well.

You know Lowfat needs to comment on this since im pretty sure he's had both of these in multiple combinations in the recent times

__________________
Laptop: HP dv6000 - Vista Ultimate (32-bit) - AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60(2.0GHz) - NVIDIA GeForce Go 7200 256MB - 4GB Kingston DDR2 667 - 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

HTPC: Vista Ultimate 64-bit - AMD Athlon 5200+ x2 - 4GB OCZ DDR2 800 - 250GB Seagate Barracuda - Samsung EcoGreen 1TB - Hauppauge single tuner HD - ASUS Radeon HD4550 512MB - ECS RS485M-M mobo - Creative X-fi soundcard

Other PC: Vista Ultimate 64-bit - AMD Athlon 4200+ X2 - 4GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 - 250GB Seagate Barracuda - XFX 8600GT XXX - DFI Infinity NF570 SLI-M2/G

Judas

Not sure where you guys are using up all your memory.. i rarely use more then 60gb with both OS and a few games and programs i have installed...

IMO

Windows 7 x64 (you can get home premium for as little as 140 bucks) and then 1 or 2 of the Fastest highest rated SSD's from corsair/intel/OCZ...

One of those drives typically blows the doors of any of the fastest standard HDs even in raid 0.

__________________

BlueMak

After uninstalling several games, I have about 300GB installed. I change taste for what I want to play very often and I don't feel like reinstalling very often.
60GB both for OS and the rest of C: is a joke for me.

__________________
The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.