Raptor 150 GB vs Caviar 750 GB Performance Test
Introduction
When thinking about game performance many consider graphics cards, CPUs and even RAM as relevant, but seldom are hard-disks considered. Hard-disks won’t increase game framerates but they can reduce game startup times and save/load times, which means less time staring at progress bars and more time playing.
The Raptor series from Western Digital is an attempt to introduce enterprise class hard-disk performance into the enthusiast segment by boasting, among other things, a 10,000 RPM spindle speed. To this day this feature is unique to Raptor drives and SCSI hard-disks are required to match or exceed this spindle speed.
The Raptors have been upgraded several times over the years with larger capacities and better performance, but while this was happening, traditional 7200 RPM drives haven’t been sitting still either. Increases in areal density, perpendicular recording and larger caches have ensured 7200 RPM drives have also seen performance improvements over the years.
The question then becomes whether Raptor hard-disks are worth it given they typically have much smaller capacities and much higher cost per GB than 7200 RPM drives. There’s also the question of whether the 2800 RPM spindle speed advantage is offset by denser recording and platters.
I picked up a 150 GB Raptor at launch and it served me well for about one year, but I was starting to run out of space for my games. That and my desire to reduce hard-disk count to reduce heat, noise and cable clutter in my case prompted me to search for one big drive as a replacement, and I finally settled on a Western Digital 750 GB Caviar Blue.
In the past I’ve found interesting effects on game loading times as a result of hard-disk changes, so these two drives were perfect to test against each other. For the tests I picked an assortment of games known for long loading times to see how both drives handle real-world gaming. Each game was timed when loading a saved game.
