Right on cue, Tom has done an article on Raptor vs raid http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/12/cheap_raid_ravages_wd_raptor/
You will notice on this page: http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/12/cheap_raid_ravages_wd_raptor/page7.html It shows the raptor at a max Speed of 85MB/s and a RAID 0 Array at 125MB/s I can grab 2 250GB 7200RPM drives for approx $130.00 for the pair these days. Or a Pair of 500GB HD's for $300.00 If you do regular daily Backups, a RAID 0 Array is JUST fine or even more than adequate. I do Music and light Video Editing. I have found my RAID arrays (cost/Megabyte/speed) are more than enough than grabbing a raptor. On a 50% full Array I manage an avg throughput of 105MB/s For the music people, means I can run a 200 Track mix with no hiccups. In our world (trading) thats total overkill. Large locl databases dont require that speed. In a Networked environment with tons of users accesing the Data, I can see and even justify a raptor, but in a single user environment.... I becomes an ego thing. Just gotta have the latest and greatest even if the computer spends 99% of it's time waiting on you to hit a key. I have yet to see my system hit 30% processor useage when trading, watching 16 charts, and 24 indicator subcharts, running to order entry platforms, watching a Quicktime Movie AND surfing the web at the same time.... But hey, my Cousin was a Big Trader in the 90's and he was the overkill king. LOL. Whatever works for you. At least you have sound advice and real hard data to keep you informed. BTW I had 4-75GB WD 10K Hard Drives. They were loud, HOT and noisy. Now they sit in a box in a file cabinet..... And yes I had them RAIDED...
Raptor does sounds like a V8 engine (not the noise level but the 'deep' sound) I really like it and would not go back to 7200 drives, boots definitely faster.
Of course you can decrease your boot times even further by turning off alot of the crap that trys to load at boot time in Windows. I effectually get about 30 second boot time of XP on a 5400 RPM hard drive after I trimmed the fat. Of course I can clock it to be sure.... (be back in a bit. LOL)
The speed of your hard drive should not be a factor for a trading PC - everything should be running from memory, your hard drive IO utilization should be low enough that it doesnt matter if the drive is 7.2k or 10k. If the hard drive speed makes any substantial difference then you should be looking at getting more RAM for your system, not a faster spinning drive.
Well said I have 2GB on my system and memory useage is about 1.57 GB with all the junk I have running.
"speed of your hard drive should not be a factor for a trading PC - everything should be running from memory, your hard drive IO utilization should be low enough that it doesnt matter if the drive is 7.2k or 10k -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well said I have 2GB on my system and memory useage is about 1.57 GB with all the junk I have running." I have a RAID 0 with 2 raptors, a 3.52 Overclocked 6200, and would kill someone if they tried to take my raptors away from me. Screw bootup, EVERYTHING opens faster. TS opens much faster, TC2007 open 1/2 the time. And caching historical info with a fast cable rocks. If you are a poor trader stay away since you need to save every cent. If you want everything to work without delay when opening anything, you cannot go wrong. Disk access and throughput (not bus speed) is a simple concept, learn it naysayers. Of course getting Raptor without a fast system to back it is a waste of time, unless you are planning on upgrading soon to "catch up". And to the poster who mentioned bus speed compared to SCSI, who cares. My servers can't even use that bus speed. Thanks to SATA the manufactures are finally making consumer hard drives at 10k. Bus speed is still way beyond hard drive speed that it only counts in marketing or if you have a SAN with multiple RAIDS accessing the same bus.