WD VelociRaptor 300 GB/s 10K RPM

Darian929

Hello techy's I have been thinking of buying one of these new 300 gb raptors which are supposed to be faster than the 150 gb/s versions and I found them cheap on ebay and was wondering if I buy one of these... they are 2.5" would I be able to buy an external enclosure and use it as an external hard drive? The reason why I am asking is because I would like to have an OS on it and put on it a lot of tech software for troubleshooting for myself and for when i go repair a friends computer and things like that so I can just use it as an external for task like that. Hope you guys understand.... and if you have a better solution to my idea please let me know as I am always willing to learn. Thanks!

Talic

You can buy it and put it in a 2.5 external drive case, it's a 2.5 drive but comes with a heatsink that allows you to mount it in a 3.5 drive bay. As for using it as a external drive... I think it's a bit overkill. If you're going to use USB, it'll be capped out by the slower 1.5 to 60 MByte/s (which happens to be shared by all the other devices you have that are USB) where the VelociRaptor transfers data 100 to 187 MB/s.

I also think you might run into heat problems with some of the external drive enclosers, Raptors are made to have some airflow around them since they run pretty hot and I doubt some of enclosers have enough for drive like that.

So if you want a external drive I think you should just get a regular drive, but if you want a drive to use as a regular hdd then a raptor should do you good there.

dynamik

You can get good speeds if you use eSATA. I wouldn't take it out of its enclosure though. Those things have to run pretty hot. You can just get a 3.5" enclosure though.

Darian929

Hey guys thanks for the quick answers I guess my question really is as a future A+ certified tech I want to have a tool such as a usb/hd/cd's that will carry most if not all of my information for when I go to fix computers. I am looking for the best choice and I would like to know what would you suggest? Would you guys suggest I use a 16,32,or 64 gb USB as a forms of having an OS and software for troubleshooting other machines or would you suggest an external hard drive for means of travel... or maybe other alternatives that I dont know off. Any suggestions would help.

dynamik

USB flash drive all the way. You can get ridiculous sizes for reasonable prices. You might want to carry a few ultimate boot/live CDs with you as well.

tiersten

Using one of those drives in an external enclosure is overkill. You can pick up a slower drive instead which will have significantly more capacity for the same price.

I'd personally go for dynamik's suggestion and use a flash drive. You can keep that in a folder or on a keyring. Not quite so easy to dangle a HD off your keys

Darian929

alright guys thanks for the recommendations I guess ill go with the flash drive then since its true that it's much easier to carry around than a hd. Anyways you guys have any good experience with any good flash drive that has a lot of space? Let me know any brand I should look out for. Thanks.

deadpool287

OCZ(4gb), Sandisk Cruzer(1gb), Attache(4gb) and a Sony Micro Vault(4GB) have been good to me. all of them have endured much abuse....

in order of how long i have had them

Sandisk-20 months
Sony micro Vault-14 months
Attache-7 months
OCZ-3 months



I have heard good thing about Patriot as well.

tiersten

I've got a few Corsair, Sandisk and Kingston drives and they've all worked with no problems. It all depends on how fast you want it to go really. The price of even the fastest ones isn't particularly great any more so you might as well go for them.