NCIX Deal of the Day - 300GB Velociraptor (HLFS) for $250 with Free Shipping

[TriggerHappy]

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=36681&promoid=1146

I don't need it, I shouldn't buy it, but wow do I want it.

This is the HLFS version that has the proper backplane and apparently slightly better performance/power consumption.

Cheapest I see outside of that is BestDirect at ~$280 but without Free shipping.

[MrDisco]

man ncix has been on the ball with these daily deals! i've got this drive - very quick and quieter then I expected. if i didn't have one i'ld jump on this deal.

[enko]

Damnit. Just received my 1500HLFS that I ordered from NCIX on Friday. Dammmmmmnnn! 70$ more would have gotten me this one :(

[number8888]

Now I have to decide if I want a SSD or this one ...

[always]

With SSD performance increasing and prices decreasing in such a short amount of time, i no longer see a reason to purchase a Velociraptor, even for this price, when you can get a 1TB WD Black for $100 on sale.

[RunnerForDeals]

With SSD performance increasing and prices decreasing in such a short amount of time, i no longer see a reason to purchase a Velociraptor, even for this price, when you can get a 1TB WD Black for $100 on sale.


Well first you compare SSD to a VelociRaptor which I totally understand and can see, then you try to compare both of those to a standard WD Black 1GB?!?! That is where your credibility looses me.

[e1e0n]

Well first you compare SSD to a VelociRaptor which I totally understand and can see, then you try to compare both of those to a standard WD Black 1GB?!?! That is where your credibility looses me.

I think the point is to have super fast dirve(s in raid) for speed critical data/programs and have a lot of cheap storage for other data. You should not waste money to store videos on super fast media. So, it make sense to have OS and most used programs on ssd and leave most data on regular HDD. It will not make any difference for video streamed from SSD or HDD or LAN... While raptor is fast, SSD is much faster anyway because of seeking time ~0ms, even read/write speed is about the same. So, SSD + some cheap HDD is the way to go

[Psycho77]

With SSD performance increasing and prices decreasing in such a short amount of time, i no longer see a reason to purchase a Velociraptor, even for this price, when you can get a 1TB WD Black for $100 on sale.

Really ? Ill still buy a velociraptor over a SSD until SSD got bigger and way cheaper. Still cant compare them.

(Note i have a raptor in my PC, and it worth every penny)

[Amourek]

Tempting.

[kleptodathief]

baller HD! how fast is this thing? 3x the speed of the wd black cavs?

[mr_saturn]

Ohhh man I want this, but I gotta wait for SSD. Plus $250 for a hard drive is still pretty crazy.

[Soulsaber]

Really ? Ill still buy a velociraptor over a SSD until SSD got bigger and way cheaper. Still cant compare them.

(Note i have a raptor in my PC, and it worth every penny)

SSD is much quieter though... if any noise at all.

[number8888]

For booting OS SSD are faster due to virtually no seek time. No disc-based HDD can compare unfortunately. You can get a 30GB SSD or hight for roughly the same price now, and for booting OS it's quite enough.

As for storage there's no reason why you wouldn't get a 1TB Black instead for more than half the price and the Green drives are even cheaper.

I think the raptor drives heyday is gone. They are great drives though.

[enigma54]

Really ? Ill still buy a velociraptor over a SSD until SSD got bigger and way cheaper. Still cant compare them.

(Note i have a raptor in my PC, and it worth every penny)

How much in storage do you need for a system or OS drive? 40 GB or 60 GB perhaps?

I'm tempted by this deal too but the SSD is what's holding me back. Is SSD ready for prime time yet? Isn't NCIX selling the 60 GB OCX Vertex for about the same price as this 300 GB raptor?

[enko]

I looked at SSD's as well.

I don't think the Raptor is dethroned as of just yet. I'd give it 6-12 months before SSD becomes the obvious choise.

My current Raptor is like 5 years old and still runs fine. Who knows how long SSD's will last once they hit mainstream use? C: drives take a beating from windows. Look at swap files.. on EEe pc's, people installing Windows need to be careful to disable the swap file to not wear out the SSD prematurely.

And yes, a Raptor / SSD are much faster then other drives because of the seek time. For random-access reads/writes, that's what really impacts performance.

I use a Raptor for my C: drive and a big fat drive for my E: drive.

[DoubleDwn]

For those in the US or who have an Ameri-friend, Dell.com has what looks like the same drive for $199 after $30 mail in rebate. Even after exchange and even without the rebate it should come in a bit cheaper than NCIX. Just have to get it across the border.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/System_Drives/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=19&sku=A2032299

[always]

Really ? Ill still buy a velociraptor over a SSD until SSD got bigger and way cheaper. Still cant compare them.

(Note i have a raptor in my PC, and it worth every penny)

Sorry if I wasn't clear in my post, but I didn't have my morning coffee yet when I posted earlier. :-0

What I meant was at the rate SSDs prices are decreasing or in your words getting "bigger and way cheaper" velociraptors are no longer a viable alternative if you want speed and performance. Don't get me wrong though, they're still good drives and I would love them in my system, but since the Indilix SSD controllers give such better performance... it outweighs the size advantage of the velociraptors, in my opinion at least.

In short, it is now a better option to buy SSDs as your OS & programs drive and to use a 1TB HD (or WD Blacks if you want quicker drives) for storage.

[tkyoshi]

Sorry if I wasn't clear in my post, but I didn't have my morning coffee yet when I posted earlier. :-0

What I meant was at the rate SSDs prices are decreasing or in your words getting "bigger and way cheaper" velociraptors are no longer a viable alternative if you want speed and performance. Don't get me wrong though, they're still good drives and I would love them in my system, but since the Indilix SSD controllers give such better performance... it outweighs the size advantage of the velociraptors, in my opinion at least.

In short, it is now a better option to buy SSDs as your OS & programs drive and to use a 1TB HD (or WD Blacks if you want quicker drives) for storage.

Yeah i'm thinking the same thing. Can't bring myself to pull the trigger. I think I will go the 32GB SSD for OS and then 1TB Black for storage.
I have a 32GB SSD in my laptop, the old JMicron ones, while writing is kinda crappy because I use it only for work I don't store much. For reading it's no comparison, I love being able to turn it on and be ready to work in 1/2 the time than when I had a 7200 Momentus. The difference is huge, and with Indilix SSD, it only gets better.

[ShaTR]

Nice deal. I love my little VR 80GB. Heatsink is not necessary though, but wutever. Extremely silent, and extremly fast.

Of course, when i bought it, the alternative SSD's were just not worth the $$ (and affordable ones had horrible write speeds). Now, SSD's seem to be the obvious choice, although i'm still a bit skeptical when it comes to lifespan.

btw, anyone know what kind of "write endurance" can be expected from these new SSD's (ocz vertex or similar)??

[Blitzo]

Raptors are way too loud. I'd rather cheap out and get a 7200 for the silence or spend to get an ssd (I have 2 ssd's in raid-0 and i pee my pants everytime I boot up :razz: ).

[Amourek]

Raptors are way too loud. I'd rather cheap out and get a 7200 for the silence or spend to get an ssd (I have 2 ssd's in raid-0 and i pee my pants everytime I boot up :razz: ).

The Velociraptor is quieter than any 7200 RPM drive if you remove the heatsink. That's the #1 reason I'm using one.

[ShaTR]

The Velociraptor is quieter than any 7200 RPM drive if you remove the heatsink. That's the #1 reason I'm using one.

FWIW

I'm quite adamant about my PC being silent, and my 80GB VR (800HLFS) with the heatsink on is just as quiet as my WD green 5400rpm (10EADS). tested plugging them in one at a time when i got the WD green to see if there was an audible difference, and there wasn't. These are the quietest HDD's ive ever owned.

To put it in perspective, my rig is 10' from my head when i sleep, and i can't tell if its on or not.

Sonata 2 - admittedly helps a lot, especially with the rubber grommets on the HDD mounting holes.
Enermax 420w
AC Freezer 7 pro
gelid low rpm 120mm fans
WD green
WD VR

[johnmoon]

Was looking to replace my old 74GB Raptor, Thanks OP
Cant beat this price for HLFS

Ordered

[enko]

Also a Sonata 2 user here with a dead silent PC.

The VRaptor is insanely quiet. It's a 2.5" drive which helps a lot. Seeking is insanely quiet especially compared to my 5 year old Raptor.

[I RFD]

ofcourse

[t_mo_t]

deal is dead?