WD VelociRaptor...

[TheRift]

Yes, that's why I asked abou it.
However, decided to go with the WD Caviar Black for cost reasons. Some tests have shown it pulls close to the Raptor in transfer speed, just slower access times.

 

[Conradl]

Two points: Firstly it may not be fair to benchmark a short stroked Barracuda to a normal Raptor; because the benchmark will not specify the portion of disk that is being tested, i.e. the inside or outside. A short stroked Raptor may perform, depending on the test, better than a normal Raptor.

Secondly, It is not necessary to sacrifice the disk space, to short stroke a disk. You could use a disk management tool to create a 100GB partition for apps and OS, and another partition for data; using a normal windows format will probably do this, but a proper tool will ensure that you use the correct blocks.

The reasoning is that you will most likely not be accessing your data disk when you boot, or play games, so performance here will be improved; and you still have all your space....

 

[d0b33]

Here's some wacky-wack for you: format a Seagate 'cuda 1.5TB to mimic the 'raptor ..yes folks, some nutter did exactly that! His conclusion: (emphasis mine)

Now what you end up with is a drive that is higher in performance in all regards except seek times at a lower cost per GB

Seek times are what make the veloci great.