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Western Digital Raptor 74GB SATA disk drive (2-Pack)

Monday, December 19th, 2005 | Hard Drive Reviews, Reviews | View Comments

Western Digital disk drives have a good reputation for reliability and performance. The Western Digital Raptor disk drives allow new levels of performance from consumer oriented hard drives. With performance that matches that of parralell SCSI at a price thats right, the Raptors have the potential to skyrocket your hard drives disk writing and reading speeds.

This pair of drives is just a price saver, they are no different from the normal 74GB Western Digital Raptor disk drive that I’ve reviewed before.

Features…

• Name: Western Digital Raptor
• Size: 74GB
• Spindle speed: 10K RPM
• Buffer memory: 8MB
• Average read seek speed: 4.9msec
• Average write seek speed: 5.9msec
• Interface: Serial ATA-150

Instead of giving another full rundown of the Western Digital Raptor hard disk drive I’ll outline what benefits you can get from a pair.

Of course there is a major expense in getting two hard drives. That is always the hardest part for me and its especially true when the price of the drives gets this high. For the same price you could get a really huge hard drive with tons of space.

With SATA you usually get the option of RAID, using RAID, two drives work together as though they are one drive. There are two in use, but data is written as though there is only one physical drive.

Two options exist for RAID at the most basic level RAID 0 and RAID 1.

RAID 0 is a striping system, where the data is spread over the two drives. This gives fantastic performance as the data can be written to whichever drive is not busy at that time. The best place for this kind of setup is those doing something like video editing where bandwidth is important. Your drive size becomes the size of the two added together. The disadvantage of this setup is that there is not fault tolerance, so if one drive fails you lose all your data.

RAID 1 is a mirroring system. Both drive end up with identical data, so if one of them fails you do not lose all your data. It doesn’t provide any speed benefits over a single drive. You also only get the size of a single drive, so 2 74GB drives will yield 74GB. Best for data you can’t afford to lose.

These are the only two options available for 2 disks, you need 4 for other RAID options which provide a mix of performance and security but with the cost of 4 drives.

So if you want a performance increase with good security go for RAID 1, which is what I use. But if speed is essential, awesome performance can be had with the RAID 0 setup.

I highly recommend these drives for those who are looking for something to boost their already souped up computer.

Christmas newsletter: Acer Ferrari, Tai Chi Computer Case and Cyberhome DVD recorder

Sunday, December 18th, 2005 | News | View Comments

Seaons greetings! I hope you are having a relaxing Christmas time and taking the chance to get together with family and friends.

There is a lineup of cool things on review including the Acer Ferrari laptop. The Cyberhome DVD burner is great choice as a value for money gift for yourself or someone else. A few motherboards on review offering a range of performance and pricing. And finally a convertible PC tablet computer and the ultra cool Tai Chi computer case.

So, lets not forget whose birthday it is and why there is a “Christ” in Christmas. Enjoy it.

All the best,

Peter

Acer Ferrari 4000 series 4005 WLMi AMD Turion 64 ML-37 2.0GHz

Saturday, December 17th, 2005 by Peter

The Acer Ferrari 4000 series of laptop computers have received their fair share of press. The combination of good looks from a reputable company is tempting, but can it really deliver what you would expect from a computer its stature?

The Acer Ferrari 4005WLMi most surprising feature for me was that (Read the rest of this review…)

Acer TravelMate TMC312XCi Intel Centrino 1.73GHz PC tablet

Saturday, December 17th, 2005 by Peter

The Acer TravelMate TMC312XCi with Intel Centrino 1.73GHz is a good PC tablet for those looking for the functionality of both a laptop and PC tablet. It looks just like a laptop, but when you open the screen you can open it up and flip it over so that the (Read the rest of this review…)

Asus P5P800 Intel Socket 775 ATX Motherboard AGP 8X/4X

Saturday, December 17th, 2005 by Peter

The Asus P5P800 could be an unsung hero when it comes to value for money and extreme features for a very good price. This board has the priviledge of having all the features you could need from a motherboard with all the things you could need to do anything you (Read the rest of this review…)

Thermaltake Tai Chi Aluminum Full Tower Case

Friday, December 16th, 2005 by Peter

Most of the time I get to look at budget range cases, and as cool as they can be at times they are always just budget cases. They all follow a similar mold and most often just alter some of the looks for what people want to see.

But not with (Read the rest of this review…)

Thermaltake Big Water SE liquid cooling system

Thursday, December 15th, 2005 by Peter

The Thermaltake Big Water SE is aimed at those who would quickly like to get into the world of water cooling for their computer. Water cooling is not new to computers but has been the realm of those into extreme overclocking and those who modify their computers alot.

The Thermaltake Big (Read the rest of this review…)

Plextor px716uf DVD±RW Dual-layer DVD writer (red)

Thursday, December 15th, 2005 by Peter

Back in April I had a look at this model, just in blue. At that time I was concerned about the price of the DVD writer. I was also worried about the complexity of portability. After having a look again and having another look at the features on offer and (Read the rest of this review…)

Iomega 750 MB External USB 2.0 Zip Drive

Wednesday, December 14th, 2005 by Peter

The Iomega 750 drive sets a new size spec for their Zip drives. With the popularity of other portable devices like memory sticks and rewritable CDs and DVDs Zip drives have lost their place as the formidable movable mass storage device.

They have not completely lost their usefulness however. As with (Read the rest of this review…)

Cyberhome DVD recorder 16x DVD±RW external dual layer

Monday, December 12th, 2005 by Peter

For ease of use and convenience when it comes to transportation portable drives can’t be beat. The cyberhome dvd recorder allows you to not only tranport your information with you but to actually burn stuff onto the DVD when you are done.

Portable devices have been around for a while, and (Read the rest of this review…)

Cooler Master 550W 120mm LED fan power supply

Thursday, December 8th, 2005 by Peter

The Cooler Master 550W power supply is highly specced power supply that doesn’t quite live up to its claims. Unfortunately like many power supplies, this one claims a little more than it can give. In reality it cannot maintain its 550W power delivery for an extended period of time.

It is (Read the rest of this review…)

Asus P5WD2 Socket 775 motherboard

Thursday, December 8th, 2005 by Peter

The P5WD2 socket 775 motherboard is the second in line to its slightly higher featured Premium version. This model offere nearly all of the same features, but lacking a few of them. It still offers all the best featues and is a good pick if you want to save that (Read the rest of this review…)

Temporary withholding of Ferrari edition Acer PDAs

Sunday, December 18th, 2005 | News | View Comments

Acer had planned to launch Ferrari edition versions of its n50 PDA earlier this year, but ran into licensing problems.

The highly successful Ferrari branded laptops that came out earlier this year were their main focus, but now focus is back on the PDA.

More details related to the PDA have to be discussed with Ferrari. So expect to see cool Ferrari PDAs in stores.

Source: Digitimes

Lite-On says lower DVD prices need royalty cuts

Sunday, December 18th, 2005 | News | View Comments

With prices for DVD burners coming down dramatically to below the $35 level, any further drops in price would have to be due to cuts in the royalties paid for the use of the technology.

There is no further room for reduction of prices for the drives. Competition should drive the cost of drives down to near the $30 level for a dual-layer burner. Keeping up with such low prices needs expanding economy of scale.

Source: Digitimes

Acer Ferrari 4000 series 4005 WLMi AMD Turion 64 ML-37 2.0GHz

Saturday, December 17th, 2005 | Laptop and Notebook Computer Reviews, Reviews | View Comments

The Acer Ferrari 4000 series of laptop computers have received their fair share of press. The combination of good looks from a reputable company is tempting, but can it really deliver what you would expect from a computer its stature?

The Acer Ferrari 4005WLMi most surprising feature for me was that it did not come with an Intel processor. You could say that I’ve fallen for the world of Intel mobile computing experience. I do like AMD processors for desktops and this is a refreshing change in the laptop arena.

The Turion processor is a modification of the Athlon 64 chip which it uses for desktop computers. This is a good thing, because they didn’t have to redesign all the technology to get this new chip, which also passes on a cost saving to the consumer, not to mention that all of them are 64-bit chips, which none of the Pentium M processors in Intel Centrino systems have yet.

Basic features include…

• AMD Turion ML-37 2.0GHz with 1MB L2 cache
• 1GB of DDR333 memory
• DVD writer
• ATI Radeon Mobility X700 Graphics Processor
• 15.4 inch wide screen display
• Full wireless connectivity

Of course the biggest surprise is that the computer is not an Intel Centrino design. Although this allows the manufacturer to pick and choose the parts it uses in the computer it also means you don’t have quite the same assurances with a Centrino package. This does the system no harm though and it is a top performer, despite lacking that little Intel emblem.

The most obvious feature of the Acer Ferrari 4005 is the coloring. A black design with red trimmings, with the Ferrari logo on the top. Although my initial response was to be doubtful of it being anything but a sales tactic, surely Ferrari would not put their name to any old rubbish, as they are a brand founded on quality an uniqueness.

All of the standard extras are there, from the USB 2.0 to the Firewire. There is also a Kensington lock slot for your peace of mind in terms of security.

The DVD writer presents a little surprise. It doesn’t have a tray. Instead it slots in like car CD players. A really cool design, which gets thumbs up for sleekness. It doesn’t increase performance, but not everything is about the speeds, is it?

The layout of the extras around the laptop itself are fine and put all of the vital components within easy reach. Firewire is a welcome extra too, as well as the bluetooth wireless mouse.

Of course there are a few little nitpicks to make. The onboard hard drive cannot handle video streaming as reported by one consumer. This can be remedied however by using an external drive, like a Firewire or USB 2.0 hard external drive. The EZdock option that comes with the laptop is not as easy as it says and has a slightly hard to use locking mechanism and takes up a lot of desk space. If you need a docking system, go for a non-acer version.

So in the end the Ferrari really does do its job well. It has looks to match its great performance. Although not the lightest around it is certainly powerful, making a worthy replacement for your lowly desktop computer. And with its fully features package, including full wireless support, people may start to get a glimpse of a worthy competitor to the Centrino packages.