Well, the drive is pretty sick in terms of performance but you can refer to reviews or people's feedback on it.

However, I have a question about something asthetic yet still a curiosity in my mind that seeks an answer (if possible).

This system is about 1.5-2 months old. Build is:

ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA
Intel E8500 + Noctua NH-U12P cooler
G.SKILL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-1000
EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX
X-Fi XtremeGamer
WD6400AAKS 640GB / Pioneer DVR-215DBK
PCP&C QUAD 750W PSU
Lian Li PC-A70 + 6 Scyth S-Flex SFF21F
Zalman MFC1 fan controller

To this I now added the Velociraptor and planned on it when I configured the build.

That said, everything has been a dream so far. Now with the Velociraptor I notice something cosmetic when Vista loads.

You guys know the splash screen (aqua blueish) where it shows your user icon and presents you with the login challenge?

Sometimes as the OS loads, that page will only be half-drawn and then fil in the rest, sometimes momentarily garbled and then refreshed clean, and sometimes just fine.

This didn't happen when the 640gb AAKS drive was my OS drive.

It's like the drive is either soo fast, the OS can't respond in time (yeah right) or somehow it is hanging every so slightly for a split second but it isn't consistent, doesn't hurt anything, only happens there and nowhere else in the OS, and nothing is written to the event logs.

So although only asthetic in nature, any clue as to what such behavior might be caused by?

Also, no changes were made to BIOS when installing the new drive and making it my primary OS drive upon reinstall.

Also, still using the same build of Vista Ultimate 32-bit with integrated SP1.

Thanks

Only a guess, but it sounds like the video card isn't keeping up during the load. While loading the OS at start up, everything is being stressed heavily, so some part may hang until it stabilizes. You might check Nvidia for a newer set of drivers. If this is the only place the trouble ever occurs, I wouldn't worry about it too much. You might run Prime95 and make sure the machine is stable, though.

Not sure, but how fast does windows load? Seconds? Minutes?

@OP: Is the VelociRaptor running in SATA2 mode? Did you remove the jumpers (if any) from the HDD?

Well, the build is super rock solid as this was my first build in 14 years and I was anal about everything.

I ran memtest86 from cd, orthos, occt, prime95, etc. All without a single issue and the build itself has been incredibly stable.

Event viewer never even has a blip expect a couple warnings for the entire time I've had it (usual kerbos one when not on a domain and the other WMI one trying to run a query against something for counters). Crysis is a dream which is scary to say!

Mind you I've been running things 24/7 for about a month, I was just waiting on the Velociraptor and got tired of waiting so built the rig and then figured when it comes out, I'd swap it as my primary.

I was thinking it could be the video also if indeed things load that much faster, sometimes things maybe don't resolve in time.

Like I said (and someone else seconded), this is only asthetic and does not happen anywhere else from my testing so it could be as everything loads initially (and probably certain coordination/handshaking happens right before the login screen), that now some things might be happening to fast and need to catch up.

I was going to measure in seconds the load time of Vista Ultimate 32 on the 640 AAKS drive vs. the Velociraptor before I reinstalled.

But the 640 already had a few other things installed and configured so I wouldn't be able to compare apples to apples.

Right now I only have core drivers and AVG firewall/virus 8.0, adobe reader, etc. so basically only core items.

Don't know loading time as I'm at work but you know the little knightrider thing that goes back and forth as Vista loads? For 32-bit ultimate, it takes 5 paths from end to end (one way, not back and forth) and then Vista goes black and the login screen is presented (after the windows logo for a second on the black screen) and that is how fast it loads.

No complaints

Sweet.

I did not modify any jumpers on the drive.

I also didn't modify anything in BIOS since the other WD 640 AAKS drive worked like a dream with no modifications. It is just now my secondary drive instead of the primary (and still works great).

I have not read that I should modify anything on the WD Velociraptor other than plug and go.

Same with the 640 AAKS when I got it 4 weeks ago.

BTW, for the record, the 640 AAKS is probably the best single performance for dollar item I can remember in over 15 years. Nothing is such a great deal. I mean for value, temperature, stability, quietness (can't hear it), etc.

I just bought the Velociraptor because as enthusiasts, we need to find something to constantly play with right?

<-- It's a hobby, not a chore

There are some times jumpers on the drive set for the sake of compatibility so that the HDD will run on a SATA I. There may or may not be need to change BIOS settings. You may have to manually set acces mode to: CHS,LBA,etc. for best performance.

Maybe just for fun I'll call WD tech support right now and see what they say. Of course with so many factors on a system and getting first line support (especially since it's very minor thing), I'm expecting...

---> 0 <---

But couldn't hurt just to see what I can learn

Oh yeah, since I got it OEM from NewEgg, here is the quick install guide from WD.

http://www.wdc.com/en/library/sata/4079-705019.pdf

Ok, looked at a few VelociRaptor pics, there doesn't seems to be the jumpers present in them.

It's not just you or the Raptor. I recently switched my Vista system from an IDE drive to a SATA II drive - a WD 2500YS. After completely reinstalling my core system (mobo, video, sound drivers and Avg). Upon my first 'real' boot, I noticed the same corruption/half screen. Only difference for me is that I don't log on - I go straight to desk top so I see it for a split second. BTW, I thought that drive would have been faster than 5 bar passes, but I guess it depends on how is loading on your boot. Right now my boot is right about 4 1/2 passes but I'm only using AVG basic. And as your own system, it doesn't seem to affect anything else. Games and video run fine. I too would love to know why this happens though as my HDD is not as fast as yours.
My specs:

EVGA 780i SLI
4gb Transcend mem @1066 CAS 5
E8400
WD2500YS
nVidia 8800gts (G92) x2
Creative X-fi Plat
PC Power & Cooling PPCT860 860W

Well, now that I've busted on my system for a whole weekend, the problem has never come back.

Also, my systen now takes from 5.5 to 6.5 passes (how anal are we as enthusiasts to even pay attention to such crap ) but I loaded a ton of stuff now, some with services, so it's not just a clean install that is loading.

But that asthetic problem has simply disappered, and I probably rebooted 20-30 times for various reasons with installs this weekend.

Wierd.

But yes I'm very happy with the drive. How worth it was it for me to pay $300 since I already had a 6400AAKS?

Probably not as much but now I won't be shopping for faster anything until Nahalem has been out 6-9 months with enough options and by then, hopefully there is a mainstream SSD OS drive so that by the time I do my next build, it's doubly sexy

My specs:
ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA
Intel E8500 + Noctua NH-U12P cooler
G.SKILL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-1000
EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX [replacing eventually with a 260/280]
X-Fi XtremeGamer
Velociraptor 300GB / WD6400AAKS 640GB / Pioneer DVR-215DBK
PCP&C QUAD Silencer 750W PSU
Lian Li PC-A70 + 6 Scyth S-Flex SFF21F

^Nice build. Btw, mind linking me to where I can buy the exact DDR2 1000 RAM?