There is an obvious difference between an X5 and an Explorer. Acutally, I'm getting an XC90 Volvo... I don't know if I would be able to tell a difference for home use and gaming between the two drives. The new Hitachi seems as fast as the 1st gen raptor.
I wonder if people bragging about their Raptors could tell the difference between two identical machines, the only difference being the drives, in day to day use. I don't mind spending the extra $$ for something that is faster, but I would feel very foolish to pay more than triple for something that is not unnoticeable. Just food for thought.
From the Deskstar review on the site: The Deskstar 7K250 achieves an SR Office DriveMark 2002 of 459 I/Os per second, the first significant improvement in 7200 RPM performance in over a year. Hitachi easily bests Western Digital's Caviar by a 10% margin and comes within 5% of WD's 10,000 RPM Raptor
Finally, in the SR Gaming DriveMark, the Hitachi again opens up a commanding lead over the competition and even matches the Raptor's score
Just reread the scores on the preview. Looks like the new Raptor is significantly faster than the old one. I think the new Hitachi is as fast as the old Raptor for home use. The new 74gig Raptor may be noticeably faster.