Western Digital WD1500ADFD: King Raptor
by Gary Key on February 8, 2006 1:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Final Words
The performance of the third-generation Raptor is truly impressive from several different angles. While, at this time, we did not test the unit against the SCSI competitors with which it is meant to compete, we did find the drive to offer the overall highest performance in the SATA market. Like its predecessor, this is the drive to have if single-user performance matters over absolute storage capability. In fact, having this drive as the primary OS and game unit with a larger capacity drive for general storage would be an ideal combination.
In our thermal and acoustic testing, the drive offered average scores, but considering the performance and design of the drive, we could live with these minor annoyances in our main system. However, if you plan on building a silent system or using this drive in a SFF case, please understand that the thermals and acoustics will be noticeable.
We did witness performance decreases of up to 9% in certain benchmarks with NCQ activated. We will further investigate the performance penalty of NCQ in the near future with our revised benchmark suite. At this time we recommend turning off NCQ if this drive will be utilized in a single-user environment.
With a $300 price tag, 150GB capacity, and enterprise market heritage, this drive is targeted to a different market. While Western Digital desperately wants the drive to succeed in the server arena, they are acutely aware of the fact that the computer enthusiast will likely be one of the main purchasers of this drive. The Raptor X looks like the drive to have for the serious case modder, but we feel the additional $50 in cost is better applied toward buying a large storage drive for your system.
What is our recommendation? If storage space is not of prime concern and your budget allows it, then buy this drive. It offers the best single-user performance of any drives that we have tested to date along with the safety of owning a drive designed for 24/7 operation.
It took a few years, but Western Digital brought true excellence to a now mature product.
The performance of the third-generation Raptor is truly impressive from several different angles. While, at this time, we did not test the unit against the SCSI competitors with which it is meant to compete, we did find the drive to offer the overall highest performance in the SATA market. Like its predecessor, this is the drive to have if single-user performance matters over absolute storage capability. In fact, having this drive as the primary OS and game unit with a larger capacity drive for general storage would be an ideal combination.
In our thermal and acoustic testing, the drive offered average scores, but considering the performance and design of the drive, we could live with these minor annoyances in our main system. However, if you plan on building a silent system or using this drive in a SFF case, please understand that the thermals and acoustics will be noticeable.
We did witness performance decreases of up to 9% in certain benchmarks with NCQ activated. We will further investigate the performance penalty of NCQ in the near future with our revised benchmark suite. At this time we recommend turning off NCQ if this drive will be utilized in a single-user environment.
With a $300 price tag, 150GB capacity, and enterprise market heritage, this drive is targeted to a different market. While Western Digital desperately wants the drive to succeed in the server arena, they are acutely aware of the fact that the computer enthusiast will likely be one of the main purchasers of this drive. The Raptor X looks like the drive to have for the serious case modder, but we feel the additional $50 in cost is better applied toward buying a large storage drive for your system.
What is our recommendation? If storage space is not of prime concern and your budget allows it, then buy this drive. It offers the best single-user performance of any drives that we have tested to date along with the safety of owning a drive designed for 24/7 operation.
It took a few years, but Western Digital brought true excellence to a now mature product.
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shady28 - Sunday, April 9, 2006 - link
Kinda bogus review here. How on earth can you put a SATA drive in comparison to other SATA drives, then draw conclusions about SATA vs SCSI?? The answer is you can't, especially in regards to SATA being 'ready' for use in big fileservers. It's a cheap alternative to SCSI, not a performance alternative. Check the link below for fileserver iometer (IOPs) benchmarks of many different drives, and you'll find that the top SCSI drives demolish the top SATA drives with nearly double the IOPs ratings :
http://www.storagereview.com/comparison.html">http://www.storagereview.com/comparison.html
Kensei - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
I've said it before but I'll say it again... Gary sets the standard for technical writing excellence. His work should be studied closely by all who aspire to do this type of work. I hope you're at least 26 or older becasue if you're writing like this at 19, 20 or 21, I think I'm going to get sick... with jealousy.Kensei
SpecOps - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
I would have liked to see the "value Raptor" in the tests as well, so we can get a better picture of price vs. performance.Gary Key - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
I will see if we can get a WD4000 series and update the article or at least have it for the RAID follow up. We have the new WD 500GB drive to test also.JustAnAverageGuy - Thursday, February 9, 2006 - link
Good article Gary, look forward to more in the future.One of the few editors who actually reads and replies to more than just one or two comments. :thumbsup;
- JaAG
CrystalBay - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
Gary , you have a very proficient writing ability . I noticed it on your first review at AT keep up the good work...MadAd - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
I just checked and prices for these in the UK is £210 - its almost the price of a scsi drive ffs (a 147gig hitachi u320 is only £50 more).
Im not quite sure what market segment these are aimed at, I just hope they dont shoot themselves in the foot being priced so close.
yacoub - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
Gary - Thanks for this excellent review and for addressing the two primary complaints I had with the last harddrive review here: The old Samsung drives listed and lack of SP2405C and the tiny decibel test graph that was hard to read and draw conclusions from.This test has a great lineup of drives tested and much better graphs. Very nicely done!
Gary Key - Thursday, February 9, 2006 - link
Thank you and actually everyone for the comments. We have certainly listened to the requests and hopefully our improvements over the course of the next few articles will be satisfactory for everyone.
Although I have had some personal issues with Samung drives in the past I have to give them credit for producing a very good drive in the SP2504c. It would be my drive of choice in a HTPC or SFF setup at this time if you need a silent drive. The performance of the drive is competitive with others in its class for the most part at a very good price point. I tested the drive last night in a sound enclosure and there was only a 5 decibel difference between idle and constant read/write operations. I believe some of the additional decibel readings in the article is our equipment picking up noise from the drive cage. We will continue to refine this process for testing but the readings we reported were very consistent given the environmental conditions in the test room.
Jeff7181 - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
I agree with those that say a Part 2 with RAID testing would be interesting.