Advanced format hard drives

[bwanaaa]

A few years ago western digital published their specification for using 4096 byte sectors (anandtech explained it here
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2888/2
)

So now there are two versions of the wdblack 2 gig
WD2003FZEX
WD2002FAEX

One is advanced format and one is not. I can't seem to find any benchmarks- is there a measurable performance difference?

I thought advanced format was simply the way a drive was formatted? But in the anandtech article they talk about 512 byte emulation added to a drive which has 4096 byte sectors. This must be in the firmware of the drive controller. They also talk about using a jumper to switch between sector sizes. They also talk about using a software to set 4096 b sectors.

So when I format a drive in windows using disk management control panel, can I not select my sector size?

 

[Cerb]

So when I format a drive in windows using disk management control panel, can I not select my sector size?

No, you can't. If the OS doesn't know about the AF bit, you may get slightly worse performance, due to misalignment. If it does, the partition will be aligned when you initially create it, unless you override things. It has nothing to do with any formatting the OS does.

Today, every benchmarking platform OS (Vista+, OS X, most Linux disk setup/install utils) aligns automatically, and are also the OSes most people are running, with the newer hardware.

But, it was easy enough to find a comparison:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/advanced-format-4k-sector-size-hard-drive,2759-10.html

 

[bwanaaa]

But, it was easy enough to find a comparison:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/advanced-format-4k-sector-size-hard-drive,2759-10.html

wow according to those graphs, the 512 b sectors perform way better than the 4k sectors! odd. no?

 

[bwanaaa]

so more to the point, the 2002faex is popular but the 2003 fzex is not. is it the price or is there a piece i am missing?

 

[Soulkeeper]

so more to the point, the 2002faex is popular but the 2003 fzex is not. is it the price or is there a piece i am missing?

fzex was just announced 1 month ago
saying they are not popular is a bit premature.

http://www.storagereview.com/wd_black_4tb_desktop_hard_drive_review_wd4003fzex

It's not an apples to apples comparison.

New firmware and 800GB platters compared to 500GB platters, makes it hard to isolate the effects of 4K physical sector size.
You will get speed ups from true 4K sector size due to decreased % of space used for the sanity bits.
Also note that all current AF drive are still 512b logical. From a user/software perspective this makes using them pretty much the same as the old drives cept for needing to align them properly when partitioning.