Seagate 500GB AAK vs AAE Results

[Spike]

So AFTER getting two Seagate 500gbs for my new build I learn about this issue with the drives that have the 3.AAK firmware from here. So I check both my new drives (one from BestBuy, the other from Frys.com) and both have this troublesome firmware. So I plugged them both in, unformatted, and ran HD tune and here are my results:

AAE results:
Max Transfer: 75.7
Burst Rate: 201.2

AAK 1 results:
Max Transfer: 71.1
Burst Rate: 164.8

AAK 2 results:
Max Trasnger: 70.7
Burst Rate: 164.8

Click on the drives to see the screen shot from HD tune. Now, my results are no where near as bad as those report at the above site as mine both are over 70 MB/s sustained transfer. So here is my question... do I bother trying to return the drives or do I just deal with it? I can take one of them back to Best Buy fairly easily but the other would be more of a pain (unless the Frys store takes back items from Frys.com). Are these results even worth the hassle? Would I really notice a difference between these and say a WD 500GB?

Thanks for any help!

 

[SomeJoe7777]

In practice, the AAK firmware is probably not going to cause you any issues. In my opinion, lot of the fear of the AAK firmware was overblown because HDTune used block sizes that weren't optimal for that firmware. With the latest version of HDTune (2.54, I believe), the block size defaults to 64K, and the AAK drives test out almost as well as AAE drives.

I wouldn't bother exchanging the drives.

 

[Old Hippie]

There's a firmware update for some. Check it out.

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie
There's a firmware update for some. Check it out.

I looked at that earlier and unfortunatly it's for drives with a part number ending in -308 which are older part numbers than the drives I have. I just downloaded HD Tune so I'm wondering if thats the reason my scores are much closer than that first review. The sustained rate is fine by me, its the burst rate that I'm worried about with such a huge (~50MB/s) difference.

 

[Old Hippie]

I wouldn't worry about the burst rate. It means very little.

For all I know, the high burst rate that you linked may have AHCI enabled and you don't? Seems having AHCI enabled actually increases the burst rate, but has very little effect on any other stats.

I wouldn't bother with it, especially if these are storage drives.

Good Luck with whatever you decide to do!

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie
I wouldn't worry about the burst rate. It means very little.

For all I know, the high burst rate that you linked may have AHCI enabled and you don't? Seems having AHCI enabled actually increases the burst rate, but has very little effect on any other stats.

I wouldn't bother with it, especially if these are storage drives.

Good Luck with whatever you decide to do!

Unfortunatly these are the system and game drives, not just storage, otherwise I would have no concern at all. If the burst rate really means little then I'll keep them as they are and just not worry about it.

Thanks!

 

[ziddey]

Just upgraded to aam firmware. Here's hdtach aak vs aam:

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/7518/aamvsaakek5.jpg