Slightly disappointed in WD Black

[Xarick]

First off this drive is definitely louder than I expected. Now it is not quite as loud as my old seagate 200gig, but it is definitely louder than I was hoping. Not a huge deal, but still..

Finally on transfer rates. They seems painfully slow.
51.3 Min
103.8 Max
84.9 Average

Access time is excellent
12.3

Burst is okay
136.7

cpu usage is fine 2.7%

I was hoping for a bit more.
Maybe I had unrealistic expectations? Is this drive in spec for the most part?
Would the spinpoint have given me much better results? (I realize it would have been quieter).

 

[taltamir]

those are fairly good as far as platter drives go. Its loud, its power hungry, and its slightly faster than other drives of its generation.
PS. enable AHCI, it will improve performance.

 

[Xarick]

What is ahci? Is that better than IDE?

 

[EarthwormJim]

It enables SATA 300, Native Command Queing and hot swapping.

You enable it in your bios. Depending on your operating system, you might have to change some settings in order to get it to boot.

A google search should show you how, something like "switching to ahci after installing windows."

 

[Xarick]

okay I did that..
HD tune tanked
My CPU usage went from 2.7% to 7%
My burst went from the 130s to 105
The rest stayed the same.
What gives.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

This is why you DONT enable AHCI except on server drives.

 

[Xarick]

Okay back to IDE.
All working back at the numbers I posted above.
I will say for noise.. once it settles down from boot it's not terribly loud and much quieter than my seagate. Still was hoping for super quiet. Now to show how really silly that whole discussion is.. I game with headphones.

 

[StarBlast]

I almost got a WD Black but decided to go with the new Seagate 7200.12 Barracuda instead. I can tell you that this hard drive is very quiet and I don't even hear it.

 

[taltamir]

try a multi tasking test with ahci enabled. even on a home computer it should be significantly better.

 

[KrispyKreme50]

This is somewhat off-topic, but has anyone heard any news on when Western Digital will release new Caviar Black drives based on their 500 GB platter?

 

[rarebear]

My Black is pretty quite so keep a watch on yours..

HDD Tach
AHCI on is turning off and on is a huge ssue with this Mobo
Random Acess is 12.1ms
CPU use 1%
Burst 239.1 MB
Avrage 89.4 MB

 

[Xarick]

Mine isn't loud in the bad sense. It is normal seek noise. My seagate had the same, but more prevelent. How is it your burst and cpu usage are so different than mine?
I was using HDtune.

 

[tcsenter]

Burst is okay
136.7

Retest with HD Tach. If using Vista, run in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP2.

Originally posted by: EarthwormJim
It enables SATA 300, Native Command Queing and hot swapping.

AHCI is not related to SATA 3.0Gb/s or 1.5Gb/s interface rates. SATA will operate at the highest interface speed mutually supported by the hardware (and BIOS), no matter the driver mode. Nor are any advanced features such as NCQ or hot-swapping related to SATA 3.0Gb/s interface.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: KrispyKreme50
This is somewhat off-topic, but has anyone heard any news on when Western Digital will release new Caviar Black drives based on their 500 GB platter?

Not yet.

They appear to be using a new strategy this time around. Last time, they snuck the 320gb platters into the drives that were using 2x160gb platters. This time, they've put the 500gb platters in the high-end 2tb drive.

My guess is that they're going to saturate the high-end, then work their way down, which really makes more sense IMO.

I'm sure you'll probably see the drives within the next month or two based on past history. I have a feeling it will make for a sub-$100 1tb model which is nice. That said, there are some sweet SSDs coming out at around the $100 mark; it's an interesting time to purchase a hard drive. The SSD adds a distinct opportunity for mega performance if you sacrifice capacity even more than you would with a Raptor.

I'm personally waiting for the SSDs to mature a bit more. I don't know if I will buy another traditional hard drive.

 

[KrispyKreme50]

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Originally posted by: KrispyKreme50
This is somewhat off-topic, but has anyone heard any news on when Western Digital will release new Caviar Black drives based on their 500 GB platter?

Not yet.

They appear to be using a new strategy this time around. Last time, they snuck the 320gb platters into the drives that were using 2x160gb platters. This time, they've put the 500gb platters in the high-end 2tb drive.

My guess is that they're going to saturate the high-end, then work their way down, which really makes more sense IMO.

I'm sure you'll probably see the drives within the next month or two based on past history. I have a feeling it will make for a sub-$100 1tb model which is nice. That said, there are some sweet SSDs coming out at around the $100 mark; it's an interesting time to purchase a hard drive. The SSD adds a distinct opportunity for mega performance if you sacrifice capacity even more than you would with a Raptor.

I'm personally waiting for the SSDs to mature a bit more. I don't know if I will buy another traditional hard drive.

Same here, I'm waiting for Intel to tweak their enterprise SSDs for even better performance and lower prices. It wouldn't surprise me if we saw the 32GB X25-E going for $150-$200 by the end of this year.