WD-1200JB

Uncle Flappy

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Jun 22, 2005
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I have 4 WD1200JBs in my fragbox. 2 of them I have had for about a year, 2 I just bought recently. I originally had 2 x 240MB RAID0 arrays but noticed the average read/write speeds were much slower with the older array. I broke the arrays and tested each drive individully. The stats from HD Tach:

RAID0 (a) - Peak:107.9 MB/s Avg Read: 92.8MB/s
RAID0 (b) - Peak:99.8 MB/s Avg Read: 55.6MB/s

So you can see, the average read for the 2nd array is almost 1/2 of the 1st, hence the source of my heartburn. I even moved the arrays to different controllers and the speeds moved with the drives, eliminating the controllers and cables.

Individual drive stats:

1) WD1200JB-00GVC0 Burst: 90.2 MB/s Average Read: 52.9 MB/s
2) WD1200JB-00GVC0 Burst: 90.0 MB/s Average Read: 52.8 MB/s
3) WD1200JB-00DUA3 Burst: 73.0 MB/s Average Read: 42.3 MB/s
4) WD1200JB-34EVA0 Burst: 73.1 MB/s Average Read: 41.5 MB/s

Finally, my question. With the same model drives, why is the troughput so much slower on drives #3 and #4? Is there a way of fixing this?

Thanks for your advice.

- Uncle Flappy
 

Uncle Flappy

Member
Jun 22, 2005
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Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX
Did you defragment them?
The revision might have something to do with that as well

I wiped all four drives clean.

I agree it probaly has something to do with the revisions but as you well know, the advertised specifications for the WD1200JB are the same for all revisions.

37MB/s is quite a difference when using the RAID array.:brokenheart:

- Uncle Flappy
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
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Are the slower drives together on the same IDE chain? If so, try sticking one of them on the "faster" chain and see what happens.
 

Uncle Flappy

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Jun 22, 2005
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Originally posted by: Jeff7
Are the slower drives together on the same IDE chain? If so, try sticking one of them on the "faster" chain and see what happens.

I tried moving the drives around but saw no increase in performance. All drives are the primary (and only) drive on their channel.