Whats the difference between these WD 500GB HDDs?

[TriggerHappy101]

I don't get it..... Whats the difference between these hard drives?

I want to get two 500GB HDDs. And do the Intel® Matrix Storage Technology. 400GB of each HDD will be RAID 0 (OS and games.) 800GB Total space. And then do RAID 1 on the last 100GB. (For backup of important files.)

WD5000AAKS, WD5000YS, WD5000ABYS, WD5000KS, WD5000KSRTL

So many different ones!

I'm torn on which one to buy. Or should I go seagate?

I hear the WDs have better RAID performance.

Price grabber:
http://computers.pricegrabber....d=1/popup3%5B%5D=8:144


I want performance. I don't have a big problem with a 3 year warrenty as long as it is faster than a 5 year warranty (and cheaper.)

 

[hclarkjr]

i actualy have 2 of those in my system right now. the ABYS RE2 and the AAKS, to me they run about equal and i benchmarked both using hd tach and got the same exact score for both. so i think it would come down which one has the best deal on it with the most warranty. the RE2 comes with a 5 year warranty

 

[TriggerHappy101]

Why would they sell so many models if they didn't have different performance?

 

[hclarkjr]

probally different platter sizes and so forth. not sure there

 

[vanvock]

Don't know if it applies here but on some WD's I've bought it denoted a different bearing type used, it may refer to cache amount or something like that as well.

 

[TriggerHappy101]

All of the drives have 16mb of cache.

Does anyone know what one is 99 bucks while the other is $120?

 

[vanvock]

go to their site & compare specs, sometimes price diff is because 1 comes with a cable while another doesn't & another has a better cable etc.

 

[TriggerHappy101]

Help. Anyone know for sure?

 

[ahartman]

Originally posted by: TriggerHappy101
I don't get it..... Whats the difference between these hard drives?

WD5000AAKS, WD5000YS, WD5000ABYS, WD5000KS, WD5000KSRTL

KS = "normal" drive
YS = Enterprise level drives (higher MTBF, *should* last longer)

You'll pay more for YS drives, typically.

From what I can tell, the ABYS is a little slower (.2 ms seek time) than the YS, but I can't imagine you would notice the difference.

The AAKS is the newer version of the KS - If you get a KS, you're buying an older drive. Not sure of the differences.

The last one, KSRTL is a KS drive in a retail package (you get a cable and a nice box).

 

[bigsnyder]

WD5000AAKS - SE16 series, 16MB, 3 platters, 3yr warr *newest*
WD5000ABYS, - RE2 series, same as AAKS, but 5yr warr *newest*
WD5000KS - SE16 series, 16MB, 4 platters, 3yr warr *older*
WD5000YS - RE series, same as KS, but 5yr warr *older*
WD5000KSRTL - Retail version of KS only 1 year warr

I hope this helps clarifies, the AAKS and ABYS are newer models which replaced the YS and
KS drives. Western Digital did up the warranty for retail drives from 1yr to 3yr if purchased
after 08/01/07.

 

[TriggerHappy101]

Originally posted by: bigsnyder
WD5000AAKS - SE16 series, 16MB, 3 platters, 3yr warr *newest*
WD5000ABYS, - RE2 series, same as AAKS, but 5yr warr *newest*
WD5000KS - SE16 series, 16MB, 4 platters, 3yr warr *older*
WD5000YS - RE series, same as KS, but 5yr warr *older*
WD5000KSRTL - Retail version of KS only 1 year warr

I hope this helps clarifies, the AAKS and ABYS are newer models which replaced the YS and
KS drives. Western Digital did up the warranty for retail drives from 1yr to 3yr if purchased
after 08/01/07.

Thanks for the input!

But how does the different "series" relate to performance gain?

Will the WD5000AAKS preform less than the WD5000KS? Even though it is newer? Are the RE series faster than the SE16?

 

[Roguestar]

The RE series are enterprise-oriented products. As said rather helpfully by ahartman, these have (presumably) a higher MTBF and are intended for server racks, generally.

 

[TriggerHappy101]

Originally posted by: Roguestar
The RE series are enterprise-oriented products. As said rather helpfully by ahartman, these have (presumably) a higher MTBF and are intended for server racks, generally.

Yes but Xbit labs did a review on the WD5000KS and WD5000YS. The YS preformed better.

Does the new WD5000AAKS preform better than the old YS?

 

[seemingly random]

The WD5000AAKS and WD5000ABYS with fewer platters run cooler and quieter and are 'newer' technology. In my experience the aa's perform slightly better then the ks's.

 

[bigsnyder]

Performance between the RE/RE2 and SE16 drives are all very close. Real world difference
will be negligible. The RE/RE2 drives however, are tuned for RAID setups.