Western Digital WD1500ADFD: King Raptor
by Gary Key on February 8, 2006 1:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Feature Set and Test Setup: WD1500ADFD
Both drives feature a 1.2 million MTBF hour rating and receive a 24-hour factory burn-in while offering a 5-year warranty. The 150GB version will run approximately $300 compared to $169 for the current 74GB drive. The Raptor X edition is currently listed in the $350 range.
Our test platform differs slightly from the previous version with the inclusion of the Asus A8N-SLI Premium board and the 81.98 video driver set. All drives are tested with NCQ or TCQ off unless otherwise noted. We have added the Samsung SP2504C and Maxtor MaXLine III 7L300S0 drives into our benchmark results for comparison to the Western Digital Raptor series.
Our test suite consists of the standard benchmarks utilized at this time. We will be expanding our application and game benchmarks in the near future to further provide real world test results across a variety of programs.
The WD740GD-00FLA1 is listed on the charts as "Western Digital Raptor WD740GD-00FLA1 (74GB)" in the description field. The replacement drive for this model and the WD740GD-00FLA2 is the WD740GD-00FLC0. The WD740GD-00FLC0 is listed on the charts as "Western Digital Raptor WD740GD-00FLC0 (74GB)" in the description field.
| Specification | Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD | Western Digital Raptor WD740GD-00FLC0 |
| Capacity: | 150GB | 74GB |
| Interface: | SATA 150 MB/s | SATA 150 MB/s |
| Rotational Speed: | 10,000 RPM | 10,000 RPM |
| Buffer Size: | 16 MB | 8 MB |
| Average Latency: | 2.99 ms (nominal) | 2.99 ms (nominal) |
| Read Seek Time: | 4.6 ms | 4.5 ms |
| Write Seek Time: | 5.2 ms (average) | 5.9 ms (average) |
| Track to Track Seek Time: | 0.4 ms (average) | 0.6 ms (average) |
| Full Stroke Seek Time: | 10.2 ms (average) | 10.2 ms (average) |
| Transfer Rate - Buffer to Disk: | 84 MB/s (sustained) | 72 MB/s (sustained) |
| Number of Heads: | 4 | 4 |
| Number of Platters: | 2 | 2 |
| Command Queuing: | Native Command Queuing | Tagged Command Queuing |
| Acoustics- WD: | Idle - 29dBA Seek Mode 0 - 36dBA |
Idle - 32dBA Seek Mode 0 - 36dBA |
| Other Features: | TLER - RAID Specific RAFF FlexPower |
FlexPower |
Both drives feature a 1.2 million MTBF hour rating and receive a 24-hour factory burn-in while offering a 5-year warranty. The 150GB version will run approximately $300 compared to $169 for the current 74GB drive. The Raptor X edition is currently listed in the $350 range.
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor: | AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (Venice E4) utilized for all tests |
| Memory: | 2 x 512MB OCZ PC4800 Elite Platinum Settings- DDR400 at (2-2-2-5, 1T) |
| Hard Drive(s): | 1 x Maxtor MaXLine III 7L300S0 300GB 7200 RPM SATA (16MB Buffer) 1 x Samsung SpinPoint P Series SP2504C 250GB 7200 RPM SATA (8MB Buffer) 1 x Western Digital Raptor WD740GD-00FLC0 74GB 10,000 RPM SATA (8MB Buffer) 1 x Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM SATA (16MB Buffer) |
| System Platform Drivers: | NVIDIA Platform Driver - 6.70 |
| Video Card: | 1 x Gigabyte 6600GT (PCI Express) for all tests |
| Video Driver: | NVIDIA nForce 81.98 WHQL |
| Cooling: | Thermaltake Big Typhoon |
| Power Supply: | OCZ Power Stream 520 |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| Motherboards: | Asus A8N-SLI Premium |
Our test platform differs slightly from the previous version with the inclusion of the Asus A8N-SLI Premium board and the 81.98 video driver set. All drives are tested with NCQ or TCQ off unless otherwise noted. We have added the Samsung SP2504C and Maxtor MaXLine III 7L300S0 drives into our benchmark results for comparison to the Western Digital Raptor series.
| AnandTech Storage Test Applications | |
| iPEAK- Business Winstone: | A capture and test playback of all I/O operations within VeriTest's Business Winstone 2004 suite. |
| iPEAK- Content Creation Winstone: | A capture and test playback of all I/O operations within VeriTest's Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004 suite. |
| Synthetic Benchmarks: | WinBench 99 HD Tach 3.01 Everest Ultimate Edition 2.50 PCMark 2005 - HD Tests |
| Single Application Tests: | Timed tests of file copying, zipping, and unzipping operations. |
| Multi-Tasking Tests: | Timed tests of file zipping and data import operations. |
| Game Load Tests: | Half-Life, Doom3, and Command & Conquer: Generals |
Our test suite consists of the standard benchmarks utilized at this time. We will be expanding our application and game benchmarks in the near future to further provide real world test results across a variety of programs.
The WD740GD-00FLA1 is listed on the charts as "Western Digital Raptor WD740GD-00FLA1 (74GB)" in the description field. The replacement drive for this model and the WD740GD-00FLA2 is the WD740GD-00FLC0. The WD740GD-00FLC0 is listed on the charts as "Western Digital Raptor WD740GD-00FLC0 (74GB)" in the description field.
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jamescleant - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
I noticed you revised your acoustic testing, but this leads to a different ranking when compared to the one in the article :"Seagate 7200.9 160GB: The Highest Platter Density to Date!"
http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2682&a...">http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2682&a...
In the article mentionned above, the idle noise of the 500 GB 7200.9 is lower than the idle noise of the 74 GB Raptor, and in this article, it is the contrary.
What is the explanation of this ?
Also, did you test the acoustics of the Samsung SP2504C with the "old" method ? I am interested by the comparison with other models (I try to have the most silent drives).
Gary Key - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
I will detail a response tonight and test the SP2504c with the old standard.Gary Key - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
I am still working on providing the old numbers. I did locate the original sound meter used and will have it here tomorrow.noxipoo - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
3 seagate 7200.9 in raid 0 vs 1 raptor? about the same price point, would be interesting.mlittl3 - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
See my post above. Gamepc did 4 rapters in raid 0 versus scsi and P-ATA drive.sxpose - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
Id like to see some raided drive scores as well. Because this drive is marketed at enthusists . . . good chance some will just buy two and raid them. Majority of the readers don't have scsi drives, so not sure why you'd choose those benchmarks over some consumer raided drives.mlittl3 - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
See my post above for raid tests.Orbs - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
First of all, another great article, AT!So RAID was debated in the comments of the last HDD article AT posted, and while traditionally RAID hasn't shown much of a performance improvement, the fact that nearly all enthusiast motherboards now come with some sort of RAID controller and since the Raptors now use a native Serial ATA interface, the story might have changed.
Can AT do a RAID shootout or something? I would be very interested in something like that.
Again, great article!
Gary Key - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
We will have updated benchmarks or a new article with RAID results for this drive and others in the near future. Thank you.Zebo - Saturday, February 11, 2006 - link
Waste of time but I guess when the RAID freaks demand it they get it.