Western Digital WD1500ADFD: King Raptor

Feature Set and Test Setup: WD1500ADFD

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.