WD Raptor WD740ADFDv.s Seagate 7200.1 500GB

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by moosh101, Nov 19, 2009.

  1. moosh101

    moosh101 MDL Junior Member

    Jul 13, 2009
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    Greetings everyone,

    I recently purchased a used Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB SATA-1 16MB Cache hard disk to use as my primary hard disk. I was using a Seagate 7200.1 500GB SATA-2 32MB Cache drive split into 2 partitions; one as the system drive and the other for storage, and can now use the Seagate exclusively for storage.

    The Windows 7 installation onto the Raptor went fine and so far no problems, but it appears as the Raptor is slower than the Seagate, at least according to Windows Performance Index. The Seagate received a score of 5.9 while the Raptor only received a score of 5.1. I wonder if this has to do with the Seagate's larger cache and SATA-2 interface. I feel a little disappointed as I was hoping to give the system a boost with a 10000rpm drive, but it seems as I have actually retarded it slightly. Oh well, I guess I should have saved up and purchased a new VelociRaptor instead!
     
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  2. genuine555

    genuine555 MDL Expert

    Oct 3, 2009
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    The raptor should be faster, in spite of the smaller cache.

    But be aware of one thing :

    when u installed win7, it is actually so good at getting itself running, that u might have left out to update chipset/sata drivers from your mobo vendor, and are still running on the ones win7 automaticly has installed for you.

    Am I right ?

    if so, go to your vendor's site and install updated chipset/sata drivers.

    That could make the difference...
     
  3. moosh101

    moosh101 MDL Junior Member

    Jul 13, 2009
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    You were right!

    Thanks genuine555,

    I performed the Windows Experience Index test before installing the Intel Matrix Storage drivers and got a hard disk score of 5.1. I have since re-run the test with the drivers installed and now get a score of 5.9, the same score as I got with the Seagate 7200.1 500GB SATA-2, with the same drivers.

    I sincerely appreciate your advice,

    Shane. :)
     
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  4. genuine555

    genuine555 MDL Expert

    Oct 3, 2009
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    You're welcome. I think it's weird anyway. the score should be higher. I get a 5.7 with a simple WD 500Gb 16Mb cache.

    Did you partition the raptor ?

    You should try that. Smaller partitions tend to perform better somehow...
     
  5. A30N

    A30N MDL Novice

    May 11, 2008
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    I just ordered a pair of Western Digital RE3 WD250 2ABYS drives for my new i5 rig, and these bad boys are the enterprise version of the Black series, only with a 16mb cache instead of 32mb. Supposedly, they are specifically designed for RAID configurations, and I hope that when I RAID0 them together, I can get the HDD sub-score above 5.9, which is the max score for all non-raid hard disk drives.

    AFAIK, the Raptors, although 10K rpm, are 2.5 inch drives, and when compared to 3.5 inch 7200 rpm drives of the same density, are actually slower due to the reduced diameter.

    3.5" * pi * 07200rpm = 79168 inches per minute
    2.5" * pi * 10000rpm = 78569 inches per minute

    The Raptors, however, have greatly reduced random seek times because the arm sweeps (from spindle to rim and back) are shorter than the 3.5" drives, thus enhancing performance. Also, difference between inner and outer track speeds on a Raptor are smaller than on a 3.5" drive, where the inner tracks are 41% as fast as the outside sectors, whereas with the 3.5" drives, the inside tracks are only 28% as fast as the outside tracks. This gives the Raptors better consistency when it comes to transfer speeds.


    As a nearly pennyless student, I can't afford Raptors, but I can boost HDD performance with a little trick I came up with:

    I start with two cheap 7200rpm SATA drives, and RAID0 them together. You can leave the stripe size default, but I like 64k because I feel they offer the best performance for the types of files on an operating system partition. Then, with a partition utility, I make a 100gb partition for the OS, and leave the rest unformatted. By doing this, I guarantee that the OS only uses the fastest sectors on the harddrive. My media is always stored on a separate drive from my OS, so I never fill up my OS drives anyway.

    So what do you think? Am I crazy or a genius? :D
     
  6. motofreak75

    motofreak75 MDL Novice

    Mar 11, 2008
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    in Intel Matrix Storage software click on the drive or raid group and enable the buffer setting. My 2x 300 rapter drives in a raid0 went from 170MB/s to 240MB/s pretty much maxing out the sata controller in my P5Q mainboard (HDtune can be your friend )
     
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