Thermal and Acoustics

Heat and sound are also two very important factors in drive performance especially when considering where they will be used. A loud hard drive that becomes warm very quickly may not be the best choice for home theater PCs or any PC without adequate cooling, and the noise alone could be a bit annoying. Take a look at how each drive performed as far as heat and noise output goes.

Thermal

Drive Operating Temperatures

Drive Operating Temperatures

Acoustics

To measure the sound output of each drive, we have taken decibel readings of each at their startup phase as well as the sound output while there is disk activity 1" away from the side of the drive. We try to simulate an environment for this with less than 40dB of background noise.

Noise Comparison


Real World Tests - Multitasking Performance Final Words
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  • Orbs - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link

    If you have a large, PATA backup drive, then the chance of failure issue really isn't that big a deal, especially with the longer warranties (Raptors are enterprise class products for WD, aren't they?).

    The interesting question to me is, does performance increase with 10,000 RPMs, SATA bandwidth AND increased platter density.

    I believe the Raptors aren't 3.0 GB/s SATA but they still should have plenty of room to run, and if I remember correctly, the 150 GB Raptors gained their extra space by a higher density platter than the 74 GB version.

    Now that's a setup that might be worth $600. It all depends if it lives up to the potential. AnandTech, let's get a SATA RAID-0 Shoot Out going!!
  • Orbs - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link

    Oh, and in general, great articles lately :)
  • DS Delaroca - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link

    i think he means the new raptors WD1500ADFD 150GB on a raid setup.

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