Western Digital WD1500ADFD: King Raptor
by Gary Key on February 8, 2006 1:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Hard Disk Performance: Multi-Tasking & Game Tests
Multitasking Test Procedure
To provide a real world example of multitasking, we run Outlook and import 450MB of email messages into an account while running our benchmarking utility to zip a single 300MB file. To compare our results, we calculate the difference between the multitasked process and the single task file zip process.
Game Test Procedures
Our Game Level Loading Time tests include two of the most popular games: Doom 3 and Half-Life 2. Because of their high resolution textures and the large levels, the loading time for the levels of each game are long enough to show a difference between each drive.
We have also included an older strategy game, Command & Conquer: Generals, because of its longer level load times as well. Though the game is a couple of years old, it still proves to be a good measure of data loading performance.
We will be updating our benchmark suite in the near future.
Multitasking Test Procedure
To provide a real world example of multitasking, we run Outlook and import 450MB of email messages into an account while running our benchmarking utility to zip a single 300MB file. To compare our results, we calculate the difference between the multitasked process and the single task file zip process.
Game Test Procedures
Our Game Level Loading Time tests include two of the most popular games: Doom 3 and Half-Life 2. Because of their high resolution textures and the large levels, the loading time for the levels of each game are long enough to show a difference between each drive.
We have also included an older strategy game, Command & Conquer: Generals, because of its longer level load times as well. Though the game is a couple of years old, it still proves to be a good measure of data loading performance.
We will be updating our benchmark suite in the near future.
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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.