Western Digital SE16 750GB: "Quiet" a Performer
by Dave Robinet on August 9, 2007 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
iPEAK Business Application Tests
Our iPEAK Winstone benchmarks offer a glimpse into how well our hard disk drives will handle general office applications, media encoding, and graphics manipulation. While the business applications that are being tested tend to be more CPU bound, the performance of the hard drive can and will make a difference in the more disk intensive video and graphics applications where large media files are typically being edited.
As expected, the Raptor drive continues its dominance in our benchmarks, but the WD7500AAKS turns in a very solid showing. Its Business Winstone score of 829 is slightly slower than the Hitachi 7K1000, but significantly faster than the Seagate 7200.10 750GB drive or any of the other 500GB drives we've tested.
iPEAK General Task Tests
The iPEAK based General Task benchmarks are designed to replicate utility based applications that typically are disk intensive and represent common programs utilized on the majority of personal computers. While the WinRAR program is very CPU intensive it will typically stress the storage system in short bursts. Our antivirus benchmark will stress the storage system with continual reads and sporadic write requests while the defragmentation process is split between continual read and write requests.
The WD 750GB performs consistently in third place in our benchmarks, producing results which are behind only the WD Raptor drive (hardly a fair comparison) and the other performance king, the Hitachi 7K1000. The only other 750GB drive tested (the Seagate 7200.10) is bested consistently by the WD7500AAKS.
Note that the WD7500AAKS does fall behind in the AVG Antivirus testing portion of this suite, coming in at a level close to the 7200.10 drive from Seagate. This is a significant improvement over previous WD SE series drives and indicates Western Digital has finely tuned their firmware for small block sizes of data in sequential order.
Our iPEAK Winstone benchmarks offer a glimpse into how well our hard disk drives will handle general office applications, media encoding, and graphics manipulation. While the business applications that are being tested tend to be more CPU bound, the performance of the hard drive can and will make a difference in the more disk intensive video and graphics applications where large media files are typically being edited.
As expected, the Raptor drive continues its dominance in our benchmarks, but the WD7500AAKS turns in a very solid showing. Its Business Winstone score of 829 is slightly slower than the Hitachi 7K1000, but significantly faster than the Seagate 7200.10 750GB drive or any of the other 500GB drives we've tested.
iPEAK General Task Tests
The iPEAK based General Task benchmarks are designed to replicate utility based applications that typically are disk intensive and represent common programs utilized on the majority of personal computers. While the WinRAR program is very CPU intensive it will typically stress the storage system in short bursts. Our antivirus benchmark will stress the storage system with continual reads and sporadic write requests while the defragmentation process is split between continual read and write requests.
The WD 750GB performs consistently in third place in our benchmarks, producing results which are behind only the WD Raptor drive (hardly a fair comparison) and the other performance king, the Hitachi 7K1000. The only other 750GB drive tested (the Seagate 7200.10) is bested consistently by the WD7500AAKS.
Note that the WD7500AAKS does fall behind in the AVG Antivirus testing portion of this suite, coming in at a level close to the 7200.10 drive from Seagate. This is a significant improvement over previous WD SE series drives and indicates Western Digital has finely tuned their firmware for small block sizes of data in sequential order.
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miahallen - Wednesday, August 15, 2007 - link
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php...">Very good discussion concerning the problems with anandtech's sound measuring methodology here.The Boston Dangler - Friday, August 10, 2007 - link
for Samsung to offer larger drivesLord Evermore - Thursday, August 9, 2007 - link
So...have all drives up to this point only had the drive shaft secured on one side? The end of the shaft just spinning in the air between the top platter and the casing? That seems like a very unlikely thing given how easily that could result in the platters moving and hitting the heads or even hitting the casing. Given the G forces they're rated to handle even when running makes it sound even less likely.Lord Evermore - Thursday, August 9, 2007 - link
Oh, and haven't all drives had auto-parking heads for like a decade or more? The only reason the heads would move onto the platter during spin-up is if the controller specifically drives the armature to do so. So basically, SecurePark is WD saying "hey, we don't do something stupid with the heads anymore!"I hate how every company has to give their own trademarked name to a basic technology that everybody has.
falc0ne - Thursday, August 9, 2007 - link
I've noticed in stores 250, 320 and 400GB versions of AAKS are they the same revision drives? I'm ready to order one if so.Also, with the same capacities WD has drives in series KS.
Please, I need support, I'm buying a new PC. Thank you
Adul - Thursday, August 9, 2007 - link
Where did you find the Seagate for 180?Gary Key - Thursday, August 9, 2007 - link
At the time Dave wrote this, our price engine was showing ClubIT to have it for $188.89 if I remember right. I just checked and it was up to $199. We will get the article updated shortly.AdamK47 - Thursday, August 9, 2007 - link
Want!gloinsir - Thursday, August 9, 2007 - link
The following charthttp://images.anandtech.com/graphs/wd750_080807108...">http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/wd750_080807108...
, the Load Acoustics Chart, was missing results for the Hitachi 7K1000 with AAM/Off.
Gary Key - Thursday, August 9, 2007 - link
Fixed with a press of the refresh button... strange things today.