WD Caviar Black Platters: Have I finally figured it out?

spynoodle

spynoodle

Active Member
Okay, so I've been trying to research how the platters affect performance in Caviar Black and RE3 drives. I've gathered that it mostly depends on platter density, right? So in terms of speed (where slower is less)......
500gb<250gb<640gb<320gb<1tb
because the 500gb and 250gb drives both use 250gb platters, the 640gb and 320gb drives both use 320gb platters, and the 1tb drive uses 500gb platters. The single-platter drive variants (eg. 250gb, 320gb) are also generally faster than their dual-platter brothers, right?

Another question..... Why do the RE3s always have half the cache of the Blacks? Is it because they're meant for RAID? How much of a performance hit do they get in a single-drive environment?
 
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Technically, 320GB and a 640GB both have 1 platter, it just happens to be double sided. So long as you are looking at the same platter density I wouldn't be too worried about platter counts. Is 1 platter faster than 2? Yes, but not much.

The cache isn't a real big deal either. Does more help? Again yes, but not enough to worry about. 2 drives with 16MB and 32MB cache but are otherwise identical will have virtually the same performance.
 
Plus the difference between the Green/Blue/Black and RE drives. RE/Raptors are Enterprise class drives, built for 24/7 use.
 
StrangleHold said:
Plus the difference between the Green/Blue/Black and RE drives. RE/Raptors are Enterprise class drives, built for 24/7 use.
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RE drives are specifically built for raid, hence the term raid edition. The velociraptors aren't technically enterprise drives though.
 
StrangleHold said:
Well technically I dont either, but W/D does.
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Yeah, i don't consider them enterprise drives though for a few reasons, main of which being that even though its a 2.5" drive, you can't use it without its heatsink, and without the heatsink it won't fit in alot of 3.5" hotswap bays.
 
Thanks for the replies! @ Cromewell: Is the 500gb just a double-sided platter too? Also, if the 320gb is a single-sided 640gb then does it technically have a 640gb platter density, or are most drive platters not double-sided?
 
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Generally they are all double sided. Occasionally drives don't use the full capacity due to customer demand for certain sizes.

I haven't looked it up but I believe the 500GB is using 500GB platters. The 7200.12s are using 500GB (pretty sure they are using 2 heads/platter so that's 250GB/side) so it would make sense that WD is as well.

edit: can you post the model numbers of the drives you are looking at? it makes it easier to determine platter count.
 
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Cromewell said:
Generally they are all double sided. Occasionally drives don't use the full capacity due to customer demand for certain sizes.

I haven't looked it up but I believe the 500GB is using 500GB platters. The 7200.12s are using 500GB (pretty sure they are using 2 heads/platter so that's 250GB/side) so it would make sense that WD is as well.

edit: can you post the model numbers of the drives you are looking at? it makes it easier to determine platter count.
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Well, at this point I've pretty much decided on this cheap WD1002FBYS on ebay. Supposedly (according to hardwarecanucks) the 1tb version of these drives is the fastest, and the one on ebay is barely more expensive than any WD6402FBYS drives I've found, which wouldn't even be as fast. Thanks for the help!
 
Just in case you were wondering, the WD1002FBYS (RE3) uses 3x333GB platters and 6 heads (so the platters are 333GB/2 per side).
 
spynoodle said:
Well, at this point I've pretty much decided on this cheap WD1002FBYS on ebay. Supposedly (according to hardwarecanucks) the 1tb version of these drives is the fastest, and the one on ebay is barely more expensive than any WD6402FBYS drives I've found, which wouldn't even be as fast. Thanks for the help!
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Actually the 2TB drive is the fastest, and the 1.5TB caviar black benchmarks at pretty much identical speeds to the 2TB. Newegg sells the 1.5TB black for $109. Otherwise, i would go with a spinpoint F3 for a 1TB drive, which last i checked ewiz/superbiiz were cheapest.
 
bomberboysk said:
Actually the 2TB drive is the fastest, and the 1.5TB caviar black benchmarks at pretty much identical speeds to the 2TB. Newegg sells the 1.5TB black for $109. Otherwise, i would go with a spinpoint F3 for a 1TB drive, which last i checked ewiz/superbiiz were cheapest.
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I don't really want to spend that much, though. I'd also feel a little risky going away from WD or Seagate. How does the 7200.12 series compare in terms of performance and reliability? How about the ST31000528AS?

@ Cromewell: So that means the 1002FBYS will be about as fast as the 640gb black, right?
 
spynoodle said:
I don't really want to spend that much, though. I'd also feel a little risky going away from WD or Seagate. How does the 7200.12 series compare in terms of performance and reliability? How about the ST31000528AS?

@ Cromewell: So that means the 1002FBYS will be about as fast as the 640gb black, right?
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Uh, samsung in general has a better reputation for reliability than seagate, especially after seagates 7200.11 incident. As far as 7200.12 drives, havent had a problem with them and ive used both single platter(500gb) and multi platter(1TB) drives without issue. Personally i was gonna go with a samsung spinpoint F3 1TB, but then the 7200.12's went on sale for $59.99 free shipping and i couldnt pass that up.
 
bomberboysk said:
Uh, samsung in general has a better reputation for reliability than seagate, especially after seagates 7200.11 incident. As far as 7200.12 drives, havent had a problem with them and ive used both single platter(500gb) and multi platter(1TB) drives without issue. Personally i was gonna go with a samsung spinpoint F3 1TB, but then the 7200.12's went on sale for $59.99 free shipping and i couldnt pass that up.
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I decided I'd take a peek at the 1tb F3, just to see how it was, and WOW! :eek: It's on sale for $60 free shipping, it gets WAY better reviews than the 1tb 7200.12, it has 3 customer choice awards, and it's a good amount faster than the Caviar Black! I want to make sure, though: Is Samsung really as reliable as WD? I've come to realize that the newer Seagates are becoming a bit on the unreliable side, but WD has always stood as my #1.
 
Yes, Samsung is reliable. Honestly, all the brands are. Sometimes you get a bad series and that reputation hangs on the brand forever. I've had a 7200.12 for a good while now and it's fine.
 
Cromewell said:
Yes, Samsung is reliable. Honestly, all the brands are. Sometimes you get a bad series and that reputation hangs on the brand forever. I've had a 7200.12 for a good while now and it's fine.
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Then how come almost all cheap laptops use Fujitsu drives?
 
spynoodle said:
Then how come almost all cheap laptops use Fujitsu drives?
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As far as my experience goes, most cheap laptops that come into my shop for upgrades or repair are using Hitachi drives. Fujistu definitely isn't a cheap brand.

As for the OP, if you're after speed go for the Samsung. Reliable and fast. Enough said. Personally, I find even you're not running RAID the WD RE drives are well worth the money. 5 year warranty instead of 3 years, and I believe all are tested by WD.
 
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Ethan3.14159 said:
As far as my experience goes, most cheap laptops that come into my shop for upgrades or repair are using Hitachi drives. Fujistu definitely isn't a cheap brand.

As for the OP, if you're after speed go for the Samsung. Reliable and fast. Enough said. Personally, I find even you're not running RAID the WD RE drives are well worth the money. 5 year warranty instead of 3 years, and I believe all are tested by WD.
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Thanks for the advice. I think I'm going for the 1tb Spinpoint F3 while it's still on sale at Newegg.
 
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