Saturday, May 27th 2006
Western Digital Updates Raptor Series
Western Digital silently updated two of its first Raptor series drives: the 36GB WD360ADFD and 74GB WD740ADFD 10,000RPM models. Both hard drives now have 16MB buffer size, Native Command Queuing, increased 'Buffer To Disk' transfer rates of 84MB/sec up from the previous models' 72MB/sec as well as lower overall average seek times. The updated 36GB and 74GB Raptor models are also 3 dBA quieter in the idle state. However, both drives still carry a SATA 150 MB/s interface. These updated models are not available yet, but retailers should start to sell them within the next few days.
Source:
DailyTech
2 Comments on Western Digital Updates Raptor Series
I just picked up (around 1-2 months ago) the 150gb units w/ 16mb buffers on them (2 of them in RAID 0 via a Promise EX8350 128mb Caching Controller w/ Intel Super I-O cpu on them to offload the system CPU from disk mgt. tasks)... & these?
They REALLY fly!
They show on tests as outpacing my older generation #1 units by a GOOD margin on benchmark tests I have run here.
Probably partially @ least, due to the caching SATA2 controller (which sits in an x4 PCI-Express slot on the ASUS A8N-Premium mobo I have here) & probably partially due to the larger buffers on them vs. generation #1 "raptors"...
* Anyhow/anyways - I am waiting to see the performance numbers on these new ones, & usually sites like:
www.storagereview.com
Have early numbers on them, because they quite often get the "engineering samples" sent their way...
:)
APK
P.S.=> IMO & experience with them? I found that having them in ALL of my systems (2), I don't "feel bad" about it... they all fly, even the older gen #1 units! apk