WD Caviar Black 500GB 32MB Cache HDD

Flava0ne · Apr 12, 2010

I'm thinking of getting 2 WD Caviar Black 500GB 32MB Cache HDD's, setting them up in a RAID 0 array, patitioning 130GB for my OS and the rest of it as my backup drive for my files. But will I notice a noticeable performance gain than my current RAID 0 setup with my Seagate Barracuda 250GB 16MB Cache HDD's?

reverze · Apr 12, 2010

Are you looking for more space, or just performance?

If you're just looking for some extra speed, why not keep your current RAID 0 and look into a nice SSD to install your OS on and a few other applications?

Flava0ne · Apr 12, 2010

Yeah, the performance gain from an SSD will deffinitely be noticeable. But the price difference for the amount of GB they come in is still way too expensive for me to get right now.

reverze · Apr 12, 2010

I don't think you're going to see a huge huge difference between the two..

If you can hold out a little while, there are newer SSDs coming out which are faster, more capacity, and the prices should see a decent drop within the next 6 months I'd say (At least by Christmas.)

But, if you want some quick storage, perhaps just find a cheap or used 500GB or 1TB drive to use with your current drives until then.

Just my $0.02.

Flava0ne · Apr 12, 2010

That's cool, I appreciate your 2¢

Cause I would rather get an SSD anyways.

cyriene · Apr 12, 2010

Something about RAID 0 and backup just don't go well together....

Bo$$ · Apr 12, 2010

Flava0ne said:
That's cool, I appreciate your 2¢

Cause I would rather get an SSD anyways.

i can vouch that those western digital are very fast in RAID0 although the backup drive idea is a little weird as RAID0 is slightly unreliable in case of HDD failure :eek:

HolyCow02 · Apr 12, 2010

I have two of them in RAID 1, as my OS is installed on an SSD (which is by far the best way to go). You don't really need a large SSD. I have a 64GB with Vista installed, and I have more than enough space on it. You are running 7, which has a much smaller footprint, so you wouldn't need anything bigger than a 32GB, which are like $150

Flava0ne · Apr 12, 2010

Bo$$ said:
i can vouch that those western digital are very fast in RAID0 although the backup drive idea is a little weird as RAID0 is slightly unreliable in case of HDD failure

Yeah, I was just thinking about that. But who would need a TB for their OS and other apps only??? Would one of those WD Caviar Black 32MB Cache HDD's be as fast as my current RAID 0 setup? Because I would rather not have a RAID 0 setup because of that possibility and to bypass my nVidia RAID boot screen to boot up faster.

HolyCow02 said:
I have two of them in RAID 1, as my OS is installed on an SSD (which is by far the best way to go). You don't really need a large SSD. I have a 64GB with Vista installed, and I have more than enough space on it. You are running 7, which has a much smaller footprint, so you wouldn't need anything bigger than a 32GB, which are like $150

32GB is too small for all the apps I use and a 64GB would be just about enough for what I need. But if I go the SSD route, I would want a 128GB to just be comfortable. Right now, with all my apps installed and on Windows 7, I'm using about 63.2GB of my available 500GB.

IINexusII · Apr 12, 2010

i have the same drive. it is abit noisy but it could be just mine since alot of reviews say its quiet. the 320gb blue 16mb i have is much quieter

MoonPig · Apr 12, 2010

Just to help, this is my 500GB AALS:

I imagine 2 in Raid0 would fetch 200MB+

AKlass · Apr 12, 2010

i thought blacks can't do raid

Sasqui · Apr 12, 2010

cyriene said:
Something about RAID 0 and backup just don't go well together....

That thought jumped out at me as well.

AKlass said:
i thought blacks can't do raid

I've read that for some of thier drives. I think it depends on the model of the drive and probably the bios rev. On one of the Newegg reviews for a 640GB, someone claimed it was fine (can't recall the model).

Flava0ne · Apr 13, 2010

MoonPig said:
Just to help, this is my 500GB AALS:

http://img.techpowerup.org/100412/WD5001AALS - HD-Tach.png

I imagine 2 in Raid0 would fetch 200MB+

Damn, that's not bad at all!

So, will running only one of them instead of having 2 in RAID 0 be equal to or better than my current RAID 0 setup with my Seagate HDD's? Just as long as it's equal to my current setup, I might just pick one up.

PaulieG · Apr 13, 2010

AKlass said:
i thought blacks can't do raid

All of the 640 blacks I had could do raid just fine.

Bo$$ · Apr 13, 2010

AKlass said:
i thought blacks can't do raid

ive got those 500GBs doing raid as we speak

Bo$$ · Apr 13, 2010

here it is in RAID0 on a 6 month old windows 7 setup they were MUCH faster when they where empty...
and SLI chipset is not brilliant with RAID0 expect much faster with an intel controller

Flava0ne · Apr 13, 2010

So will one of these WD Caviar Black HDD's not in RAID 0 be equal to or better than my RAID 0 setup with my Seagate HDD's? Because I had recently removed my RAID 0 setup with my Seagate drives and I'm currently only using one of them and there's a noticable performance drop.

Paintface · Apr 13, 2010

if you do decide to go for a black edition raid0 go for the 640gbs with 320gb platters

Flava0ne · Apr 13, 2010

Paintface said:
if you do decide to go for a black edition raid0 go for the 640gbs with 320gb platters

I'm not planning on doing a RAID 0 setup anymore because of the very slight risk of HDD failure and because I hate the nVidia RAID boot screen during startup.

So back to my question, will one of these WD Caviar Black HDD's not in RAID 0 be equal to or better than when I had my Seagate HDD's in RAID 0?

Bo$$ · Apr 13, 2010

Flava0ne said:
I'm not planning on doing a RAID 0 setup anymore because of the very slight risk of HDD failure and because I hate the nVidia RAID boot screen during startup.

So back to my question, will one of these WD Caviar Black HDD's not in RAID 0 be equal to or better than when I had my Seagate HDD's in RAID 0?

maybe SLIGHTLY slower, i not really sure you will see much difference, but it all depends how fast your current disks are, please post a HDTACH score

Flava0ne · Apr 13, 2010

Bo$$ said:
maybe SLIGHTLY slower, i not really sure you will see much difference, but it all depends how fast your current disks are, please post a HDTACH score

But I don't have my RAID 0 setup anymore, I'm only using one Seagate Barracuda 250GB 16MB Cache HDD. So, I don't think that my HDTach score would say anything about how well one WD Caviar Black HDD compares to my old RAID 0 setup when I had both Seagate drives installed.

Flava0ne · Apr 14, 2010

Well, here's my HDTach score anyways on my Seagate Barracuda 250GB 16MB Cache HDD:

Is the general rule of thumb for getting an idea of how much gain to expect from a RAID 0 setup, to just double that HDTach result?

Delta6326 · Apr 14, 2010

well i have a 500gb black and i think it runs great.

also is that w7!? i didn't know you could change that much

Flava0ne · Apr 14, 2010

Delta6326 said:
well i have a 500gb black and i think it runs great.

also is that w7!? i didn't know you could change that much

Yeah, I just placed an order for one. But I would still like to know how one of them compares to my old RAID 0 setup.

And yeah, that's Windows 7! It's a lot more customizable friendly than any previous versions of Windows and I don't even have any theme changing programs installed like Stardock's Windows Blinds, etc.

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WD Caviar Black 500GB 32MB Cache HDD

Flava0ne

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