Western Digital WD1500ADFD: King Raptor
by Gary Key on February 8, 2006 1:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Final Words
The performance of the third-generation Raptor is truly impressive from several different angles. While, at this time, we did not test the unit against the SCSI competitors with which it is meant to compete, we did find the drive to offer the overall highest performance in the SATA market. Like its predecessor, this is the drive to have if single-user performance matters over absolute storage capability. In fact, having this drive as the primary OS and game unit with a larger capacity drive for general storage would be an ideal combination.
In our thermal and acoustic testing, the drive offered average scores, but considering the performance and design of the drive, we could live with these minor annoyances in our main system. However, if you plan on building a silent system or using this drive in a SFF case, please understand that the thermals and acoustics will be noticeable.
We did witness performance decreases of up to 9% in certain benchmarks with NCQ activated. We will further investigate the performance penalty of NCQ in the near future with our revised benchmark suite. At this time we recommend turning off NCQ if this drive will be utilized in a single-user environment.
With a $300 price tag, 150GB capacity, and enterprise market heritage, this drive is targeted to a different market. While Western Digital desperately wants the drive to succeed in the server arena, they are acutely aware of the fact that the computer enthusiast will likely be one of the main purchasers of this drive. The Raptor X looks like the drive to have for the serious case modder, but we feel the additional $50 in cost is better applied toward buying a large storage drive for your system.
What is our recommendation? If storage space is not of prime concern and your budget allows it, then buy this drive. It offers the best single-user performance of any drives that we have tested to date along with the safety of owning a drive designed for 24/7 operation.
It took a few years, but Western Digital brought true excellence to a now mature product.
The performance of the third-generation Raptor is truly impressive from several different angles. While, at this time, we did not test the unit against the SCSI competitors with which it is meant to compete, we did find the drive to offer the overall highest performance in the SATA market. Like its predecessor, this is the drive to have if single-user performance matters over absolute storage capability. In fact, having this drive as the primary OS and game unit with a larger capacity drive for general storage would be an ideal combination.
In our thermal and acoustic testing, the drive offered average scores, but considering the performance and design of the drive, we could live with these minor annoyances in our main system. However, if you plan on building a silent system or using this drive in a SFF case, please understand that the thermals and acoustics will be noticeable.
We did witness performance decreases of up to 9% in certain benchmarks with NCQ activated. We will further investigate the performance penalty of NCQ in the near future with our revised benchmark suite. At this time we recommend turning off NCQ if this drive will be utilized in a single-user environment.
With a $300 price tag, 150GB capacity, and enterprise market heritage, this drive is targeted to a different market. While Western Digital desperately wants the drive to succeed in the server arena, they are acutely aware of the fact that the computer enthusiast will likely be one of the main purchasers of this drive. The Raptor X looks like the drive to have for the serious case modder, but we feel the additional $50 in cost is better applied toward buying a large storage drive for your system.
What is our recommendation? If storage space is not of prime concern and your budget allows it, then buy this drive. It offers the best single-user performance of any drives that we have tested to date along with the safety of owning a drive designed for 24/7 operation.
It took a few years, but Western Digital brought true excellence to a now mature product.
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retrospooty - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
How do you enable/disable NCQ? I can't find anything on that.Gary Key - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
This is accomplished through the NVIDIA SW-IDE driver settings. I will post a how to this evening.
retrospooty - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
Thanks, I found it, based on your clue above... I was looking at the drive props, not the IDE controller props... Duh.Live - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
Care to enlighten the rest of us?
retrospooty - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
Go to your system props>device manager>SATA controller, and uncheck the option.I have the latest Nforce 4 drivers loaded, so I cant say its exactly the same for earlier versions, or Intel/other chipsets, but that would be the logical place to look.
Live - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
I am wondering the same thing. Since it seems NCQ is not worth it for desktop use how do you disable it?mlittl3 - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
This review goes into way too much depth about NCQ vs. no NCQ. I can't remember if they say how to disable it. It is also a great review comparing SCSI vs. Raptor and SATA vs. Raptor performance. It is the most indepth review to date of all raptor drives except it leaves out Raid tests.http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200601/WD150...">http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200601/WD150...
mlittl3 - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
Whoops, I meant to imply that the Storagereview.com review goes into way too much detail about NCQ, not the Anandtech review. :)Gary Key - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
I understood that from your original statement. We wanted to go into more detail but the new game and multi-tasking benchmarks were not ready yet. Hopefully, we can provide more details in the near future.
Gary Key - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
Eugene Ra provides excellent information and analysis. :-) We are expanding our test suites at this time and will be providing a more in-depth analysis of drives in the near future. Also, we will be expanding our RAID coverage depending upon the drive being tested (will it make a difference). There is certainly a need to do RAID analysis but it should include more than RAID 0 which only provides benefits in certain benchmarks. ;->