[NEWS] - WD Raptor Preview at SR
- Thread starter CougTek
- Start date
blakerwry
Storage? I am Storage!
My first thought was that I should wait for the second version... the drive was fast... but not a whole lot of improvement over current 7200rpm disks, and is not as fast as current 10k SCSI disks...
But then I thought... if I'm building a low cost server and want faster than desktop IDE disks, I'm going to *HAVE* to go SCSI.... this drive could potentially keep someone from going SCSI and, depending on the cost of the drive, save alot of money on storage and a controller.
This is the 1st server oriented ATA drive since quantum was still around.... and I welcome its arrival.
But then I thought... if I'm building a low cost server and want faster than desktop IDE disks, I'm going to *HAVE* to go SCSI.... this drive could potentially keep someone from going SCSI and, depending on the cost of the drive, save alot of money on storage and a controller.
This is the 1st server oriented ATA drive since quantum was still around.... and I welcome its arrival.
zx
Learning Storage Performance
The most interesting thing about the review is that it will give us an example of how the performance of a pre-production "beta" drive compares to the final version.
As for the tests, the only real disappointment is the high-end scores. While other scores are equal or close to actual 7200rpm drives, the high-end scores are much worse (even in winbench!!). However, we never know, they might improve it significantly in the final version.
The good news is that the raptor does have the best IOmeter scores of all ATA drives. That makes it perfect for cheap servers.
As for the tests, the only real disappointment is the high-end scores. While other scores are equal or close to actual 7200rpm drives, the high-end scores are much worse (even in winbench!!). However, we never know, they might improve it significantly in the final version.
The good news is that the raptor does have the best IOmeter scores of all ATA drives. That makes it perfect for cheap servers.
Mickey
Learning Storage Performance
My thoughts exactly. Code is such an important part of drive performance, and it's usually the one part that takes the longest to optimize.zx said:
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
Mickey said:
Indeed.
Newtun
Storage is nice, especially if it doesn't rotate
In this SR post of the "Preliminary Atlas 15k Results" thread, Eugene says "I've been told that two shipments have already gone out to a distributor for delivery to a certain client".
That might indicate the drive is closer to production than we're hoping.
That might indicate the drive is closer to production than we're hoping.
Newtun
Storage is nice, especially if it doesn't rotate
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Have you noticed the two banner adds from HyperMicro on Anandtech? Guess they found themselves another publicity windows. No wonder where is the drive coming.Newtun said:
zx
Learning Storage Performance
Man....look at the WD1200JB in the anandtech review! It considerably outperforms all other drives in all desktop application tests!
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
So if I want to reboot my computer over and over, I should get a raptor!
w00t!
w00t!
Mickey
Learning Storage Performance
Hmm. The numbers look a lot better. That's a good sign, at least.
Good funny there, Mercutio. :lol: Of course, if my computer was constantly rebooting itself, I think I'd be worried about something much more serious than boot times!
Good funny there, Mercutio. :lol: Of course, if my computer was constantly rebooting itself, I think I'd be worried about something much more serious than boot times!
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Mickey said:Hmm. The numbers look a lot better. That's a good sign, at least.
Good funny there, Mercutio. :lol: Of course, if my computer was constantly rebooting itself, I think I'd be worried about something much more serious than boot times!
Last time I had that problem on one of my machines all I had to do was pull the GF2 and replace it with a Savage4...
Slightly more realistically, the only computer I boot with any regularity is my laptop (only if I didn't remember to "hibernate" it), and the Raptor isn't going to help that little guy much.
Come to think of it, why the *hell* does SR test for boot time? scandisk-cause-windows-crashed time is slightly more realistic, but even if a PC takes three or four minutes to come up, you're probably going to leave it on long enough that the difference between two minutes and four isn't going to be much of an issue.
Mickey
Learning Storage Performance
It's probably because a surprising number of people want the fastest possible booting drive. Does Linux offer hibernation support? (I have never used Linux, so pardon the potentially silly question.)
At work I usually just power on my workstation and take the time to get a fresh mug of water and check my voice mail. By the time I'm done the station is ready for me to login. The mappings take longer than the actual system bootup does.
I just had a funny image pop into my head, with a Raptor drive put inside one of those IEEE1394 external cases, then connected to a laptop. Unfortunately, I don't think you can boot off the external drive (or can you?).
At work I usually just power on my workstation and take the time to get a fresh mug of water and check my voice mail. By the time I'm done the station is ready for me to login. The mappings take longer than the actual system bootup does.
I just had a funny image pop into my head, with a Raptor drive put inside one of those IEEE1394 external cases, then connected to a laptop. Unfortunately, I don't think you can boot off the external drive (or can you?).
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Not on a laptop....
For a while I had a Cheetah hooked up to an old laptop of mine, just because I couldn't stand how slow it was, so I guess anything is possible.
Yes, Linux will do suspend to disk. At least, I remember seeing stuff about it in various documentation.
For a while I had a Cheetah hooked up to an old laptop of mine, just because I couldn't stand how slow it was, so I guess anything is possible.
Yes, Linux will do suspend to disk. At least, I remember seeing stuff about it in various documentation.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
The numbers are up for the final version of this drive. Huge improvement from the one previewed less than a week ago. Beats the hell out of my Cheetah 36ES. Now I feel like I need to upgrade.
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
Mercutio said:
Not on any PC laptop. All a matter of BIOS support I guess. If only those Adaptec SCSI PC Card controllers were cheaper (and LVD capable). An X15-36LP would speed my lappy up considerably.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Just to be clear: I was booting off the crappy 6GB IDE disk in my laptop; I don't know of any external devices that you can boot off of only notebook PCs, either.