Western Digital Launches Quiet Single Platter 320GB Desktop Drive !!!

[CTKP]

Ordered two 320 aaks from newegg last week along with a 640. Received them today though the model isn't ..BA.., or ..B3.. but 00YGA0 with a pack date of Jan 22.

[YukonTrooper]

Ordered two 320 aaks from newegg last week along with a 640. Received them today though the model isn't ..BA.., or ..B3.. but 00YGA0 with a pack date of Jan 22.

Too bad. I know on eBay there is a guy selling the 320GB platter versions.

[EvilBellyLint]

I know the guy you're talking about (on ebay) but I thought,
for another 40-bucks I can get the new WD6400AAKS from
Newegg with free shipping, and know that I'm not only getting
a 320GB platter, but much better access times as well


EBL

[YukonTrooper]

I wouldn't buy from the guy from eBay, but I came across someone mentioning the seller over at HardForum.

What's up with the lackluster access time on the 320GB model? It's like 18ms! What is it on the 640GB version?

[hecktic]

has the samsung F1 already been released to the market ?

[breakfromyou]

I wouldn't buy from the guy from eBay, but I came across someone mentioning the seller over at HardForum.

What's up with the lackluster access time on the 320GB model? It's like 18ms! What is it on the 640GB version?

it HAS to be AAM. It's really the only explanation?

[0maro]

How to know,whats model is new and what is old one?
Both of them are xxxAAKS..

[Rez.]

How to know,whats model is new and what is old one?
Both of them are xxxAAKS..

The new single platter one is:

WD3200AAKS-00B3A0

[donitsi]

The new single platter one is:

WD3200AAKS-00B3A0

I got my hdd today. I was really surprised when I looked it's code. I got this new 00B3A0 baby

Still waiting for case/psu and videocard to get things started

[EvilBellyLint]

I wouldn't buy from the guy from eBay, but I came across someone mentioning the seller over at HardForum.

What's up with the lackluster access time on the 320GB model? It's like 18ms! What is it on the 640GB version?

12.8ms on the WD6400AAKS



EBL

[YukonTrooper]

it HAS to be AAM. It's really the only explanation?

That's what people have been saying, but no one has mentioned turning it off, so that high seek time might just be standard.

[NapalmV5]

4x incoming..

if someone wants to post a 4x bench before i do.. do it fast

[Omastar]

For what's it worth, here's my initial, very quick test of my new WD 640 AAKS using Roadkill's HD benchmark:



This is not my OS drive, BTW. It's a server storage drive with about 222GB of data on it right now.

[Mav451]

How do other HD's fare in that Roadkill bench?

E.g. 750Gig variants from WD/Seagate/Samsung?

[Omastar]

Here's my WD 74GB Raptor (ADFD) with a fairly new Windows installation:



Obviously, don't put a whole lot of faith in synthetic benches like this, but it is interesting, nonetheless. Raptor trumps it in accesses/access time, obviously, and they're about neck in neck in Random Reads, but the 640GB thrashes the Raptor in Linear Reads, according to this.

[XS Janus]

How about somebody that has raptor and a new WD makes a big folder with lots of different file types and times its copy time from:
C: -> D: D: -> C: C: -> C: D: -> D:

[NapalmV5]

4x 640GB @ 5% = 128GB



just a quickie.. i have yet to set the best performing settings @ bios

later ill post the 4x raptor.. ive posted several of those.. ill look for it here @ xs

i just know it takes 6x raptors to achieve that ^

[NapalmV5]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=283

[donitsi]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=283

holy crap that's fast

[MavT]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=283

That is insane....very impressive

[breakfromyou]

I just picked up a 320gb single platter.

If you are in a retail store, or at least have the ability to see the box, you can see the serial number on the bottom of the box, right below the large barcode. the 320gb single platter (WD32000AAKS-00B3A0) all seem to begin with WMAT...while the others are WCAS, WCAT, WMAP, etc...the single platter drives DO weigh less. Out of everybody i asked at work, only 1 person couldn't tell the difference in weight between the two types of drives. The double platter vs. single.

Now, as for the drive. It is dead silent. I can't hear a thing. Access times are a bit high, but so are the read/write speeds.

How would one go about changing the AAM settings? I need to do some testing.

[Mav451]

SilentDrive - http://www.rt-sw.de/en/freeware/freeware.html

[AliG]

I'll still buy the Samsung F1.

I agree, this is xtremesystems, not xtremelyquietsystems, I think we can deal with a few more dba(s) in exchange for faster hard drives

[xappie]

How would one go about changing the AAM settings? I need to do some testing.

Any luck with this? Im curious to see your results...

[breakfromyou]

Any luck with this? Im curious to see your results...

None. Any kind of software that has anything to do with hard drives hates these new drives.

I bought another for RAID 0, by the way. 170 MB/sec average read in HD Tach.