WD made a mistake?

[Think]

With the release of the WD RE3, it seems that it's not only superior in performance but much for cost effective?

Test results by BlackDragon24 at AMDMB :

Western Digital 2 x 250 GB RE3 RAID 0 ICH9R 128k stripe.

The RE3 drives are remarkable, especially when you but them up against a solution that costs 4 times as much like the velociraptors:

2 x 300 GB Velociraptors RAID 0 32K Stripe ICH9R

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=456791

I suppose the Velociraptors are extinct and I just bought two

[XS_Rich]

Why would you do a comparison with different stripe sizes, surely that makes it meaningless?

[Think]

Why would you do a comparison with different stripe sizes, surely that makes it meaningless?

Hello RazzleUltra. This was not my test as mentioned and I asked the same question but if you consider the smaller stripe size then one would postulate that the larger stripe size preforming at that well is impressive indeed.

[XS_Rich]

Of course sequential transfer rate doesn't tell the whole story. It'd be interesting to see some more real-world workload benchmarks like iometer runs as I think once you become non-sequential, the access time of the velociraptors will really start to show.

[Strafe]

Sequential transfer rate tells very little of the story. I would think most people are more concerned with access times which is where the Velociraptor will shine. STR is mostly relevant to working with very large sequentially stored files like a video or something. I'm more concerned with boot time, app launch time, etc. which are more likely to be many small files.

[slim142]

Hmmmm
Me confused
Velociraptor not a good option anymore?

[Think]

Hmmmm
Me confused
Velociraptor not a good option anymore?

No, they are good...very good but these new drives are very good as well at a much more reasonable cost per GB.

There is also comments pertaining to the tests themselves that seem to suggest only a biased viewpoint so the verdict's not out.

[B.E.E.F.]

No, they are good...very good but these new drives are very good as well at a much more reasonable cost per GB.

You don't buy a Velociraptor for cost/GB. The whole point of the drive is access time and then transfer speed.

Reliability is also a plus for workstation and enterprise environments.


But yes, the new WD Black 640GB revision is awesome. The WD Black series in general are awesome.

[Think]

I hooked up the Velocirators on the board. Enabling AHCI made a big difference but I also did some quick experiments with different stripe sizes. Setup as a secondary raid - 0 drive with no data - HD setup/os on another drive:

128bit

ONLY THE VELOCIRAPTORS HAVE BEEN TESTED BELOW!!!!!!!!!

[Think]

64 bit AHCI enabled

[Think]

No sure how to run the IO test so if you would like just let me know how to. It's installed just don't know how to configure it.

[alfaunits]

You can't compare VRs with the RE3s, the two have different target audience. VRs have lower (MUCH lower) access time) and are faster for most uses.
Though the new RE3s seem to be very good compared to the rest of the SATA/II crowd, with lower than usual access times (<12ms) and very good STR rates (120MB/s top). I wish they weren't much more expensive compared to RE2, or they'd be a viable purchase.

[halo112358]

Large stripe size yields better results during sustained reads so it's no surprise that the RE3's are blazing fast in raid0 with 128k stripe size. But you can't compare that to a pair of Raptors using 32k stripes, that's like comparing apples to bananas.

Mmmm apples and bananas.

[Think]

Large stripe size yields better results during sustained reads so it's no surprise that the RE3's are blazing fast in raid0 with 128k stripe size. But you can't compare that to a pair of Raptors using 32k stripes, that's like comparing apples to bananas.

Mmmm apples and bananas.

32kb? hmm thinking more 64kb ( os, games ) with volume write back cash enabled.

[halo112358]

Oh, I misunderstood the second set of test results.

With those thrown in it's possible to make a comparison between the RE3 and the raptor - and the RE3 looks like a damn fine bang/$ drive in raid 0!

[Think]

I'm only testing my velociraptors, I don't have the Black Diamonds.

Here are only HDTach test results using short, long, with and without Volume Right Back Cach enabled.:

1. 1st is short test with NO right back cache
2. 2nd is long test with NO right back cache
3. 3rd is short test with right back cache enabled
4. 4th is long test with right back cache enabled.