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

[GamingDaemon]

1). Western Digital WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 320GB, this the partnumber for the new platter,
I cant anwser the other 2 questions.

* edit I did a test on my WD6400AAKS, if i put AAM value of 128 i got a accestime of 15.6ms but it makes really less noise, however when i jack it up to 254, i got a accestime of 12.6ms and it is noticeable louder in seek, but nothing much to bother so I leave it at 254

So from my quessing the 320GB got a locked AAM of 128 thus higher accestime and less noise, as my WD6400AAKS shows a default of 128 , however HDtune put it automaticly after install on 254.

WHEW! Well because they are already configred for RAID 0, I could not inspect the individual drives in Vista. Sooooo, I had to pull them out. What a pain!! But...as you can see in the pic...they are the right ones...and they seem to perform well too...

[GamingDaemon]

Ok, I was dumb. I could have just used the Intel Matrix Storage utility:

[stocius]

Ok, I was dumb. I could have just used the Intel Matrix Storage utility:

yep,

[Millyons]

can the 320gb AAM be unlocked at all?, did anyone susceed

[icywater]

I want to pick 4 WD6400AAKS, I got 1 question to ask

Are all WD6400AAKS use 320GB platter?

[comc49]

yes since 320+320=640

[Xope_Poquar]

Yes but most 320GB drives are not 320GB platters. The 640GB drive does indeed use 320GB platters.

[xlink]

I want to pick 4 WD6400AAKS, I got 1 question to ask

Are all WD6400AAKS use 320GB platter?

yes and I have two to prove it

[bigslappy]

I got 2 WD6400AAKS's on special from NewEgg last week for 99.99 each shipped FREE ! & they were Even packed quite well , to boot !

[icywater]

i bought 4 WD6400AAKs the date of 2 is dated 18 of march and 2 is dated 18 april, the lastest one has acccess time of 17ms . how do i turn aam off?



edit

found the solution, I used feature tool to change AAM. All good now

[Millyons]

i bought 4 WD6400AAKs the date of 2 is dated 18 of march and 2 is dated 18 april, the lastest one has acccess time of 17ms . how do i turn aam off?



edit

found the solution, I used feature tool to change AAM. All good now

so now 640gb ones are showing up with aam on also? thats sux


what tool did you use and did it work, i heard of ppl not being able to change it on the 320gb ones

[icywater]

so now 640gb ones are showing up with aam on also? thats sux


what tool did you use and did it work, i heard of ppl not being able to change it on the 320gb ones

feature tool, i did not turn AAM off , i set it to 254 and my seek time is 12.1ms.
with feature tool, you have to change your raid setting in the bios back to ide, otherwise feature tool will not able to detect the driver.

here is my raid 0,

[Freonor]

I cba to upload the image, but i got a raid 0 of 2 WD3200AAKS-00L9A0 not the B3 :S

Average read is 161.3 MB/s
min 93.6MB/s
max 200.3 MB/s
Access time 15.3 ms
Burst rate 135.4MB/s

This doesn't seem so far off from what others are getting. Are these single platter discs too?

[ILikeCosmosS]

they gotta release it for the velociraptor aswell
if this performs better then velociraptor i will get 4 640 gigs hdd that have 32mb buffer

[breakfromyou]

anybody have any idea where the 500gb platter drives are from WD? I'm waiting for a 2 platter 1tb drive.

[Cyber-Mav]

i got a caviar blue 320gb drive too few days ago, same problem slow access times in the region of 16ms. cant seem to make it go quicker. tried various tools to disable aam but no luck. may drop western digital an email to see if they can help.

[RPGWiZaRD]

anybody have any idea where the 500gb platter drives are from WD? I'm waiting for a 2 platter 1tb drive.

Dear Andreas,

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support.

They will be released on the near future, at the moment we are delivering stability and performance, we never jump to a new capacity unless we can guarantee what we offer, but soon you will see bigger size Caviar Blue drives.

Sincerely,
Pablo R.
Western Digital Service and Support
http://support.wdc.com

What I got as response when asking about 1 and 1.5TB Blue series disks.

[breakfromyou]

What I got as response when asking about 1 and 1.5TB Blue series disks.

Thanks anyway haha.

Now this "feature tool" that people speak of...to adjust AAM settings for the WD single platter drive. They removed that from the latest version?

Features in Version 2.13

* Removed the function of acoustic management.

well...what the hell?!

[RPGWiZaRD]

I used HD Tune Pro to set AAM to 254 rather than 128, dropped access times from like 16ms to 11.8ms on an empty & single WD6400AAKS. Hopefully the nice <12ms access times continues for 1TB & 1.5TB Caviar Blue series disks.

[krille]

in addition it is ultra quiet... even with the ear against the drive, the case fans are louder

Tools...

[breakfromyou]

I used HD Tune Pro to set AAM to 254 rather than 128, dropped access times from like 16ms to 11.8ms on an empty & single WD6400AAKS. Hopefully the nice <12ms access times continues for 1TB & 1.5TB Caviar Blue series disks.

I can't change/set AAM settings at all on my DFI LP UT P35-T2R (ICH9R) on WD1001FALS, WD5000AAKS, WD6400AAKS. And can't do anything with the WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 on the Biostar TP43D2-A7 (ICH10). All drives are set to IDE mode. Tried the Hitachi "Feature Tool" 2.12, or HD Tune Pro 3.5...i'm lost.