WD360ADFD vs. WD740GD

Western Digital Raptors.....



36GB 16mb cache
or
74GB 8mb cache

I don't use more then 25GB.





And...

2x 36GB 16mb cache (RAID-0)
vs.
74GB 16mb Cache




btw. I am a gamer, but I don't see myself ever needing more then 25GB within the next 5 years, by then I would have bought a new HD prob.

WD claims to have trimmed the seek time down on the WD360ADFD to 4.6ms, bringing it inline with its bigger brothers. IF that's true in the wild, then the 16MB 36GB unit will have an edge over the 73GB 8MB one.

As for RAID-0, I wouldn't bet on it. The 73GB unit has an 8-10% headstart on the 36GB unit in terms of real world performance, because it's twice as big, packing the files closer together and making seeks shorter. Running two of the 36GB units in RAID-0 might close that gap in some applications, but it will fall behind in most, and even be slower than a single 36GB unit in seek heavy applications because of RAID-0's 25% increase in rotational latency in multi-block requests.

We won't talk about RAID's other issues, like driver complexity/issues, poor environmental performance, higher cost, reduced relaibility, etc. We'll just mention them in passing

Yea I'm trying to breath some life into my old P4 system by upgrading the HD with a limited budget.
I can get the 16mb 36GB for $50 cheaper, that means I could use the money I saved for a new system, ya know.

If youre a gamer, I wouldnt limit it to the HDD to 36GB... Today's games are already like 4-6GB... my Valve folder alone is like 10GB.

For $50, go for the 74 and carry it over to the new system.

I only play 1-2 games at a time. All my media is streamed from my server (soon I can also stream it from work).

I really don't, and won't need the extra space.
It's only a matter of performance.

Does anyone have both of these drives and care to help out??
Thanks.

I have 2x 36GB 10k raptors and I love them. I might eventually go with 4x 36 or 4x 74 for performance and have everything backed up on my RAID 5 server setup. For right now my 2x 36's do very well I have them put up with.

lithium726 said:

If youre a gamer, I wouldnt limit it to the HDD to 36GB... Today's games are already like 4-6GB... my Valve folder alone is like 10GB.

For $50, go for the 74 and carry it over to the new system.

Click to expand...

LOL, mine is 12.5 GBs. I setup a windows partition almost 3 years ago (yeah I haven't gotten a different HD since then) at 30 GBs and now I'm pressed for space because of all the steam games and files.

Wow that was off-topic...sorry.

clayton006 said:

I have 2x 36GB 10k raptors and I love them. I might eventually go with 4x 36 or 4x 74 for performance and have everything backed up on my RAID 5 server setup. For right now my 2x 36's do very well I have them put up with.

Click to expand...

Do you have them in RAID or seperate?
I'm a BF2 gamer....

Any other opinions on the WD360ADFD vs. WD740GD

I would imagine having the 16mb cache the 360ADFD would be almost twice as fast as the 740GD with only 8mb cache.

xxshawn672xx said:

Any other opinions on the WD360ADFD vs. WD740GD

I would imagine having the 16mb cache the 360ADFD would be almost twice as fast as the 740GD with only 8mb cache.

Click to expand...

It will not be, I am not aware of any benchmarks for it yet so I cannot say this with 100% certainty but its unlikely it will be faster than the 740/1500ADFDs.

Plus I don't even think its being sold yet.

Neutrino said:

It will not be, I am not aware of any benchmarks for it yet so I cannot say this with 100% certainty but its unlikely it will be faster than the 740/1500ADFDs.

Plus I don't even think its being sold yet.

Click to expand...

It is being sold, has been for months, newegg even has a bunch in stock.
Both 36ADFD and 740/1500 GD/ADFD are all built on the same chasis except:
36.7 has 1 platter while 74 has 2 and 150 *probably* has 3.


I would think, the more platter the slower.

PLUS, we're comparing 36 w/ 16mb cache to 74 w/ 8 mb cache.


Storage is not an issue, going for straight up speed!!

Both 36ADFD and 740/1500 GD/ADFD are all built on the same chasis except:
36.7 has 1 platter while 74 has 2 and 150 *probably* has 3.

Click to expand...

Incorrect.

The 1500 has two 80GB platters short stroked to 75. WD claims 84MB/sec max sustained transfer rates for all of the ADFD SKUs. That means they all have the 80GB platters of the 1500 drives (the older Raptors only claim 72MB/sec max on the older 40GB platters) That means both sides of one platter in the 740ADFD and one side of one platter in the 360ADFD.

So is it faster to read/write from two sides of one platter or only one side?

Is the WD360ADFD as fast as the WD740GD????

Tranfer rates are dictated by the number of sectors per track (how many 512 byte sectors pass under the read write heads during a given rotation) and the spindle speed. So, you won't get any faster transfer rates by using both sides of a platter...just more capacity. Single sided platters allow makers to use platters that would have to be rejected as defective because of a problem on one side in drives, preventing them from taking a total loss on manufacturing such platters.

The WD360ADFD will be faster than the WD740GD, provided that WD's claim that they have brought the 360ADFD's seek performance in line with it's bigger brother's is true (something that wasn't true with the 360GD). This is because the 360ADFD has a bigger buffer and actually has a higher density (~40GB on one side of a platter rather than two sides and two platters like the 740GD), while having the same spindle speed and allegedly the same seek performance. A drive with a bigger buffer and higher density, provided everything else is equal, will always beat out a drive with smaller buffer and lower density.

If you do get a WD360ADFD, please run a seek time test (HDTach, etc) so we can verify WD's claim that they have improved the seek performance in the transition from WD360GD to WD360ADFD.

I'll be testing this drive by the end of the week. Hopefully I can go pick it up tomorrow.
I haven't been able to find any information on it besides the statistics on newegg and WD's website.

xxshawn672xx said:

Do you have them in RAID or seperate?
I'm a BF2 gamer....

Click to expand...

RAID 0

Consider all the ADFD drives as performance equals:

36GB


74GB


150GB


Older 74GD


No reason to consider the older drives unless you get a good deal on one. I'd get the 36GB drive if it'll be large enough for you and RAID0 isn't as difficult as some make it out to be. I think you'd be happy with the improvements if you went that way.