Please help.... WD Raptor

Entropy1982

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 6, 2005
Messages
276
So i bought a 74gb WD Raptor from dell.... it was broken so they sent me a refurb drive that says the following on it:
WD800
WD Raptor
Serial ATA Hard Drive
80.0 GB


is this the same speed as a 74 gig raptor with 6 more gigs or what's going on here?
 
No, it's 74gb not 80

Was the original drive a referb too? They didn't replace a DOA new drive with a refurb did they? That's kinda shady if they did.
 
StorageJoe said:
No, it's 74gb not 80

Was the original drive a referb too? They didn't replace a DOA new drive with a refurb did they? That's kinda shady if they did.
They did.... so is it a regular raptor? or is it slower?
 
I'm pretty sure the raptor currently only comes in two flavors: 36GB and 74GB. You have the 74GB version. What you sent back is no faster or slower than the one you have just received.
 
Entropy1982 said:
They did.... so is it a regular raptor? or is it slower?

So wait.... You bought a new drive. It arrived DOA. They replaced the new drive with a refurb???? If that's the case, send it back. You paid for a new drive, you should get a new drive. If you wanted refurb, you would have bought a refurb.
 
StorageJoe said:
So wait.... You bought a new drive. It arrived DOA. They replaced the new drive with a refurb???? If that's the case, send it back. You paid for a new drive, you should get a new drive. If you wanted refurb, you would have bought a refurb.
yea... but i've just been thru so much i just want to keep it already to be honest.... I bought 2 of em from dell.... decided i didnt want em.... sold both on ebay... one was broken... guy sent it back.... had to call dell 900 times b4 they sent me one back.... whatever... if it breaks in a couple of years.... oh well :)
 
Entropy1982 said:
WD800
WD Raptor
Serial ATA Hard Drive
80.0 GB

God I hope they didnt try to slip you a WD800JB and call it even. If they get away with that crap I now know why they make a decent profit...
 
Raptor_01.jpg


This is what you have. Dell has been sending out raptors that are labeled WD800, must be part of a new labeling scheme. AFAIK they are just the usual 74gb raptor.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=27&threadid=1654596&enterthread=y
 
Quote from Storage Review Forum:

"Okay, let's do a little math to translate marketing-speak to tech-speak.

80 GB = 80,000,000,000 bytes, at least according to those who prefer round decimal numbers for measurement of HDD capacity

Take that #, divide by 1073741824 (1 GB in binary).

You'll see that it works out to 74 GB (in binary), which happens to be the same size as the Raptor."

They are the same drive.
 
The great thing is now with Dells 25% off storage you can get one of those drives for like $135.
 
Says it is available only to a few OEMs. I doubt you will ever see this in the retail channel.

However, the drive has obviously been rezoned in the new capacity, which can have a huge impact on transfer rates and a somewhat smaller impact on overall application performance. It would be interesting to see an HD Tach comparison of WD800GD and WD740GD in the same system.

If I had to guess a reason for WD bringing this drive to market, it would be to make the Raptor look better in OEM catalogs. 80GB sounds better than 74GB when shopping for drives, and it will command a higher price.

They are indeed different drives, and the WD800GD is indeed larger:
WD740GD & WD800GD
Code:
WD740GD      WD800GD
74,356 MB    80,000 MB Formatted capacity
145,226,112  156,250,000 Used sectors
816 MB/s     816 MB/s buffer to disk transfer rate maximum
 
DougLite said:
...the drive has obviously been rezoned in the new capacity, which can have a huge impact on transfer rates and a somewhat smaller impact on overall application performance...

Impact in which direction? Slower or faster?
 
DougLite said:
^^ Should be faster, as density has been increased.

Not nescesarily, it may be the other way around. The reason they went with 36 gb and 74 gb capicity size was to integrate into existing enterprise capacity sizes. The could have just short stroked a 40 gb platter to make a 36 gb platter size. If this is the case, transfer rates on the outer most tracks should be the same and on the inner most tracks on the WD800GD it should actually be slower than on the inner most track on the WD740GD.
 
StorageJoe said:
Not nescesarily, it may be the other way around. The reason they went with 36 gb and 74 gb capicity size was to integrate into existing enterprise capacity sizes. The could have just short stroked a 40 gb platter to make a 36 gb platter size. If this is the case, transfer rates on the outer most tracks should be the same and on the inner most tracks on the WD800GD it should actually be slower than on the inner most track on the WD740GD.
Excellent point. Only way to find out is to test. However, this possibility of 'short-stroking' would explain WD740GD's abnormally high ending transfer rates - they are significantly higher than comparable 10K drives. In fact, according to SR, a full 10MB sec above Fujitsu MAP and Cheetah 10K.6
 
DougLite said:
Excellent point. Only way to find out is to test. However, this possibility of 'short-stroking' would explain WD740GD's abnormally high ending transfer rates - they are significantly higher than comparable 10K drives.

I'd love to get one to test, but I haven't been able to find one without having to buy an XPS. (which isn't worth it just to satisfy my curiousity)
 
You can buy them directly from Dell, though, through the Small Business Division.
 
xxaaqq said:
You can buy them directly from Dell, though, through the Small Business Division.

Can you post a link? I'll take another link, but I've only seen the WD740GD on Dell's site. The only way I've seen a WD800GD is inside an XPS.
 
wow, what a shitty deal, if you look at the bottom, the manufacturer part numbers are the same. I wonder why they have two Dell part numbers and a redicilous price difference.
 
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=952975

Oopsie, didn't know

Please no more discussion on pricing, as that belongs in [H]ot|Deals. Linking to the thread in HD and to where this WD800GD SKU is available is ok, but please try to keep discussion on the topic of the drive itself, rather than its price. - DL
 
So this drive is only selled by Dell?I won't find it at an e-shop or in a store?And generally why Western Digital hasn't got this model at the Enterprise Hard Drives at her site?
I can see only 740GD.

Thank you in advance!
 
As DougLite theorized, perhaps this is physically the same as the 74GB version, except for the differences required to disable the slowest part of the drive, thus showing a numerically superior drive speed. For the OEM sector, the entire drive is enabled including the smallest part, as the size is perhaps more appealling to enterprise customers.

Since Dell is the retailer, Western Digital may not (and it would seem does *not*) warrant the drive. Dell promises tech. support when used in a Dell system (maybe only the Optiplex?) and the warranty may be similarly conditional.
 
balema278 said:
So this drive is only selled by Dell?I won't find it at an e-shop or in a store?And generally why Western Digital hasn't got this model at the Enterprise Hard Drives at her site?
I can see only 740GD.

Thank you in advance!
WD800GD is only available to select OEMs. It has never been shipped to the retail channel through a WD authorized distributor. The only way to acquire one is from Dell or a similar OEM. Given that WD does not ship this SKU to their channel partners at all, expect warranty and support on WD800GD to be nil to none. WD will simply tell you to talk to your OEM. The OEM will ask you which of their systems you have installed it in, and at that point you will be out of luck unless you have truly installed in an OEM system.

Because WD is free and clear of any warranty and support obligations on WD800GD, they can sell them much cheaper than drives backed by a five year warranty direct from WD. Dell is able to pass those savings on to their customers, but one must compromise elsewhere to save that cash. This is not the first time this has happened - Dell also has Hitachi 7K500s for at least $50 (may have been $80-100, can't remember now) less than any retail channel dealer like ZZF or the Egg, however, the Dell drives ship only with a one year Dell warranty.
 
so, should I get one of these and bench it againt my regular Raptor?
 
EnderW said:
so, should I get one of these and bench it againt my regular Raptor?
That would be awesome, if you can. A simple run of HDTach should explain which theory is correct: Joe's that it is simply using all of two 40GB platters and the 74GB versions are short stroked to improve performance in the inner zones, or my original theory that the drive has new platters and it has been rezoned.

If Joe is correct, the transfer graphs of both drives will overlap, and the WD800 will simply have another 6GB at the end, and likely another step down or two in transfer rates. If the drive has different platters, there will be small but noticable differences in the transfer rates of each drive all the way through.

With the anecdotal evidence so far of the WD740GD having significantly higher inner zone trnasfer rates than 10K SCSI drives of the same generation, methinks that Joe's theory is closer to the truth. We could all be wrong though.
 
Here are my results, overlaid with the HDTach provided values for the standard Raptor.

050919_Raptor.gif
 
StorageJoe said:
Not nescesarily, it may be the other way around. The reason they went with 36 gb and 74 gb capicity size was to integrate into existing enterprise capacity sizes. The could have just short stroked a 40 gb platter to make a 36 gb platter size. If this is the case, transfer rates on the outer most tracks should be the same and on the inner most tracks on the WD800GD it should actually be slower than on the inner most track on the WD740GD.

good job!
 
It means what StorageJoe said, that the WD800GD and WD740GD are using the same platters and geometry. They perform identically through the first 70GB, WD800GD simply has another 6GB zone at the inside of the disk at a slightly lower transfer rate to yield a full 80GB of capacity.

For the original intended enterprise market of the Raptor, capacity is not important as performance, so WD simply disables the last 3GB of each platter, as 73GB matches competing SCSI units, and it makes the drive looks much better with an abnormally high ending sustained transfer rate that will show up in reviews.

The drives should perform identically, except for the 6GB at the end (less than 10% of the WD800GD's space)

I don't know how repeatable HDTach's burst measurements are. I wouldn't put too much emphasis on it.
 
Doug,

Assuming the 74 gb drive is just a firmware short stroke, I wonder if loading the wd800gd firmware on a wd740gd would yield an extra 6 gb
 
Possibly. However, I wouldn't chance it. The zoning would have to be exactly the same (which admittedly you are presuming it is), and you would have to be sure that the platters don't have a defect that was simply ignored by WD and bypassed in the firmware. You would also probably need a source dirve of the exact same revision as the intended target. Such a flash may turn up bad sectors galore.

I wouldn't want to gamble a $150+ Raptor on it, but I must not be [H]ard to try and overzone a HDD :D
 
Hi,

Sorry for digging up this old thread. I discovered the WD800GD last Thursday and was a little busy since then. I am also currently re-arranging my little harddisk overview (focused on sub-2.5 inch disks), but decided to post the graphs for the WD740GD and WD800GD now.

Note: I calculate Bytes binary.

Hans-Jürgen

WD740GD.gif


WD800GD.gif
 
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