Western Digital Caviar RE2 Review...... Discuss

S

Scroatdog

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 17, 2003
Messages
1,432
So I read the linked article on the front page about WD's new drive.......


From TheTech Report:

In the world of enterprise-ready 7,200-RPM Serial ATA drives, the Caviar RE2 has few competitors and no equals. Our IOMeter results paint a clear picture of the drive's performance under multi-user loads, and while it's not quite as fast as the Raptor, it dominates everything else. Combine that with a high storage density and an affordable price tag that's very un-enterprise-like, and the Caviar RE2 comes out as a definite winner for the workstation, server, and network attached storage applications that it was designed to tackle.
Click to expand...

top.jpg



Figured it warrants some discussion. Performance seems really good. Their omission of support for the new SATA standard is puzzling, even though it has been proven that the new standard has negligable performance impact.

Thoughts?

Link to article
 
Transfer rates and multi user scores look awesome. TR's desktop scores seem really tightly clustered though, suggesting that throughput is limited by something other than the disk subsystem. I'll want to see SR's results before we call this drive a winner on the desktop. Also remember that Caviar RE drives have reduced error recovery features, as they rely on the RAID BIOS to perform function.

The omission of 3gbps transfer is inexplicable - presumably this drive will find it itself attached to SATA backplanes in an enterprise environment, precicely the environment that benefits from port multipliers with 3gbps transfer down one cable.
 
But if it does get used with port multi's, what's the point in having a 3gbps drive interface? The controller-ward side of the PM should have one, but a single drive still isn't going to max out its host link.

 
UlCompE02 would be able to provide a better answer on this, but if you use a 1.5gbps drive on a 3gbps backplane, wouldn't it drop the whole backplane to 1.5gbps?
 
Since SATA is point-to-point, I wouldn't expect so... I'm sure he's got more information on this though.

 
Correct, that SATA is point-to-point - but it also provides for backplanes and port multipliers to connect multiple drives to a single cable. At that point, you would have multiple drives sharing the same cable, and mixing interface speeds could be problematic in such a situation.
 
I was so tempted to get this drive (Monarch Computers WD400KD @ $190) but there were no reviews so I opted for the Maxline III instead. Im so glad this seems to be a good drive, Ive had mostly WD drives in my built comps and hate when peeps complain about them.

A wish this review had come out sooner. BUt I just couldnt wait anymore and Newegg had to tempt me with the $132 special.
 
DougLite said:
. Also remember that Caviar RE drives have reduced error recovery features, as they rely on the RAID BIOS to perform function.

The omission of 3gbps transfer is inexplicable - presumably this drive will find it itself attached to SATA backplanes in an enterprise environment, precicely the environment that benefits from port multipliers with 3gbps transfer down one cable.
Click to expand...

Strange. Since this drive is aimed squarely at the enterprise segment, why the reduced error recovery features?? If anything, you would want more robust error recovery on an enterprise drive, no????

[Off Topic]
I am still waiting to see what Seagate has in store with its 7200.9 line. I hope we hear some info soon. From the propaganda on their website, it sounds good.
[/Off Topic]
 
Caviar RE drives still perform error recovery. However, the recovery is "time limited." Certain WD Caviars suffer from a bug in their firmware that causes the drive to drop sync while performing full error recovery. This drop in sync causes many RAID BIOSes to think that the drive has failed, breaking RAID-0 arrays and causing headaches for fault tolerant RAID arrays. RE drives have a time limit on drive level error recovery, relying on the RAID BIOS to help out. Obviously, any enterprise level RAID BIOS is going to offer such help.

This bug is also why I do not recommend desktop Caviars for RAID arrays.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top