The progression of the mechanical hard drive market is fueled not by ever-increasing spindle speeds, but by the availability of higher-density platters. Cramming more bytes onto each physical disk obviously enables greater storage capacities. See details Western Digital 500GB Caviar Black 3.5' WD5003AZEX HDD Hard Drive. Average Bench: 76 (100 th of 1015) more Based on 20,548 user benchmarks. Interface SATA III, Sata 6GB/S, Sata, USB 3.0, Sata/600. At the same time, it also facilitates improved performance by allowing the drive head to access more data over shorter physical distances.Ĭonveniently, at least for comparative purposes, drive makers have settled on similar per-platter capacities over the last few generations. Cool drive operation, no-touch head technology, leading-edge vibration protection ensure enhanced reliability. Sure, actual areal densities have varied a little, and each manufacturer has moved up the platter ladder at its own pace, but they’ve largely hit the same rungs. For example, Seagate and Western Digital both had drives with 125, 188, and 250GB platters. They went their separate ways through the 300s, with WD offering 320 and then 334GB while Seagate jumped all the way up to 375GB. However, it looks like the two are in agreement on the next battleground: 500GB. Western Digital was the first to squeeze 500GB onto a single disk with the Caviar Green 2TB. Of course, the Green is one of those hippie low-power drives that’s most comfortable sitting quietly in the corner, its reflexes hindered by a slower spindle speed and probably more than a few bong hits. That’s just what you want for a closet file server, external enclosure, or home theater PC, but it’s not really fast enough for a performance-oriented desktop. Seagate’s Barracuda 7200.12 cranked 500GB platters up to a full 7,200 RPM. However, the ‘cuda was only available with up to two platters, capping the total capacity at just one terabyte. The 7200.12 wasn’t the performance revelation many had hoped, either. Comparatively lethargic access times ultimately held back the drive’s performance under more strenuous loads. Now, it’s Western Digital’s turn to show what it can do with 500GB platters at 7,200 RPM. The company has brought four of those platters to the table in the latest Caviar Black 2TB. Speaking of performance expectations, the 1TB Caviar Black is rated for a maximum sustained transfer rate of 106MB/s. The 2TB model’s theoretical sustained peak is 138MB/s, which works out to a 30% advantage, but isn’t anywhere close to the sort of linear increase one might expect. The fact is that data get a lot harder to access when you make them smaller, pack them tighter, and then have them rotate at close to an effective 120 km/h.
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