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Drive speed results - Raptor, Hitachi, WD640, Original Drive

C

c:\windows

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 27, 2008
81
0
Houston, Texas
I just wanted to post some additional info about the drive speeds I have found. I recently tested a bunch of drives in my system. I wanted to replace the stock drive that came with my Mac Pro with a faster drive. I installed OS X and upgraded it to the latest patch level and installed xBench then ran the disk speed tests. I have no idea if this is a valid test of drive performance but at least it was a consistant way to measure the performance of different drives. In each test the boot drive was installed in the first slot. The prices below are approx +- 5$

I had read a lot of good stuff about the new WD 640 disk and I arrived in Bangkok and found one for about $100 so I bought it and benchmarked it against the other drives I had tested. According to the xbench tests this drive is a clear winner, both from a speed perspective and a $/GB perspective.

Original 500GB drive that came with the MacPro - 57.5 (Came with the mac pro)
Western Digital Raptor 150GB - 83.5 (Price $160) This is the 10,000 RPM drive
Hitachi's 1TB - 70.3 (Price $200)
WD Caviar 640 GB - 102.3 (Price $100)

So my new boot drive is the WD Caviar 640 drive. Here is a link to a review of the WD Caviar 640 drive http://techreport.com/articles.x/14380
 
xBench is an unreliable benchmark at best.

Try using another benchmark to attain better, real-life performance.

Although it should be a no-brainer that the 320GB per platter WD 640GB should win by its sheer density.
 
c:\windows said:
I just wanted to post some additional info about the drive speeds I have found. I recently tested a bunch of drives in my system. I wanted to replace the stock drive that came with my Mac Pro with a faster drive. I installed OS X and upgraded it to the latest patch level and installed xBench then ran the disk speed tests. I have no idea if this is a valid test of drive performance but at least it was a consistant way to measure the performance of different drives. In each test the boot drive was installed in the first slot. The prices below are approx +- 5$

I had read a lot of good stuff about the new WD 640 disk and I arrived in Bangkok and found one for about $100 so I bought it and benchmarked it against the other drives I had tested. According to the xbench tests this drive is a clear winner, both from a speed perspective and a $/GB perspective.

Original 500GB drive that came with the MacPro - 57.5 (Came with the mac pro)
Western Digital Raptor 150GB - 83.5 (Price $160) This is the 10,000 RPM drive
Hitachi's 1TB - 70.3 (Price $200)
WD Caviar 640 GB - 102.3 (Price $100)

So my new boot drive is the WD Caviar 640 drive. Here is a link to a review of the WD Caviar 640 drive http://techreport.com/articles.x/14380
Click to expand...


What is the model number that you bought? :)
 
What about WD 320GB single platter for a boot drive?? Where does that stack up in performance?

Personally, I'm waiting for raptor version of that...but not sure if that is under development or not.
 
I've been really thinking about this one as well, about selling my 150gb raptor drive and getting one of the WD6400AAKS for more storage while fast boot drive.. but then seek times arent as fast as the raptors...
 
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