Model - WD740 DATE: MAY 18 2004 |
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Manufacturer |
Western Digital |
Manufacturer Part # |
WD740 |
Performance HIGH PERFORMANCE |
|
Product Type |
Internal Hard Drive |
Capacity |
74 GB |
Spindle Speed |
10000 RPM |
Drive Interface Type |
SATA 1.5 Gbps |
Before
we look at the performance of this latest Raptor, let's see how the WD740 specs compares with those of its predecessor.
|
WD740GD |
WD360GD |
Maximum internal transfer rate |
816Mbits/sec |
|
Maximum external transfer rate |
150MB/sec |
|
Average sustained transfer rate |
72MB/s |
55MB/s |
Average seek time (read) |
4.5ms |
5.2ms |
Average seek time (write) |
5.9ms |
|
Average rotational latency |
2.99ms |
|
Spindle speed |
10,000RPM |
|
Cache size |
8MB |
|
Platter size |
37GB |
|
Available capacities |
74GB |
37GB |
Serial ATA interface |
Marvell 88i8030C bridge |
Marvell 88i8030 bridge |
Warranty length |
Five years |
In many
ways, the WD740GD is identical to the WD360GD. Both drives feature 10,000RPM
spindle speeds, 8MB of cache, and 37GB platters. However,
the WD740GD has a quicker read seek time and faster average sustained transfer
rate than its little brother. The WD740GD also uses fluid dynamic bearings,
which should make it quieter than the WD360GD.
Serial
ATA is finally making its full impact on the computer landscape, and SATA
drives are quickly supplanting the traditional Parallel ATA drives inside our
desktop computers. More importantly perhaps, SATA and the new SATA II standard
are finally bringing business-class hard drive performance to non-SCSI
machines.
Before
SATA, there was no such thing as a non-SCSI 10,000RPM drive.... Now with the
increased speed, extra features and ease of use built into the new SATA
standards, the big hard drive manufacturers like Western Digital are porting
their enterprise-class drive technologies over. Ultimately, all users should
benefit.
In
this review, PCstats is testing out a pair of sleek 10,000 RPM Western Digital WD740 Raptors.
These are the first SATA drives we've seen that reach 10,000 RPM, and we're
going to be testing them both singly and in a RAID stripe and mirror to see
what kind of performance implications we can expect to a standard PC system.
The Western Digital 74GB Raptors are also going to form the basis of PCstats'
updated hardware test platform, so expect to see a lot more of these drives in
our future reviews.
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Let's
get the specifications of these drives out of the way first. An 8MB memory buffer
handles data transfer between the drive and the system, and Western Digital
claims average read and write times of 4.5ms and 5.9ms respectively. Average
latency is 2.99ms while the track-to-track seek time is 0.6ms. Western Digital
specifies a mean time between failures of 1.2 million hours, and the WD740
Raptor carries a full 5 year warranty.
These
new Raptors are more or less identical to the previous line of 37GB SATA
Raptors, with the advantage of slightly faster seek times, higher storage
density, and quieter performance.
 Physically,
the drives are unremarkable in appearance, but extremely heavy. This is no
doubt because WD added an extra-heavy chunk of metal to the drive to assist in
cooling. 10,000 RPM drives can produce a fierce amount of heat, as we will see
later.
In
fact, one side of each drive is ribbed to assist in heat dissipation.
Inside,
the drive uses a pair of 37GB disk platters, with a pair of read/write heads
servicing each. 8MB of Hynix memory makes up the buffer.
SATA
bridging is provided courtesy of a Marvell 88i8030C chip, and the WD740
supports Tagged Command Queuing, a feature we had not expected to see on SATA
drives. There's no support for this feature in current SATA controllers, but it
is similar to the Native Command Queuing (NCQ) technology that makes its debut
with the Serial ATA II standard. TCQ allows the drive and controller to reorder
data requests from the system based on the actual physical positioning of the
read and write heads on the platters. This should make for more efficient and
consistent data transfer.
Key Feature | Western Digital WD740GD | Western Digital WD360GD |
Formatted Capacity (GB) | 74.4 | 36.7 |
Capacity per platter | 74.4 | 36.7 |
Number of platters | 1 | 1 |
Number of heads | 2 | 2 |
Average Seek (read) | 4.5ms | 5.2ms |
Seek (track-to-track, read) | 0.6ms | 0.7ms |
Rotational Speed (RPM) | 10,000 | 10,000 |
Average Rotational Latency | 2.99ms | 2.99ms |
Interface | SATA | SATA |
Burst speed (megabytes/sec) | 100 | 100 |
Buffer size (KB) | 8192 | 8192 |
Platter Size | 37GB | 37GB |
Idle Noise | 32dB | 35dB |
MANUFACTURER Warranty Period | 5 Years | 5 Years |
THERE IS NO WARRANTY ON THIS HARD DRIVE FROM THE SELLER! |
IF THE HARD DRIVE DOES NOT WORK PROPERLY ON YOUR COMPUTER, YOU CAN RETURN IT FOR A FULL REFUND OR REPLACEMENT. THE SELLER WILL PAY FOR RETURN SHIPPING.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE EMAIL ME.
THANKS FOR LOOKING!
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