Internals, Testing Methodology and System Setup
Internals:
These are hard drives, and we don't have an awesome clean room, so the extent of disassembly that I will undertake on drives that I need to keep working for future testing is as follows:
Just like with the specifications, the component layout of these two drives is remarkably similar. This is likely due to the primary differences being with the firmware tuning of the two devices. The Red Pro (left) and Black (right) spin at the same speeds, both use advanced format (ECC at 4k increments), both achieve the same sustained transfer rates, but only the Red Pro is intended for use in larger arrays of drives. The difference boils down to added vibation compensation code baked into the drive firmware. The Red Pro is also rated for 24/7 duty, with double the load/unload cycle rating of its head pack (600,000) as compared to that of the Black (300,000).
Here is a closer look at the two PCBs:
Red Pro:
Black:
A point to bring up here is that the 5TB and 6TB models of these two lines come equipped with 128GB of DRAM cache, up from the 64MB used on smaller capacities. The Green and Red lines cap at 64MB even at those higher capacities. That doubling of DRAM is likely to make a positive dent in our test results, as 128MB is high enough to cache the entire workload of some synthetic tests.
Testing Methodology
Our tests are a mix of synthetic and real-world benchmarks. IOMeter, HDTach, HDTune, Yapt and our custom File Copy test round out the selection to cover just about all bases. If you have any questions about our tests just drop into the Storage Forum and we'll help you out!
Test System Setup
We have several storage testbeds. A newer ASUS P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt and an ASUS Z87-PRO. Variance between both boards has been deemed negligible when testing SATA devices. Future PCIe and SATA device testing, including this review, take place on a new ASUS Sabertooth X99, which comes equipped with USB 3.1, M.2, and can also handle SFF-8639 devices with the proper adapter.
PC Perspective would like to thank Intel, ASUS, Corsair, Kingston, and EVGA for supplying some of the components of our test rigs.
| Hard Drive Test System Setup | |
| CPU | Intel Core i7 5820K @ 4.125 GHz |
| Motherboard | ASUS Sabertooth X99 |
| Memory | 16GB Micron DDR4 @ 3333 |
| Hard Drive | G.Skill 32GB SLC SSD |
| Sound Card | N/A |
| Video Card | EVGA GeForce GTX 750 |
| Video Drivers | GeForce Game Ready Driver 347.88 |
| Power Supply | Corsair CMPSU-650TX |
| DirectX Version | N/A |
| Operating System | Windows 8.1 Pro X64 (update) |
- PCPer File Copy Test
- HDTach
- HDTune
- IOMeter
- YAPT
On the internals page you
On the internals page you quote the caches on these drives in GB, not MB. I wish I had a drive with 128GB of DRAM cache on it!
Haha. I was just thinking the
Haha. I was just thinking the same thing when I read that. Although I suppose that would make it similar to the hybrid drives that Seagate releases. But I think those only have like 20GB of flash. Not sure what 128GB would do.
Unfortunately those only have
Unfortunately those only have 8GB (used to have 4GB), which is really not enough IMO.
Fixed – thanks!
Fixed – thanks!
“A point to bring up here is
“A point to bring up here is that the 5TB and 6TB models of these two lines come equipped with 128GB of DRAM cache, up from the 64MB used on smaller capacities”
You fixed all but the 1st occurrence in that paragraph.
First paragraph you have
First paragraph you have “cleaper” instead of “cheaper.” Other than that, good review. Thanks.
Corrected. Thanks!
Corrected. Thanks!
Thank you for your patience.
Thank you for your patience. I don’t have any for spelling checkers, when the article is great.
Same paragraph “… those two
Same paragraph “… those two lines are mean to be power saving …”
Is that supposed to read “… those two lines are meant to be power saving …”
Still waiting on 2tb
Still waiting on 2tb Velociraptors
The WD Black 4TB wd4003fzex
The WD Black 4TB wd4003fzex has been available for the last couple years and is a nice improvement over the WD Black 4TB wd4001faex. I’m surprised it wasn’t included or used instead of the older drive in the review.
Well what can I say, about
Well what can I say, about time WD released something bigger and a bit more consumer friendly (price-wise) than Re. With TLER on Pros I can start to consider them too. I firmly believe in HGST, but I also have soft spot for WD. It’s good that they moved into 5/6TB area and finally ditched that relic of HDD tech – 5400 rpm.
Allyn, I can’t tell from the
Allyn, I can’t tell from the picture but is the cache DDR3? 512 MB modules have been available for quite sometime. Why wouldn’t they just put one of those in instead of that 128 MB chip?
Cost shouldn’t be an issue, so would it be a programming challenge to take advantage of extra cache?
“A point to bring up here is
“A point to bring up here is that the 5TB and 6TB models of these two lines come equipped with 128GB of DRAM cache, up from the 64MB used on smaller capacities. ” You better fix that.
Bigger!
Faster!
LESS
Bigger!
Faster!
LESS RELIABLE!
MORE EXPENSIVE!
Buy it now, sheeps!
Do you have a single fact to
Do you have a single fact to back that up?
On a more positive note, I think this is the first time you’ve ever managed to write a post without using the word “godlike”. Congratulations!
Is there really newer
Is there really newer velocitier raptors coming?
Is there really newer
Is there really newer velocitier raptors coming?
Correction to specs: Red Pro
Correction to specs: Red Pro has UBER <10 in 10^15, which is same as <1 in 10^14.
Cheap marketing trick easy to miss.