Sequential Performance – HDTach, HDTune, File Copy, YAPT (sequential)
We have shifted over to combining our results into two groupings for consumer reviews. First up is sequential performance:
HDTune:
HDTune tests a similar level of features as compared with HDTach, but with a different access pattern. Thus provides us with an additional set of benchmark numbers to compare between storage configurations. CPU utilization has proven negligible with modern processing horsepower, and is no longer included. Additionally, we do not include write performance due to HDTune's write access pattern not playing nicely with most SSDs we have tested it on.
The big takeaway here is that the maximum and average speeds of these two new models hits one big milestone – they are the first to exceed the throughputs of the 1TB Velociraptor we reviewed back in 2012. The minimum (end of the disk) rates still fall shy of that 10k RPM unit as it had a narrower sweep across its tracks and therefore a lower linear velocity delta as compared to these 3.5" drive platters.
PCPer File Copy Test
Our custom PCPer-FC test does some fairly simple file creation and copy routines in order to test the storage system for speed. The script creates a set of files of varying sizes, times the creation process, then copies the same files to another partition on the same hard drive and times the copy process. There are four file sizes that we used to try and find any strong or weak points in the hardware: 10 files @ 1000 MB each, 100 files @ 100 MB each, 500 files @ 10 MB each and 1000 files at 1 MB each.
The Velociraptor gets beaten in a few more tests here.
The added cache and throughputs of these new models make a much larger dent in our file copy tests, as we are copying *from* and *to* the drive simultaneously. Smaller files were the only place where the Velociraptor still dominates.
YAPT:
YAPT (yet another performance test) is a benchmark recommended by a pair of drive manufacturers and was incredibly difficult to locate as it hasn't been updated or used in quite some time. That doesn't make it irrelevant by any means though, as the benchmark is quite useful. It creates a test file of about 100 MB in size and runs both random and sequential read and write tests with it while changing the data I/O size in the process. The misaligned nature of this test exposes the read-modify-write performance of SSDs and Advanced Format HDDs.
Scaling was as expected here with these faster drives under YAPT. The larger gains in writes are partially due to the increased cache size available on these new models (more on that on the next page).
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.