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WD to release 320GB platter drives

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:58 am
by JazzJackRabbit
Seems WD is going to be the second manufacturer to release 320GB platter drives. WD claims that the drives are already shipping, although it's not known if it's actually true given that it took Samsung over 6 months between "shipping" and actually available. Also press release indicates that unlike Samsung which released higher capacity drives first, WD will work its way upwards, releasing 320GB model first, and higher capacity models later.


Could be a nice alternative for people who prefer WD over Samsung or if Samsung fails to deliver 320/640GB F1's in a timely manner.


DailyTech article
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=10432

Actual Press Release
http://wdc.com/en/company/releases/Pres ... F6C62FF%7D

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:53 am
by dhanson865

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:07 am
by JazzJackRabbit
Yeah, but this is the first thread dedicated to the new drive :P

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 6:56 am
by KenAF
Does anyone know the model or part number of the 320GB platter drive that Western Digital says is shipping now?

And no, this question wasn't answered in any of the threads linked above.

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:04 pm
by bob548
KenAF wrote:Does anyone know the model or part number of the 320GB platter drive that Western Digital says is shipping now?

And no, this question wasn't answered in any of the threads linked above.
Update 1/25/2008: According to a close source at Western Digital, the WD3200AAKS model number is currently in use for the single 320GB platter model as well as the double 160GB platter model until the latter is phased out of the lineup.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=10432

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 5:54 pm
by NeilBlanchard
Hello,

So, the date of manufacture will be key -- when did they start producing the single disc 320GB?

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 7:35 am
by Kaleid
Yeah, too bad they don't even seem to want to help consumers out with a proper new name for the new HDs.

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 12:35 pm
by KenAF
Kaleid wrote:Yeah, too bad they don't even seem to want to help consumers out with a proper new name for the new HDs.
I got some additional information today.
Western Digital wrote:The full PN for 320GB off of this new platform is WD3200AAKS-00B3A0.

“B3â€

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:09 pm
by specular
[quote="KenAF"]

[quote="Western Digital"]The full PN for 320GB off of this new platform is WD3200AAKS-00B3A0.

“B3â€

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 4:28 pm
by KenAF
[quote="specular"][quote="KenAF"]

[quote="Western Digital"]The full PN for 320GB off of this new platform is WD3200AAKS-00B3A0.

“B3â€

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 4:53 pm
by mr_plow_king
I wonder if it'll be quieter. A single platter should produce less vibration and less friction with the air inside the drive so it should be cooler too. Will it be reviwed by our favourite reviewers et SPCR :D

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 6:21 pm
by line
In the meantime, you could probably look at WD1600AAJS reviews. Unless the new drive brings a radical change for better or for worse, you can expect the same noise and heat characteristics as that single-platter drive. Which, mind you, are quite good. :)

KenAF, thanks!

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 6:39 pm
by KenAF
Anandtech will have a review of the new WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 in the next few weeks.

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 7:50 pm
by mr_plow_king
KenAF wrote:Anandtech will have a review of the new WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 in the next few weeks.
That's great because I want to check the performance of the drive. My Seagate 7200.10 are fast ( RAID 0 ) but not really quiet. I want change them both and get better performance, quieter. The new Western Digital GP series looks good from an SPCR point of view but I think they will be slower than my Seagates since they are spinning only at 5400 rpm.

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:26 am
by KenAF
By this time next month, the Western Digital WD6400AAKS should also be available. That's a new product, so you are assured of getting the 320GB platters.

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:27 pm
by line
I wonder if the canceled 320GB GreenPower model (WD3200AACS) was intended to debut with these platters.

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 5:20 pm
by Kaleid
Two webshops in Sweden lists WD6400AAKS...unknown release date at this time.

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:29 pm
by Tomson
Should we expect the 640Gb GreenPower model to hit the shops in february or is that not to be expected?

I was just about to buy 3 x 500Gb GP drives in february, so now I'm not shure what to do.

The extra 140Gb of the drive is not so important to me, but if the new drives will be quieter ... and the 500Gb models less expensive ...

I'm also very curious how will the 1x320platter GP hdd perform in terms of noise factor if compering it to 2x250 platters (wd5000aacs) ?


Well, real dilema now here!

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 12:01 pm
by cycleback
Any ideas when a 750 GB version might be released and how to identify it?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 4:00 pm
by line
Tomson, note that this thread is not about 320GB/platter GreenPower drives -- at least not yet. The GreenPower drives use 250GB platters across the board. The aforementioned WD3200AAKS & WD6400AAKS models are performance drives from the Caviar SE 16 series that do not fall in the same category as the GreenPower drives.

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:30 pm
by Tomson
I am aware of that. My question is, will there be a 320GB and 640Gb GreenPower drive from WD in near future?

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 7:55 am
by KenAF
Looks like we may have a new leader in silent storage.

While we wait for Anandtech's review, I found these benchmarks of the new WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 on Planetnow.de.
here times some results in the comparison to seagate 7200,10 with 250gb also 16mb cache

HD Tune
Seagate 250GB/WD 320GB

Min(MB/sek): 26.5/50.3
Max(MB/sek): 79.8/111.0
Average(MB/sek): 64.6/86.8
Acc. time (ms): 13.5/16.3
Burst(MB/sek): 206.0/153.2
CCU: 3.5%/5.6%

HD Tach
Seagate 250GB/WD 320GB

Avr. read(MB/sek): 68.3/90.6
Acc. time (ms): 13.2/17.1
Burst(MB/sek): 243.3/240.0
CCU: 4%/4%
in addition it is ultra quiet... even with the ear against the drive, the case fans are louder
I do not believe the Samsung was ever this quiet.
The access time is slower on the WD, but it's not clear how that affects performance in real world applications.

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 3:11 pm
by Tomson
And this new WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 drive, how quiet is it compared to WD GP ?

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:42 pm
by KenAF
I received several of these drives today. I got them from this ebay seller.

When you submit payment with Paypal, specify in the note that you want the new WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 version.

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 1:13 pm
by mr_plow_king
could you send one to MikeC so he can test it ? :D

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 1:18 pm
by KenAF
mr_plow_king wrote:could you send one to MikeC so he can test it ? :D
Western Digital should send him one for free. What's his contact email? I will forward the address.

Edit: Nevermind, found it.

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:47 am
by GoGoGadget
How has the drive been for you so far Ken? I'm strongly considering getting one.

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:21 am
by Edwood
KenAF wrote:I received several of these drives today. I got them from this ebay seller.

When you submit payment with Paypal, specify in the note that you want the new WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 version.
I ordered two of them, they're on their way.

-Ed

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:27 pm
by KenAF
Image

PCMark05 Results

Code: Select all

XP Startup:           11.114 MB/s
Application Loading:   7.991 MB/s
General Usage:         7.292 MB/s
Virus Scan:          116.577 MB/s
File Write:          101.494 MB/s

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:35 pm
by KenAF
Here's the HDTune results:

Image