WD6400AACS - worth keeping?

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 8:13 pm

Hi everyone,

finally got round to buying a new HDD to replace my ageing (and full) 120GB 7200.7. I thought I bought a WD6400AAKS Blue drive that everyone's been raving about, but it turns out to be a WD6400AACS with a Green Power sticker.

It doesn't appear up on WD's website and there's only conjecture about what speed it runs at - some forums say 5400rpm (along with all other GP drives) and some say 7200rpm, with some posting HDTach figures that are 20-25% slower than a WD6400AAKS.

Now - this is going to be my only HDD (OS partition and data partition) - quiet and low power is good, but will general use/ boot times etc be affected enough for me to return it for a WD6400AAKS? Haven't done anything with it yet (still hunting around for a 2nd SATA cable believe it or not!)

thanks!
matt

porkchop · Post by **porkchop** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:34 pm

mine is quieter, has less vibrations and runs about 4C cooler than my old 2 platter wd3200aaks.
i'm pretty certain its a 5400rpm drive.

i can't tell the difference in normal use, but strangely my boot times seem to have increased a little- especially when the bios is detecting my drives...weird.

if you can sacrifice a little noise for a little performance, then get the aaks- but both would be noticeably faster than your 120.

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 12:09 am

thanks porkchop, I'm leaning towards keeping it - it'll be blazing fast compared to my 7200.7 (not hard) and I doubt I'd notice any difference between the AAKS and AACS in real life. Still, there's always that niggle of doubt...

Cirkus · Post by **Cirkus** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 11:58 am

I have a WD GP 1TB (WD10EACS) drive and it has very low idle noise but the seek noise is at least as high as on a 7200 RPM drive I purchased recently (WD5000AAKS) if not higher. I installed Windows Vista on the GP drive and I couldn't really tell any difference in performance from the WD5000AAKS. If you care about noise you should definitely keep the GP drive.

On the other hand I think the seek noise of my WD GP drive is to high when Windows is doing random seeks as it does very often on the OS partition so I have just purchased an even more silent 2.5" 5400 RPM drive I will use as the system drive in my HTPC.

Cirkus

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 1:06 pm

If it wasn't there they other day it's there now.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=565

http://www.wdc.com/en/library/sata/2879-701229.pdf

If you are a gamer or plan to use it for multiuser home server with more than a couple of users use you might be wanting the Blue 640 (WD6400AAKS or even the black 640 WD6401AALS or a voliciraptor 300). If you are doing media storage or using it for a DVR or leave your PC on 24/7 and want to save money on the electricity or want the quieter drive stay with the Green 640.

You are getting the same platters in the 640 no matter if it is Black, Blue, or Green. The difference will be firmware changes and RPMs. The Black or Blue will be 7200 RPM with firmware optimized for performance at the cost of noise and power vs the Green at 5400 RPM with firmware optimized for lower noise and power at the cost of performance.

The price difference is low enough that I'd get the Black if you want performance or Green if you want lower power usage. Pick based on your needs and don't look back.

Oh and if it helps here is a comparison from WD specs for the three 640GB models

Code: Select all

640GB            Black   Blue   Green
Cache in MB      32      16     16
AVG Latency ms   4.2     4.2    ?.? (this is a function of RPM)
RPM              7200    7200   IntelliPower (treat that as 5400)
Drive Ready Time 11 sec  13     14.3
Load/Unload      300,000 ??     300,000 (blue listed Start/Stop of 50,000)
Warranty         5       3      3
R/W Power watts  8.3     8.3    5.4
Idle Power watts 7.7     7.7    2.5
Standby watts    1       1      0.46
Sleep            1       1      0.46
Max shock        300     300    300
Idle dBA         25      25     24
Performance seek 29      29     29
Quiet seek       26      26     25

Black = WD6401AALS
Blue = WD6400AAKS
Green = WD6400AACS

Just don't go trying to compare the 500GB or 750GB models like that as they use different platters. The 640 is unique in that we know the platter size when buying it.

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 3:23 pm

thanks Cirkus and dhanson - I'm a silence nut (hence why I'm here) and an electricity miser, so I think that, accidentally, I got the drive I actually wanted even if I didn't realise it at the time!

The PC is a family all-purpose computer - it's on a large chunk of the day as my wife only gets 5-10 mins here and there in between looking after our 2 children, I do/ did some gaming, we often leave it on o/night to download stuff then we use it to encode DVDs and the like, so it does a bit of pretty much everything. It currently idles at ~85W (old skt A sempron, 7300GT, 120GB 7200.7 HDD), so this drive plus a new E5200 and bits and bobs should hopefully lower that a fair bit.

Kaleid · Post by **Kaleid** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 12:03 pm

I have both the 640GB AAKS and AACS and the latter has by far lower idle noise level. And its true that read/writes are loud but I have solved that by placing my drives in softmounted quietdrives.

_MarcoM_ · Post by **_MarcoM_** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:25 pm

In the past I have heard that the AACS models had problems with parking-noise, maybe too aggressive load-unload method. Someone know if the new models have some problems?

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:04 pm

Just did my upgrade this weekend (740G MB+X2 5000+WD6400AACS) and I'm really struggling to hear the HDD. It's softmounted near the front of the case (but behind a foam filter) and even with my ear next to the intake I really struggle to hear any of the seeks - they're like a very small quiet mouse taping a piece of soft plastic

. Idle noise is below that of 3 Yate Loon fans (2x 120SL and 1x 92SL) at their lowest working volts (=~450rpm). In comparison, the 7200.7 I had was just barely audible at idle and clearly (though quietly) audible at seek.

MarcoM - haven't heard any parking noises, though I haven't really been listening out for them.