This is your new "500GB-platter" drive: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_pJZ6uImDqY8/SmtEJR1vzXI/AAAAAAAACR8/WFxnoSSESlg/s1600/HDTune_Benchmark_WDC_WD5000AAKS-22A7B_R.png And this is old 320GB-platter WD6401AALS. I don't see any diffeence: http://www.overclock.net/attachments/hard-drives-storage/89081d1227...

...All the synthetic benchmarks say that the Seagate is much faster, but my proven old Samsungs in RAID 0 were simply more responsive for an OS drive. Synthetic benchmarks measuring sequential read/write have nothing to do with real usage. Seagate usually excel in these tests, but fail in real worl...

Intel Q45 also support AMT. Does anybody has an experience with it?

somename => E6300 is better choice than 4850e. This is obvious. But 4850e/5050e CPUs are obsolete. AMD now ships Athlon II 240/245/250 CPUs. Since this si K10+ architecture, they support Nested Pages, which is advantage for virtualization.On the other hands Intel Core2 does not support this feature ...

I'm building new home server powered by Linux. According to the tests on web, I can't decide which platform to go. Everybody post different results :( I'm considering especially these topics: - support for Virtualization (AMD has nested paging, Intel has IOMMU on Q-series chipsets) - support for ad-...

Sorry. I meant Scorpio Blue. My fault.

I would go WD5000BEVT. It is much larger than 7500rpm WD3200BJKT, and i has almost same performance.

The choice is yours. But Caviar Blue seems to be faster in real world usage. And better serve in multitasking environment.

I would first try to source this new WD5000AAKS revision, which appears to use a single platter: http://yertech.blogspot.com/2009/07/wdc-wd5000aaks-22a7b2-performance.html .... I doubt that. There is no difference between 320GB platter WD6401AALS and this "new" WD5000AAKS. This drives seems to use ...

I wasn't aware that Seagate and WD might be using shortstroked 4 platter design in their 1.5TB drives. I always thought those were guaranteed to have three 500GB platters. Can anyone really confirm it? On the Seagate side, it is absolutely clear. Seagate has the number of platers in the model name....

zsero wrote:
So the list so far:

CC34 firmware -> seek 14.5 ms (and AAM disabled)
CC35 firmware -> seek 13.5 ms (and AAM Max Performance)
CC44 firmware -> seek 18.5-19.5 ms (and AAM Balanced Performance (208))

How do you recognize the AAM "level", especially what setting AAM does not change anything?

http://www.silentpcreview.com/wd-green-2tb-seagate-pipeline-500gb I don't know about 1.5TB low-power Seagate, but as 500GB got pretty much beaten by 2TB Greenpower, I really wouldn't take it strongly in consideration. Those review you posted, is not Barracuda LP! , but the different drive with diff...

It is impossible to use AAM on Seagate drives since 7200.8 due to the patent litigations. Seagate drives no longer support that feature.

...I made further partitions from the unallocated space, and then the effect of short stroking is lost at that point. I hope I have understood this correctly... It does not matter, whether you have unallocated space or partitions on rest of the HDD. If you dont access it, performance will be the sa...

I'm not sure that how accurate extrahardware's noise measurements are, but I would stay away if Seagate LP really has 6.6dB noise delta between idle and seek. Samsung F2 has noisy seeks, so don't buy this drive if you are going to use it as system drive. Author provides objective and subjective rat...

According to this review (Czech Language) Barracuda LP is impressive. .

Seagate Barracuda LP.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/739/1

AMD K10 advantage over Core2 in virtualization performance according to Anandtech

Sure, AMD has better support for virtualization, but the question still remains open. Why does AMD CPUs handle VMs better? We are now talking about the virtual machines. Take an AMD and Intel CPU with identical clock speeds and support for virtualization (AMD-V and Intel VT). Now tell me why will t...

AMD cpus generally handle VMs better. I give up, couldn't find any website claiming the same. Tried to look for Pacifica vs Vanderpool and still nothing. So where did you get that information? For virtualization, you can utilize various additional technologies. The essential need is HW Virtualizati...

In other words it is easier to boycott than fix, or what are you trying to say? It's up to every customer himself and can not be generalized. Using the wdidle3 voids the warranty and according to this thread: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=51401&start=180&postdays=0&postorder=...

WD knows. I don't care about that. - Reaching 300 000 could be dangerous - according to WD. - Using WDidle3 voids warranty - acording to WD - In addition, that DOS nonsense is usable only on x86 but server architecture si often different. I think this Linux kernel mailing list is very descriptive (...

But is it really an issue? The drives aren't dying. The only "issue" here is paranoia and people getting annoyed by the sound of the unloading heads. If the feature/issue isn't causing any real problems (ie dead drives) then what's the problem? Manufaturer guarantee 300 000 loads/unloads (not sure ...

zds wrote:I'm glad other manufacturers providing us quiet drives have decided to drop this altogether.

Yes. Thats why I'm considering Samsung F2 EcoGreen, Seagate LP, or even Seagate 7200.12 - which is 7200 rpm drive, but slow, quiet and energy efficient - like 5400rpm HDD, but with high STR.

Windows do allow them to park. Maybe not if you use the WD GP as a system drive, but as a storage drive I find the unloading a great feature. Yes, thats true. But tell me, how can drive firmware know, when is a good time to park the heads? Drive itself has no idea of tasks done in operating system ...

WD GreenPower vs. Linux flame... I have read this thread completely and I see you missed the point. Let me ask one simple question? What is the purpose of parking drive heads each 8s even if great OS Windows, the only environment WD is considering, DO NOT ALLOW them to park? OK. Whe have a feature,...