Caviar 640GB vs Caviar GP 500GB vs Samsung F1 500GB

dragonfruit · Post by **dragonfruit** » Sat May 31, 2008 5:17 pm

I read in the reviews on the newegg.com about Western Digital Caviar GP WD5000AACS 500GB that:

"Do NOT attempt to use this drive for your OS, gaming, or real-time applications that may need to access the drive periodically. I was having an issue with 1-2 second freezes every few minutes while web browsing & gaming, and it was due to the IntelliPark feature of this drive. I now have two of them, and only use them for media storage. I use other drives (WD Caviar, Raptor, and Seagate Barracudas) for OS/gaming/application drives."

"Put this drive into a new system build and noticed that the build was making a strange noise. A tiny bit of pressure on the top of the case killed the noise. Seems this drive was creating a vibration when active that was translating into noise from the case. Tried another drive in the case, WD SE16, the noise stopped. Put in a different GP drive and the same noise."

"The seek noise is very perceptible. Not annoyingly loud, but distinct, even through a closed Antec case. This might be because the rest of the system is very quiet, but I was expecting better, after having read the reviews for this drive. I'll probably try a Samsung next."

I also read somewhere (can't find now quickly) that when parking the head it makes annoying cliking noise.

Have you experienced the same problem with Caviar 640 GB WD6400AAKS?
And what about vibration?

I initially was going to purchase Samsung F1 500 GB, but after seeing on newegg and elsewhere how many failures occured, and that Samsung vibrates a lot, I switched my interest to WD Caviars, however I want it for both OS and data, so it would be annoying if it would freeze for 1-2 s and made cliking noises when parking.
What are your experiences regarding that, particularly in 640 GB Caviar? Does it freeze like GP? What about clicking when parking?
In test it seems to be equal in performance to Samsung F1 (but it was 1 TB not 500 GB they were testing I think):
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/14380/15

bgavin · Post by **bgavin** » Sat May 31, 2008 9:09 pm

Wow... that sounds like the GB drives are literally only good for backup devices. I build business systems that use a 2nd hard disk entirely for backup. Perhaps this would be good use for the GB series. The drives literally are not used until backup occurs.

But... doesn't Windows tickle all the drives on a regular basis? If so, that would constantly be waking up the GB drive, with the inherent freeze until the drive comes ready.

elemental · Post by **elemental** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:07 am

Huh. You know what? I've had issues with tiny little stalls while gaming (I've noticed it most in Sims2). I've always thought it was cuz I was running 32bit games on 64bit Vista, but now I'm starting to look sideways at the 640GB western digital caviar I've got.

I mean, it's nothing unbearable, but it is minorly annoying. I wonder if there's a way to turn off IntelliPark to see if that's really the cause?

Nick Geraedts · Post by **Nick Geraedts** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:50 am

The 500GB GP drives are a different build than the 750GB and 1TB variants. I've got the 1TB versions, and with whatever access I use, there doesn't seem to be any sort of hiccups or stalls when accessing the drive.

You also can't make the generalization comparing the WD5000AACS and the WD6400AAKS - they're two completely different products. From what I've heard, people are generally pleased with the WD6400AAKS.

FartingBob · Post by **FartingBob** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:55 am

I have the 6400AAKS and i think tis the ideal balance between performance and quietness, and is slightly cheaper per gig than the GP series.

Licaon · Post by **Licaon** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 2:31 pm

1 WD80JB sitting in the closed dead ( was back to RMA 3 times in that 1 single year of warranty )
1 WD80JB dying at 3AM while working on a project with a friend in college, also his sisters final paper for college was there

ummm... how are the new WDs anyway? are they reliable?

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 2:41 pm

I've got 6400AAKS (finally got down and installed dualboot XP/Vista on it a two weeks ago).

This is my boot drive, obviously and I experience no freezes whatsoever. It's kind of a bad season to ask about the noise because it's the summer and ambient noise is quite high, even in the night. My drive is enclosed in Scythe Quiet Drive enclosure, completely decoupled from the case so it's even harder for me to comment on the noise characteristics.

Overall, inside the case (and Scythe enclosure) the drive is extremely quiet, both in idle noise and seek noise. I had to get down on my knees to hear the seeks, and even then they extremely quiet, perhaps too quiet for my tastes. I can't hear it parking its heads but that may be because it's inside enclosure. However, once again, I must stress that my impressions right now is limited by ambient noise. Right now the drive is inaudible but I might change my opinion slightly once the winter comes.

Nick Geraedts · Post by **Nick Geraedts** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 3:24 pm

Licaon wrote:1 WD80JB sitting in the closed dead ( was back to RMA 3 times in that 1 single year of warranty )
1 WD80JB dying at 3AM while working on a project with a friend in college, also his sisters final paper for college was there

ummm... how are the new WDs anyway? are they reliable?

The JB's were horrible - everyone knew that. Ever since the KS series, WD drives have been pretty top notch (although I wouldn't vouch for the 500GB GP drives...).

bgavin · Post by **bgavin** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 6:39 am

I lost so many J-series, that I went to Seagate. They were wonderful for a long time, then the .11 series starting crapping out bad. Negative feedback on Newegg for this series went sky high, so I went back to WD SE16 drives. So far, so good.