WD Caviar WD10EADS: 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM?

jason80 · Post by **jason80** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:27 pm

Hi everyone,

I have a question about the Western Digital Caviar WD10EADS hard drive. When I google it together with the term 5400 or the term 7200 I get results for both. Reviews from Toms hardware say it's 5400 RPM, but various other sites say it's 7200 RPM, including the shop where I wanted to buy it (I would post a link, but you need at least 3 posts before you can post links).

I've always have 7200 RPM drives (only owned 2 PC's previously though), so I don't know if there's a big difference in performance (I'm planning on using it for Win XP and storage). The two 7200 RPM drives I have now are both 4-5 years old so maybe the difference in performance of a current 5400 RPM drive isn't even that big, I don't really know... But I do want to be sure of what I'm buying, and the internet and even the Western Digital site is just confusing me

Does anyone know what the speed is???

Thank you!

bgiddins · Post by **bgiddins** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 1:11 am

It's widely accepted to be 5400RPM. But shops persist in advertising WD Green drives as 7200RPM. Basically WD won't release the actual speed.

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:44 am

jason80 wrote:Does anyone know what the speed is???

My WD10EADS is slow and loud. Get a WD6400AAKS.

Benjiro · Post by **Benjiro** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:03 pm

Its 5400rpm.

This mess started with the message that the original WD 1TB drives had a speed off "5400rpm to 7200rpm". This started its own myth, combined with some smartass marketeers ...

Reality was, the drivers are 5400rpm. But, depending on the color code, this differs. For instance, the WD greens are 5400rpm, but the WD Blue or Blacks are 7200rpm.

Its possible that they planned on releasing the serie all in ones, and thats how this mix started? But, the green ( 5400rpm ) was out a long time, with the "5400rpm to 7200rpm".

Even today people keep falling for it. A HD can NOT altered its rpm during usage. It has all to do with the calculations off the heads vs the plate position, and vibrations that will be created by speed up, speed down ( and fastered burned out motor ) ...

KnightRT · Post by **KnightRT** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 1:07 am

QuietOC wrote: My WD10EADS is slow and loud. Get a WD6400AAKS.

I won't argue with speed, but my two WD10EADS's are the quietest drives I've ever owned. My other six WD10EACS's are equally impressive, especially the extent to which they forgive hard-mounting. Soft-mounted, they're all effectively silent. Perhaps yours was a dud?

jason80 · Post by **jason80** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:49 am

Thanks for all the answers!!

If it's slow I think I'll pass. I'm trying to build a moderate to fast system for about â‚¬ 1.000, so at â‚¬ 89,00 this drive looked good, but seeing as I'll be using it for the OS and data I don't want the hard drive to be a bottleneck (not that I want any bottlenecks).

The search continues!!

KnightRT · Post by **KnightRT** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:12 am

See here:

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/for ... 4002308931

You'd probably get along just fine with WD's Black series.

axee · Post by **axee** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 11:04 am

QuietOC wrote:
jason80 wrote:Does anyone know what the speed is???
My WD10EADS is slow and loud. Get a WD6400AAKS.

So you have a defective HDD. I have WD6400AAKS, WD10EACS, WD10EACS, and there is no comparison between WD6400AAKS and any Green Power drive.

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 5:44 am

axee wrote:
QuietOC wrote:
jason80 wrote:Does anyone know what the speed is???
My WD10EADS is slow and loud. Get a WD6400AAKS.
So you have a defective HDD. I have WD6400AAKS, WD10EACS, WD10EACS, and there is no comparison between WD6400AAKS and any Green Power drive.

It seems to be getting quieter. It is the seek noise that is so annoying. I have it hard mounted in a crappy old case. It is definitely louder than the 250GB Samsung S250 that was in this system before. The P7K500 is definitely the best drive I've had for hard mounting, but it had very slow seeks.

The WD10EADS a 3 platter drive, and the seeks do seem pretty fast for a 5400rpm drive. So, it does make sense for it to be a little louder seeking than the 2-platter drives.

axee · Post by **axee** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:33 am

Did you try AAM?

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:45 am

axee wrote:Did you try AAM?

No, it is already too slow.

It is plenty quiet when not seeking, but with a fresh Vista install it was seeking all the time. I am just very disappointed in it. If only used as a extra storage drive (i.e., less seeking) it may be fine. I am waiting for something like the 30GB OCZ Vertex SSD to become affordable as a system drive. At $129 it is already pretty tempting.

So far I've been happiest with the WD6400AAKS, and I should have purchased another of those instead of the 1TB Green. Western Digital's 2-platter Caviars have been the best value for a long time. Hopefully the 2-platter 1TB Caviar Blue will continue that trend.

WD Caviar WD10EADS: 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM?

WD Caviar WD10EADS: 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM?

Re: WD Caviar WD10EADS: 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM?

Re: WD Caviar WD10EADS: 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM?

Re: WD Caviar WD10EADS: 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM?

Re: WD Caviar WD10EADS: 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM?