WD AAKS 750 or 500gb

Shash

Shash

Shash

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7 Nov 2007
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491
I'm building a new pc and was wondering which of these drives is better, I don't care about value for money so much as performance.

I heard the 750gb model is faster due to something about the way its platter is arranged (verticle something or other)? Is this true, or do both the 750 and 500 use the same technology and therefore provide the same performance.

The thing is, I don't mind installing 2 hds, and I could probably get 2x 500gb drives for not too much more than 1 x 750. But I won't be setting up raid0, so if the 750 is faster I'd rather have that one.
 
I think you would be talking about perpendicular technology, which is faster because it allows denser data capacity generally but chances are that it won't be hugely faster*.

If you don't want the hassle of Raid0 then the 750gb drive seems the obvious choice.

*nb I haven't checked the figures yet. :)
 
Both the 500Gb and 750Gb AAKS drives use perpendicular recording however the data density on the 750Gb model is slightly higher 750 - I think it's a 188Gb platter to the 500's 166Gb ones - so the 750 will give a slightly higher sustained transfer rate than a single 500. The 750 won't come anywhere close to the sustained transfer rate of a pair of 500s in RAID0 though.
 
Ah thanks for the quick response, how hard is raid0 to set up? The mobo I want is the abit IX38 quadgt, can I use the on board raid controller or would you recommend I get a dedicated card?

Thanks in advance, having read a little more about the speed of raid0 its tempting to get 2x 750gb for maximum speed.
 
Shash said:
Ah thanks for the quick response, how hard is raid0 to set up? The mobo I want is the abit IX38 quadgt, can I use the on board raid controller or would you recommend I get a dedicated card?
Click to expand...
For RAID0 the on board Intel controller is more than adequate. Setting it up is fairly simple, if you have a search in this forum you should come across a couple of sets of instructions that I've put together.
 
How do the new Seagate 7200.11's fair? Just noticed that the price has dropped. For the extra cache are they worth it?
 
rpstewart said:
Both the 500Gb and 750Gb AAKS drives use perpendicular recording however the data density on the 750Gb model is slightly higher 750 - I think it's a 188Gb platter to the 500's 166Gb ones - so the 750 will give a slightly higher sustained transfer rate than a single 500. The 750 won't come anywhere close to the sustained transfer rate of a pair of 500s in RAID0 though.
Click to expand...

Just so that you know, the 500Gb AAKS does not have perpendicular at all.
I have one and the info on their site is misleading.
 
"Perpendicular Technology" has been really overblown.
For some reason it is believed that your drive must use it or else it is just not worth having.
Perpendicular writing was simply a way of getting more data onto the platters.
The technology really doesn't increase the performance alone - it's just all of the technology in HD's have moved on at around the same time as the capacity increased due to Perpendicular storage.

What better way of proving this point than with the 500GB AAKS drives.
They are known to be extremely fast, in fact behind the Raptor's they are quite possibly the fastest - sure the Seagate units are quicker in some tests - but not all of them.
However the 500GB AAKS drives do not use Perpendicular Storage - so there goes the idea you need Perpendicular for the best performance.
 
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james.miller said:
if it doesnt than thats news to me, because they are faster than the 7200.10 500gb perp. drives.
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Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) - The latest generation of WD Caviar SE16 drives employs PMR technology to achieve even greater areal density.
(750 GB only)

From WD's site.
 
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=301

i dont think that is correct at all. i'll look in to this...

meanwhile, my aaks vs my 7200.10

wd500gb_aaks_seagate720010.jpg


at the end of the day, it really doesn't make much difference. but even so, id like to know the score. if that really is the case (the 500gb not being perp) then it looks to be the one single drive that can compete with them.
 
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None of the AAKS drives OTHER than than the 750Gb up use the perp.
I was under the impression that all the AAKS range had it but it does not.
On a load of web sites it says that the AAKS drives DO have that.
WD emailed me saying no, only the 750Gb up do.
 
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