WD4000KS

FoxEye · 23 Apr 2007 at 13:30

According to Storage Review (not a competitor, right?) the Western Digital WD4000KD represents a good balance between performance (coming close the 74g Raptor) and noise (rivals Samsung for low noise).

Anyone like to comment on whether those charts are accurate? Any experiences of the WD4000KS (which is the new model, SATA 300 instead of older SATA 150).

A user comment I saw elsewhere suggested they run pretty hot compared to other drives? Any info would be grand

Other than the WD, would anyone like to recommend a drive with good performance and low noise? Anything between 250g and 400g would suit my budget. Cheers!

rpstewart · 23 Apr 2007 at 14:03

I'd watch out for some of the StorageReview articles, they're getting very out of date. The forum is better but the main site hasn't been updated in months.

The 400KS is no longer the new model in the range, the AAKS series have superceded the plain KS drives although there are only 320Gb and 500Gb sizes at the moment. The other alternatives are the Seagate 7200.10 but there is the debate over noise, the Hitachi T7K500 (might be noisy, the T7K250s have a very "physical" seek noise) or the Samsung T166 series which should be quiet but I haven't seen any definitive benchmarks so can't comment on the speed.

FoxEye · 23 Apr 2007 at 14:14

Cheers for that; I suspected the articles may have been out-of-date.

Right now I'm sitting on a Samsung 160g SP 80, which I bought purely for its accoustics. It's pretty old, and only 5400RPM I believe, and as such load times could be drastically improved with a new drive - probably

Briefly thought about a Raptor (they're supposed to be quiet as well as fast), but decided it's too much money for what you get. Now looking to find the "best" 7200 drive...

Egon · 25 Apr 2007 at 10:15

rpstewart said:
there are only 320Gb and 500Gb sizes at the moment

Not so... I found a 250Gb AAKS model today for under 50 notes (£45 inc VAT) - bargain i'd say...

Heofz · 25 Apr 2007 at 20:00

rpstewart said:
there are only 320Gb and 500Gb sizes at the moment.

EgonSpengler said:
Not so... I found a 250Gb AAKS model today for under 50 notes (£45 inc VAT) - bargain i'd say...

I presume you two both mean from OcUK? cos the 400GB model is out there too :confused:

What puzzles me though, is why can these new models be bought for cheaper than the WD4000KD ?

I've got 4 of those KD's atm, after a 5th KD so to get matching drives for my future RAID5 array but KDs are still quite expensive (~£77-80 before shipping) at most retailers.