Raptor Owners - Important Performance Info

[Zorg]

I have a 74G Raptor. I checked my drive with Sisoft Sandra and noticed that Acoustic management (also called Automatic Acoustic Management - AAM) was turned on. There was a warning at the bottom of the page stating that this could decrease speed. Makes sense to me so I run a bench. The numbers (see below) were appalling. I proceeded to download Hitachi's HDD Feature Tool and turn off AAM and run the bench again. The numbers doubled. You don't need to check your drive with Sandra the Hitachi tool will tell you if AAM is on or not and let you change it.
Hitachi's HDD Feature Tool link: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#FeatureTool
I don't know whether this was from the factory or not. The tier two tech said that they only sent them out with AAM turned off. Also don't bother looking for WD to have a disk management tool for AAM. They told me that they rely on third party support for that. You got to love WD's support. :roll: See the benches below.

AAM Enabled

Benchmark Results
Drive Index : 70 MB/s
Random Access Time : 10 ms

Performance Test Status
System Timer : 3.4GHz
Use Overlapped I/O : Yes
IO Queue Depth : 4 request(s)
Block Size : 1MB

Volume Information
Capacity : 69GB

Benchmark Breakdown
Speed at position 0% : 32MB/s (47%)
Speed at position 3% : 31MB/s (45%)
Speed at position 7% : 29MB/s (42%)
Speed at position 10% : 28MB/s (40%)
Speed at position 13% : 35MB/s (50%)
Speed at position 17% : 38MB/s (55%)
Speed at position 20% : 30MB/s (44%)
Speed at position 23% : 30MB/s (43%)
Speed at position 27% : 34MB/s (49%)
Speed at position 30% : 42MB/s (60%)
Speed at position 33% : 35MB/s (50%)
Speed at position 37% : 31MB/s (44%)
Speed at position 40% : 54MB/s (77%)
Speed at position 43% : 70MB/s (100%)
Speed at position 47% : 41MB/s (58%)
Speed at position 50% : 52MB/s (74%)
Speed at position 53% : 66MB/s (95%)
Speed at position 57% : 67MB/s (96%)
Speed at position 60% : 65MB/s (93%)
Speed at position 63% : 64MB/s (92%)
Speed at position 67% : 64MB/s (92%)
Speed at position 70% : 63MB/s (91%)
Speed at position 73% : 60MB/s (86%)
Speed at position 77% : 57MB/s (82%)
Speed at position 80% : 57MB/s (82%)
Speed at position 83% : 56MB/s (81%)
Speed at position 87% : 56MB/s (80%)
Speed at position 90% : 53MB/s (76%)
Speed at position 93% : 52MB/s (74%)
Speed at position 97% : 43MB/s (62%)
Speed at position 100% : 48MB/s (70%)
Random Access Time : 10 ms (estimated)
Full Stroke Access Time : 9 ms (estimated)

AAM Disabled
Benchmark Results
Drive Index : 78 MB/s
Random Access Time : 8 ms

Performance Test Status
System Timer : 3.4GHz
Use Overlapped I/O : Yes
IO Queue Depth : 4 request(s)
Block Size : 1MB

Volume Information
Capacity : 69GB

Benchmark Breakdown
Speed at position 0% : 68MB/s (88%)
Speed at position 3% : 76MB/s (98%)
Speed at position 7% : 75MB/s (96%)
Speed at position 10% : 78MB/s (100%)
Speed at position 13% : 76MB/s (97%)
Speed at position 17% : 76MB/s (98%)
Speed at position 20% : 74MB/s (95%)
Speed at position 23% : 78MB/s (100%)
Speed at position 27% : 73MB/s (94%)
Speed at position 30% : 73MB/s (94%)
Speed at position 33% : 74MB/s (95%)
Speed at position 37% : 72MB/s (92%)
Speed at position 40% : 71MB/s (91%)
Speed at position 43% : 70MB/s (89%)
Speed at position 47% : 71MB/s (91%)
Speed at position 50% : 69MB/s (88%)
Speed at position 53% : 70MB/s (90%)
Speed at position 57% : 67MB/s (86%)
Speed at position 60% : 65MB/s (83%)
Speed at position 63% : 64MB/s (82%)
Speed at position 67% : 64MB/s (82%)
Speed at position 70% : 65MB/s (83%)
Speed at position 73% : 60MB/s (77%)
Speed at position 77% : 59MB/s (76%)
Speed at position 80% : 57MB/s (73%)
Speed at position 83% : 56MB/s (72%)
Speed at position 87% : 56MB/s (72%)
Speed at position 90% : 53MB/s (68%)
Speed at position 93% : 52MB/s (66%)
Speed at position 97% : 49MB/s (63%)
Speed at position 100% : 48MB/s (62%)
Random Access Time : 8 ms (estimated)
Full Stroke Access Time : 10 ms (estimated)

 

[Zorg]

I am interested to know what anyone finds with regard to AAM being on or off on their drives

 

[SomeJoe7777]

I am interested to know what anyone finds with regard to AAM being on or off on their drives

I ran the tool on a Raptor I have at home. It's a 74GB pre-ADFD model (i.e. the older, 1st-gen Raptors). AAM was already turned off on that drive, it apparently came that way from the factory.

I did find another drive in the same system (a Maxtor) that had AAM turned on, so I turned it off on that drive. Don't know if it had any noticeable effect on performance, but I suspect it probably made a small difference.

 

[Zorg]

I am interested to know what anyone finds with regard to AAM being on or off on their drives

I ran the tool on a Raptor I have at home. It's a 74GB pre-ADFD model (i.e. the older, 1st-gen Raptors). AAM was already turned off on that drive, it apparently came that way from the factory.

I did find another drive in the same system (a Maxtor) that had AAM turned on, so I turned it off on that drive. Don't know if it had any noticeable effect on performance, but I suspect it probably made a small difference.

It probably did. The only way to see how much is to download Sisoft Sandra (free version) and bench it with AAM on and off. Did you notice if the drive got any louder?

 

[Wonderwill]

Hey where do I get this hitachi tool? One of my drives is hitachi deskstar and the other is WD Caviar, so can I use it on both?

 

[Zorg]

Hey where do I get this hitachi tool? One of my drives is hitachi deskstar and the other is WD Caviar, so can I use it on both?

I put the link in my opening post. Here it is again
Hitachi's HDD Feature Tool link: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#FeatureTool

Edit: you can certainly run it on both but some features may not be available on either drive.

 

[Wonderwill]

Hey where do I get this hitachi tool? One of my drives is hitachi deskstar and the other is WD Caviar, so can I use it on both?

I put the link in my opening post. Here it is again
Hitachi's HDD Feature Tool link: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#FeatureTool

Edit: you can certainly run it on both but some features may not be available on either drive.

Sorry I'm such a dork. I can't believe I didn't see that and I read the entire post!

 

[SuperFly03]

I have a Raptor 150 at home I will test after happy hour... gotta get through busy season some how, lol j/k.

If this turns out to be true it will be a nice find, although I am not optimistic. The only reason I say that is because my Raptor is already a good deal louder than my Seagate 10 series.

Well done it seems.

Confirmation pending

 

[Lionhardt]

does the AAS make it noticeably softer sounding?

 

[nevesis]

i just rebooted and indeed AAM was on, however I tried it on quiet setting and the loudest and i did not notice any difference in sound..

my benchmark with AAM on:
= 78mb / sec
7.8ms random access

with HD - TACH

and after disabling AAM
77.8 mb / sec
7.7ms random access

so it appeared my drive was functioning correctly out of the box... now it may be interesting to note that my 4 other WD caviars all had AAM disabled already...

 

[nukemaster]

If it makes any difference.....when i got 2 WDC 250s... One had it on....and the other did not....it was noticeably slower....but soooooo quiet....

 

[Zorg]

i just rebooted and indeed AAM was on, however I tried it on quiet setting and the loudest and i did not notice any difference in sound..

my benchmark with AAM on:
= 78mb / sec
7.8ms random access

with HD - TACH

and after disabling AAM
77.8 mb / sec
7.7ms random access

so it appeared my drive was functioning correctly out of the box... now it may be interesting to note that my 4 other WD caviars all had AAM disabled already...

You can't go by the maximum number. you need to run the full Sandra bench. you need to look at the throughput at all of the positions on the drive. See the bench in the OP

 

[Zorg]

does the AAS make it noticeably softer sounding?

I didn't really notice that much of a difference. I have an Antec Solution SLK3000-B case. It is an inexpensive case but it does have rubber grommet vibration insulators for the hard drives. I've had cases without HD insulators and the vibration really gets amplified through the chassis. I really like the SLK3000 case, it's well made, reasonably roomy, cheap and low key. It also has good ventilation.