Overclocking Hard Drives???

[Ilander]

I just read someone's review of the Western Digital Caviar GP 1TB disk drive on Newegg, and, well, that's just what they claimed.

Said they fed the poor drive 18 Volts instead of 12 and had it up to 13K RPM.

Am I alone in thinking that overclocking your hard drive is a TERRIBLE idea?

 

[Scotteq]

13K RPM is nothing, man.... I fed mine 220 volts, and it ran SMOKIN fast! :lol: :lol: :lol:



Whoever made the original post is FOS, by the way...

 

[bgetchel]

While I try to "never say never" I seriously question the veracity of such a claim. I don't believe the spindle motor speed is directly related to the power input. I would also call into question the ability of the drive to operate at such an extreme over-voltage.

I'd would definitely need to see some documented, irrefutable evidence before I bought into such a story.

 

[itotallybelieveyou]

you absolutely can though i have no idea how but it's not done by simply increasing voltage

 

[Mugz]

Increase the +12V input to +18V on a HDD... part of me says 'could be fun'...

But let's be realistic. Increase the voltage by 50%, you blow components on the board. Automatically. The increased voltage won't even reach the motor.

Further, if you can somehow increase the RPM, you'll have to spend some time hacking the read/write heads to synchronise them with the increased speed.

Basically, there's a reason why a 15,000 RPM SCSI HDD (or WD Raptor) is so damn expensive in comparison to a 7,200 RPM HDD. Also, if you pick up a high-RPM drive in one hand and a low-RPM drive in the other, there's a very noticeable weight difference.

In short, it's a very bad idea to attempt to overvolt a HDD.

 

[Ilander]

Oh yeah, totally agreed. I wouldn't feed my precious hard drives voltage in excess of 5% off what they demand, and wouldn't even consider doing it on purpose...and if Tom's Forum member's are like "woah, that's a terrible idea," that means only the hacking elite are even thinking about such a thing, and they can have it.