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Western Digital RE4, 2 TB (WD2002FYPS)

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2:00 AM - 08/14/2009 by Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos

Although a RAID Edition drive like the new RE4 sounds like it should spin at 7,200 RPM and serve up high performance, the new WD2002FYPS is not a new hard drive. Instead, WD modified and re-validated the existing 2 TB Caviar Green WD20EADS to suit the demands of 24/7 applications in business and data center environments. For this reason, the cache memory was increased from 32 MB to 64 MB and the drive now reaches a 1.2 million-hour MTBF rating. This is exactly the same endurance specification as we found with Hitachi’s Deskstar E7K1000, but WD offers twice the capacity at reduced power consumption.

Power Consumption: New Idle Record With Four Platters

The Western Digital RE4 drive is only available at a 2 TB capacity; other models are not (yet) available. Four platters store 500 GB each and prevent the drive from reaching a lower power consumption, but the results are still respectable. Seagate’s Barracuda LP at 2 TB and also leveraging four platters requires more power at idle (4.2 W versus WD’s 3.5 W), making the new WD RE4 the most efficient four-platter drive at idle. Peak power for streaming reads leveled in at 6.7 W, which is an average result for a four-platter drive. The 5.1 W power during HD video playback is decent, but beaten by Seagate’s 2 TB four-platter drive. With that said, the 7.9 W at maximum I/O is more than we expected.

Performance: Some Records

The new RE4 definitely turns in the performance benchmarks: 14.0 ms is excellent for a 5,400 RPM drive. Although the RE4 is merely above the average in our throughput tests, it reaches best I/O performance scores in all four runs, which again is excellent for a drive that spins at a conservative speed. To give you another point of comparison, Hitachi’s Deskstar E7K1000 isn’t faster when it comes to I/Os. Finally, application performance in PCMark Vantage is between average and excellent, depending on the particular test run.

Talkback
TheZander 08/14/2009 9:17 AM
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Definitely evolutionary changes, not revolutionary, but that's what was expected with these drives. A good step in the right direction, nonetheless. I just purchased two of the Samsung Ecogreen 1.5TB drives. They are fantastic drives at a fantastic price. This is great for people that want to backup their entire HD (and SD) movie collection. Thanks for the information, Tom's.

megahunter 08/14/2009 2:15 PM
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i would still go with the seagate barracuda 7200.12 =D

heathnoble 08/14/2009 2:53 PM
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Woah, Déjà vu! I clicked "next" and got a "Guru Meditation: XID: 275861695" error!

are you guys running on Amiga OS? Or are you just Amiga Fanboys?

Good article up until the Guru decided I wasn't worthy ;-)

sublifer 08/14/2009 3:33 PM
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Should have thrown in a caviar black and a caviar green for comparison

sublifer 08/14/2009 3:36 PM
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Doh!... hide the above remark.... I should look at the charts first.

Amazing the performance they're getting out of these slower spindle speed hard drives

ubernoobie 08/14/2009 4:41 PM
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wait.... 1tb on a single platter? AMAZING

raptor550 08/14/2009 4:54 PM
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Are we still on this green thing? Seagate 7200.12 FTW, also Hitachi.. didn't see that one coming. Warranty is important to me because I demand 24/7 on for at least 3 years.

It's about time to step up the RAID array from WD RE2's, tough competition.

rooket 08/14/2009 9:02 PM
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Seagate LP performance is impressive but I'm going to have to stick with WD due to Seagate's recent track record.

fanfoot 08/15/2009 12:31 PM
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I'd rather you stick to testing comparable sized drives honestly. I don't care if the 1TB drive is faster, if I have to have a 2TB. Which is what I'm looking for next.

Its too bad you couldn't include the new enterprise class 2TB drive from Hitachi, the Ultrastar A7K2000, that rotates at 7,200 rpm. I assume it would have kicked most of these other drives butts.

I'm also left wondering where the long-ago announced Seagate Constellation ES 2TB 7,200 rpm drive is. With the laptop form factor hitting 1TB recently, I'm starting to wonder if these guys have taken their eye off the 3.5 inch space. Which might be a mistake right now given they're going to get their asses eaten by SSDs in the laptop arena any minute now, and the big 3.5 inch drives might be one of the few areas they're actually safe for a while.

sgunes 08/15/2009 2:22 AM
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I bought 4 Seagate 2TB drives and the retail package states: 5 year warranty.

sgunes 08/15/2009 2:27 AM
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http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/p [...] _5900_rpm/

See under Overview - Key Features and Benefits.

Anonymous 08/16/2009 2:16 AM
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There is something wrong with the dBA readings for EcoGreen F2 1000GB. Can't be higher on idle.

FSXFan 08/16/2009 9:08 AM
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[citation]we wonder why anyone would still buy the Deskstar if others deliver the same performance at reduced power consumption[/citation]
Not saying I would personally buy the Hitachi, but I also wouldn't buy a drive just because it's a low power model. I'm usually looking for quiet operation, read performance, and low temps. I'm all for making useful contributions to use less resources in life but 3 watts an hour is nothing, I'd never even notice the $0.25 change in my monthly bill. I could save more by not OC'ing my quad which is doing me no good sitting here surfing.

In a laptop low power drives are great, but my desktop doesn't run on batteries.

ossie 08/16/2009 6:12 PM
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The graphs of IOPs per queue depth for different load types are surely missing... Not the same for irrelevant PCMark desktop benchies, which are filling a long useless page.

jack2009 08/17/2009 8:38 AM
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I just bought 1 myself from mwave.com.au @ $299.99 and it works perfectly =)

eyemaster 08/17/2009 3:37 PM
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jack2009 :
I just bought 1 myself from mwave.com.au @ $299.99 and it works perfectly =)


Bought one what?

jack2009 08/18/2009 4:45 AM
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I bought the Seagate 2TB one

stasdm 08/20/2009 6:08 PM
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"High-Capacity Business hard drives" - but only one with business warranty!

So all other are consumer class!

Kapman 09/13/2009 10:23 PM
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I ended up getting the 1.5 TB 7200 rpm Seagate. It has been amazing. I posted my experience here:http://ellipz.com/?cat=5
I also have the Samsung F1 and the WD Green 1 TB drives. All three have been great.

Anonymous 09/25/2009 4:53 PM
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3 watts per hour might not be much per drive, but if you're running a large SAN with 100s of drives, it quickly adds up to a respectable saving.


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