WD AV drive okay for a laptop?

I got a good offer on a WD AV-25 drive, model WD5000BUCT, and I was wondering if it would be a reasonable choice as a laptop boot drive and comparable in performance to the BEVT and BPVT models.

The specs are similar but I fear that firmware differences would make it slower because the AV-25 series is designed specifically for DVR usage patterns.

Hoping someone can share first hand experience.

Specs http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-771362.pdf

Thanks

 

I have one of these and it just came in today. It all fits in the laptop. I haven't installed the OS on it, and plan to use it only as a data/storage drive.. I can install windows tomorrow and tell you how it is though.

Post if you want me to do this.

 

That's very kind of you! Let's wait a bit though, maybe someone else already tried this.

 

It's no problem, I'm curious of the drive's performance myself. I'll install Windows tonight and do some tests and report my thoughts tomorrow.

 

Well, my guess is that it'll perform like most other 5400RPM 2.5" drives. I have a WD5000AVDS in an enclosure and it performs like other drives of the same rotational speed i've seen in benchmarks aside from the top performers. Overall i'd say average performance for an average drive.

 

Do you perhaps have links to mechanical hard drive crystaldisk benchmarks? I have always felt like the 7200RPM hitachi I have is slow as hell... Boot takes like 90 seconds, it's terrible.

(for booting though, I have it log me in and there are a few startup programs such as Skype/Steam/uTorrent)

 

Benchmarks coming:

Note that the amount of data on the drive will influence the benchmark slightly.

Seagate Momentus 7200.4


WD5000AVDS Drive in enclosure on USB3:

I think that drive is a 7200RPM drive as well, but i could be mistaken as i was unable to find any definitive info on it's rotation speed.

Gonna run a bench on my Hitachi 7K750 shortly and upload that too, i could also do a Momentus XT 500 GB if you'd like. I could also do a 5400RPM 320GB Hitachi drive as well.

EDIT: 7K750

 

OK thank you for all those, this is what I got with my 250GB Hitachi @ 7200RPM on SATA II


I'm not sure the model number or anything, and I'll be sure to post CrystalDisk results for the Av-25 1TB I have tomorrow.

 

I'm assuming that Hitachi drive is an older model, the most recent drives have higher platter density along with a few other small improvements that do make a difference. It still pales in comparison to a SSD though. Aslo, don't forget that if you bench the 1TB as an external, if you do it on USB2, you'll bottleneck sequential and 512K random tests.

 

This came from my 1TB Western Digital AV-25 @ 5400 RPM (still on SATA II).

Yeah I'm thinking so. And nah I did it installed with Windows 7 fully updated, and autostarting Skype, Steam, and uTorrent. Oh, also, this drive booted in 94 seconds, only 1 second slower than the 7200 RPM drive.

 

Seems decent to me, do you guys agree?

 

I do. However I will note that installing programs FEELS slower than my 7200 RPM drive, even though according to the bench they should be the same/slightly faster for the 1TB AV-25. It could just be in my head though, there's not a good way to tell.

 

Just to add to the benchmarks:

This is my SanDisk Extreme 240Gb SSD:


This is my WD 7500BPKT SATA drive running in a USB3.0 caddy:


This is my WD 4000BEVT USB2.0 external drive:

 

Not when you're used to a SSD, but yeah compared to other HDD of the same type, it's an ok drive. Honestly, if you do not need the extra capacity or have dual HDD bays, go for a SSD. You will never regret it.