Western Digital Scorpio Black 500GB - WD5000BEKT

really? what made you change your mind?

 

Using it more and more. Being impressed with the performance. Too early for any definite judgments though.

 

I just bought the WD5000BEKT.

I'll be upgrading from a 5400rpm drive that I was pretty satisfied with (speed wise), so I'm not going to worry too much if it's a little slower than the 7k500 or the XT. But, if it ends up being just as loud as the XT, AND a lot slower...

(So far I've heard 7k500 for less noise and XT for more speed. I was hoping that WD would have the compromise).

 

Phil, anandtech said if files are partially cached, what's in the nand is pulled and then you have to wait for the drive to spin up. Any such experience?

I'm debating the Momentus XT against a 40-64gb SSD (boot drive) setup with a Scorpio Blue in the ultrabay.

ps89, if the hdd in question will be your boot drive don't get the Blue. I've used them both back to back. It works well for a 5400rpm drive speed wise, but is a dog compared to the Black.

 

I did experience some strange hickups but they seemed to be pretty random and rare.

 

How do you think creating a portable HD with This would compare???

Also the 500GB doesnt have a free fall sensor option... Using this as an external HD is kinda a concern in that case.

 

Ok so I have decided to go with the WD Scorpio 320GB with Freefall sensor to use as an external HD. Can someone please help me in finding an enclosure (aluminum/metal) that will support eSATAp (power through eSATA/USB combo port). I was looking at THIS but it looks like you have to plug in the eSATA and a USB cord, I want to make sure I have one cable providing power and data transfer to the external drive.

Thanks in advance!

 

Try looking at this ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-enclosure-supports-power-combo-usb-port.html)?

 

Damn, this is difficult choice. Does the XT have some sort of free fall sensor technology?

 

No, there aren't (yet).

The models end with AS, Freefall sensor models will end with ASG.

Model ST95005620AS

 

What is your opinion about noise, heat and vibration
7k500 500gb v. WD5000BEKT?

 

Similar. Both very good, considering their 7200 rpm drives.

Only some 5400 rpm drives are quieter.

 

How is the Seagate Momentus XT working out for you? I'm upgrading my HDD and can't decide between WD Scorpio Black 500GB or Seagate Momentus XT. I have always preferred WD over Seagate, but the Momentus XT seems temping... any thoughts?

 

The 7K500 has lousy access times. I don't know why anyone would ever consider that hdd. Same goes for the Seagate 7200.4 (before the XT came along).

 

My thoughts are: get the Momentus.

Because real world performance is good.

 

I know, I am a hard drive idiot lol......But, what is "Access Times"? And are you saying even though testing says the "Access Times isnt the greatest, in real world performance the Acess Times are pretty good?

 

An access time of 17 milliseconds or 15 milliseconds isn't that important. What matters is how a drive performs in real life.

For example: the WD3200BEKT has faster access times than the 7K500, but in reality the 7K500 manages to outperform the WD3200BEKT in most situations. Like shown here: http://www.storagereview.com/ultima...tal_scorpio_black_vs_hitachi_travelstar_7k500

 

I much prefer better performance over the larger storage, as 500GB is plenty. I narrowed it down between the WD Scorpio Black 500GB & Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid 500GB. I have always preferred WD over Seagate HHD's, but I have decided to give Seagate a try as the 4GB of SSD really interests me. Thanks!

 

I have a Samsung Spinpoint MP4 640GB @ 7200rpm drive coming in a few days. I'll want to compare it to the WD Black.

It's going to hold games and media, so I don't need the raw performance of the XT. The OS and stuff will be handled by SSD. I love dual HDD bays.

 

Looking forward to your benchmark results. Also, please create a thread specifically for Samsung HM640JJ.

 

Are users experiencing issues (clicking, hourglass/beachball, etc.) with their Scorpios? The initial batch seems to have some issues based on what I can gather.

 

that wouldn't be suprising.. seagate and Western Digital drives are reknown for such noises.

 

The one I had was very silent and had no issues. Well I wasn't overly impressed with the performance but that was because I was comparing it to Seagate Momentus XT.

 

I have mine in an enclosure using eSATAp and it is very quiet and responds well... I have yet to run any intensive applications off it but it tranfers files and opens documents very quickly.

 

The XT will spoil you..............

 

I'm trying to decide between the WD Scorpio Black HDD with or without the Free Fall Sensor. My HP Envy 14 will have the HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection. Would the WD Free Fall Sensor therefore just be redundant and a waste of money?

 

Yes it would be. Not only a waste of money, but also potentially causing more problems by interfering with the HP HD protection software too.

 

Can anyone recommend the best source for the WD5000BEKT? I know that Newegg has them but Neweg is infamous for shipping HDD's by throwing a bare drive into a box with a crumpled up piece of paper and then sending it out to become a DOA HDD. Thanks

 

Hello guys, please help !

I bought my WD5000BEKT 3 days ago and installed it into my Dell 1520. It all went smooth, it runs significantly faster than my old drive (WD1200BEVS - 120BG 5400rpm).
Now I know it should run a bit louder than any 5400 rpm drive, but last night I notice it makes a strange humming sound. So I decided to run the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics provided by the WD website. It failed the quick test and the extended test saying that there are " Too many bad sectors" .
I will go on Monday to talk to the shop from which I bought it . I guess it shoud be covered by the warranty. I am really dissapointed as I had great expectations from this hdd. Hope this is a singular case.
It also gives some SMART data warnings about reallocated sectors.

Has this happened to anybody else ?
And shoud I change the drive or just get my money back ?

Link to the screenshots :

ImageShack Album - 3 images


Thanks !

 

Either will do. This particular drive is going bad. Reallocated sectors are basically the same thing as "too many bad sectors"; a reallocated sector is a sector that the drive has discovered is bad, and has decided to move the data somewhere else (hence the reallocation). It's a little strange for a drive to go bad so quickly, however, has the computer been bumped while running or anything like that? I'm wondering if something may have happened that would have caused gross physical damage to the platters.

 

No I didn't bumo it. I am preety carefull with my laptop. The hdd didn't suffer any shock since i bought it.
The strange thing is that I purchased it in a simple antitstatic baggy, without any packaging or box. So I think , if the problems are caused by a shock, it must have happened before I bought it .

I will tallk to the guys from the shop on Monday and come back with a post then .

Thanks for the quick reply Judicator !

 

Hi Guys,

This is my first post here, and I am wondering which hard drive buy to my apple Macbook Pro late 2006. I will probably go to the Scorpio Black 500GB (WD5000BEKT) instead of Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 (HTS725050A9A364) but I have some question for you.

1) My MBP has a falldown sensor and I want to buy my harddrive without it in order to avoid hardware conflict. Does these drive have a version without the falldwon sensor? If yes how can I recognize them?

2) The chipset of my MBP is an Intel ICH7-M AHCI that support only SATA 1 (1.5 Gb/s), but the hard drives are SATA 2 (3 Gb/s). I know there is a jumper to configure the hard drive to work in SATA 1 modality, does this will kill performances?

3) Does do you suggest WD5000BEKT instead HTS725050A9A364 working in SATA 1 modality?

4) Is there a real life comparison between WD5000BEKT and HTS725050A9A364 ( I have found the one between WD3200BEKT and HTS725050A9A364 made by Phil)

Thanks and Regards.
Edoardo

 

Edoardo,

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6904188-post34.html


I would always recommend Hitachi drives over any other drive myself.

I don't think you need to worry with a mechanical HD about SATA1 vs. SATA2 (via jumpers) - the drive can only operate at the speed it is capable of (and it should be compatible with SATA1 internally).

Good luck.

 

Why? Benchmarks told that the 500GB Scorpio Black it is faster than Hitachi 7K500.

Thanks for your answer.

 

While the WD is faster with small files and multi tasking, the Hitachi is faster with larger files and file copies.

In reality it will be exteremely hard (impossible) to notice the difference in performance without benchmarking software. What I do find easy to notice is the difference in noise levels. Although this depends a lot on what notebook you have.

If I had a notebook that absorbs noise and vibration well, I'd choose the WD. Otherwise the Hitachi.

And if you want something significantly faster get the Momentus XT.

 

Edo82,

Phil answered very completely, just want to add that I am more tuned to how a Hitachi drives an O/S vs. almost any other hard drive.

The 'other' being the XT that Phil also mentioned.

In real world use, benchmarks do not correlate very well, nor is the 'feel' of the drive represented by any benchmark number or score.

Hitachi's have proven themselves to me over and over as the best balance of reliability, low power usage, heat output, performance (driving an O/S + my particular and specific usage needs) and price.

No matter which drive you finally decide on: have a regular and continuous backup strategy that you use (with a backup to that backup... no j/k!).

 

Thank you all for your answer, I do not really know which one I will buy (Hitachi or WD), anyway I think they are both very good.

 

I don't know if my MacBook Pro 2,2 is considered a notebook that absorbs noise and vibration well...

 

I have a Scorpio Black 500GB and a 7K320. I would go for a 7K500(assuming it is better than 7K320) if I have to choose again as the Scorpio Black is noticeably noiser and has more vibration(not to the point of annoying but to the point of I don't mind scarifice the speed a bit).

 

I don't have any vibration with my 2nd gen WD3200BEKT, but there's definitely a relatively loud fan like sound. People should be aware of that. I like white noise like this and from the heatsink fan, but most probably don't.

The seek noise is completely absent though, whereas I've found them to be much louder on recent Seagate and Hitachi drives

 

Hi everybody,

I'm interested in the new Scorpio Black 500... But anybody tell me what platters are actually used for it? Is it 250GB or perhaps 320GB? Just wondering because WD just presented even 375GB platters and the maximum sustained read speed of the 500GB Black is quite high for 250GB density platters, isn't it?

Moreover the 320GB Black seems to have been updated, too. Does it mean it uses two 250GB platters now or maybe just a single one just as the new 320GB Blue? If this is the case, it's likely that the 500GB Black also used 320GB platters as the transfer speeds are similar to those of the new 320GB drive.

Regards
Stefan

 

250gb platters for all Black drives, except the 750gb which is AdvancedFormat and entirely different.

 

Not necessarily. There was that one fellow with a 500 GB Black that was getting much better benchmarks than usual. We thought it might have been a 500 GB with higher density platters that weren't completely used (so it's only 500 GB), but I don't know that there was ever any confirmation.

 

Theoretically, which one is faster 250gb or 500gb (1 or 2 plates)???

 

Theoretically, a 1 platter 500 GB would be fastest of all. When you get to 2 platters versus 1 platter, it comes down to actual internal design, which will vary from model to model. 1 platter will pretty much always be cooler and quieter, though.

 

If you limit the heads from doing full swings from the outermost track to the innermost track (by partitioning the drive, of course) then 2 platter designs are the fastest when a given (eg. 100GB) partition/size is used.

This is because the fastest outer edges of both platters wil be used (1/2 each) for the given size whereas a one platter design will use a much wider area for the heads to sweep over to get the same capacity.

If you don't partition: you don't know what you're missing.

 

I will buy 5000bekt- excellent price, instead mine 2500bekt...
I have very healthy win7 Ubuntu data partitions on old one- what is best way to clone this state and copy to bigger hd...
btw. what I need to upgrade to use raid function- is it possible with unequal hard discs?
Also, @tilleroftheearth, you suggest partitions not bigger then100gb?
Thanks

 

For partition sizes (when performance is the goal) I suggest using around 20% to 30% of the total capacity of the drive. 100GB's is just right for a 500GB drive for me. This leaves me with about 20GB free space and 80GB of programs and the O/S installed.

You can do software RAID with unequal HDD's (with Win7 and Intel RST drivers), but I wouldn't recommend it even if you had matched drives: (the complexity, dependability and reliability of your system takes a huge nose dive, compared to the real performance increases you will experience.

To clone (which I don't recommend because then you can't really partition optimally...), I would suggest Acronis True Image.

To partition 'optimally':

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...00-benchmark-setup-specifics.html#post5617217


Good luck.

 

Thank, boss...
I am considering to wait 750GB black- is faster, as said on forum...
But price is much bigger...
Is it better buy...
Thanks

 

If I put two WD5000BEKT in RAID will perform better than just one ?